Only one Czech player admitted knowing the team had six players on the ice when they scored the go-ahead goal against Canada in the third period. Luckily for the officials in the Canada-Czechia matchup, Nick Suzuki would tie the game shortly after, and Mitch Marner scored the winner in overtime to avoid the disaster of everyone finding out the real truth post-game.
The four officials, most of the players on the ice, the broadcast team, and nearly every fan watching around the world were oblivious to the fact that Czechia defended with six players, and then scored on the counter-attack with all of those players heading up ice. It could’ve been bad news for the Olympics if Czechia had gone on to win that game on the backs of that goal.
The most shocking aspect of the poor officiating in this game was that NHL veteran referee Chris Rooney led the crew. The hope was that the Olympics would have NHL-standard officiating, but it was anything but on Wednesday afternoon.
The Czechs weren’t the only team to benefit from some spotty officiating all night. Connor McDavid also ran over Lukas Dostal late in the third period without getting a call for goaltender interference, and the Czechs had some complaints about a high hit given to David Pastrnak from Drew Doughty. They could also argue that the Michal Kempny cross-checking penalty that led to Canada’s tying goal to make it 2-2 was a bit soft by NHL standards, but not the IIHF’s.
Czechia Head Coach’s Ironic Take on Officials Post Canada Victory
Radim Rulik had some reason to be upset with the officiating as explained above. However, some self-awareness that his team benefited from a blatant too-many-men situation would have been great, given the gravity of the goal Czechia scored. Czechia’s head coach showed anything but self-awareness with some of his comments post-game.
“We were basically playing against six players. I don’t want to make excuses, and no one has to agree with me, but the video backs me up. In this respect, it’s not a fair tournament. It was happening to us even against Denmark. The mix of NHL and European referees hasn’t worked; everyone calls the game differently.”
The comment about playing against six players stands out as particularly ironic. The head coach, whose team scored with six players on the ice for nearly 30 seconds, was upset that the referees favored Canada. The loss may have been a tough pill for the head coach to swallow, but he might’ve wanted to reflect on his team’s inability to hold the 3-2 lead and the manner in which his team secured the 3-2 lead instead.
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