You might have seen God’s hand in Maradona‘s World Cup victory but not a soccer goal in ice hockey. But it has become a reality in the Ottawa Senators vs Chicago Blackhawks game today. The game ended with the Senators winning in a 4-3 overtime victory. But one of the most interesting things in the game was the soccer goal. Though it may look interesting, it’s controversial too. The incident happened when the overtime clock was ticking at 49 seconds. But what exactly happened? 

The teams tied the game in the 3rd period, and neither one wanted to lose. The Ottawa Senators’ Tim Stützle scored a controversial goal with a skate and not with a stick. Stützle moved on from the Chicago Blackhawks defenseman, Wyatt Kaiser, with a great dribble. But as he moved closer to the crease and the Blackhawks’ goaltender, the puck missed out from the stick, and he, allegedly, pushed the puck in goal. 

Everybody thought it was goalie interference. But after the goals video review the soccer-like goal was declared legal which led to Tim Stützle’s team winning in OT. When the winning team coach, Travis Green, was asked about the very controversial goal, he just said, “Our video guys had it as a good goal. I thought they made the right call.” 

The Chicago Blackhawks’ left winger, Pat Maroon, summed up his take with the overall performance of the team. “It seems like we’ve been on the other side of those a lot this year, unfortunately. Those calls can go either way, it seems like they’re not going our way this year for some reason.” Though the Blackhawks registered wins back-to-back before today’s game, they are last in the Central division of the Western conference. 

And to talk about the winning team and Tim Stützle, the OT goal maker has become the fourth player in the Senators’ history with a point streak of at least 13 games. But before Stützle made the OT goal, Brady Tkachuk‘s 1-0 goal in the 2:25 minutes of the first period gave the Senators an early edge. We know the final score and what happened at the end of the game. Though officials find it legal, fans seem to have low tolerance to such trick moves in the NHL. 

Fans fume over NHL as Ottawa Senators’ soccer-like goal approved

This game-play by the Senators’ player invited backlash as they won in OT, and it was a soccer-like goal. A surprised fan commented on X (Twitter), “I guess I didn’t realize hockey could also be soccer.” But then, another fan criticized the NHL, saying, “NHL rules when it comes to this are brain dead, and it screams that they don’t understand soccer.” 

Complementary to the above comment, fans’ “How can the NHL look at that play? The kick was easy to call- Just ridiculous!!!” signifies how the OT decision by the refs and other officials was controversial, just like the soccer-like goal. Another fan just reminded the NHL of a rule by commenting, “Last I knew, opposing teams were NOT allowed to be in the crease to score a goal. Isn’t that an NHL Rule?” 

It would have been a different situation in the United Center on Wednesday and on the Internet if the Chicago Blackhawks were not the last team in the division. That is why a fan called the goal saying, “That’s 100% a kick. But they’re still tanking, so I’m not mad.” But lets set aside everything and focus on what this fan has said about the future of the NHL. “The NHL is clueless. If that’s a goal, then kicking might as well be allowed going forward.” This clearly denotes where the NHL is heading in terms of rules and strictly following them. If the NHL has allowed a kick to be the game-winning goal, fans wonder what else is in store for rule-benders in the NHL.