One of the strangest and most controversial shootout goals you'll ever see

This is one shootout goal that will easily go down in the books as one of the most controversial goals you'll ever see in professional hockey. On Sunday, Hradec Králové and Liberec of the Czech Extraligia, ranked one and two in the league at the time, went to a shootout after regulation and overtime ended in a 3-3 tie. In the second round of the shootout, the goalie clearly makes a save with the pad and you can see the referee signalling no goal. The puck then takes a weird bounce and goes into the net. After some discussion, and even though the goaltender didn't even try to make the second save (he said he saw the ref signal no goal and it certainly looks that way in the video), it was declared a goal for Liberec. Check it out. The best angle comes on the replay.

The save was made, the ref signalled no goal and the goalie had already given up on the play because he assumed it was over. Apparently the officials did not agree. That said, Hradec Králové would tie it up on the very next shot and would go on to win the game, so no one was robbed of anything.

In the NHL, and assuming the Extraliga uses similar rules, it states that in the shootout, "any time the puck crosses the goal line or comes to a complete stop, the shot shall be considered complete." With that in mind, this appears to be a good goal. It's unfortunate that one referee had already made the "no goal" signal, but the goaltender should have continued to follow the puck regardless.

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