Islanders Turning Point: Beauvillier’s Blunder Leads to Disallowed Goal

ELMONT, NY– The New York Islanders had played a strong opening two periods against the Dallas Stars and seemed to be taking a 2-1 lead heading into the third period.

Following a Ryan Pulock dump-in, Stars netminder Jake Oettinger coughed the puck up to Casey Cizikas, who buried an easy goal.

But while the New York Islanders celebrated their go-ahead goal with 15.1 seconds to play in the middle frame, the referee waved off the goal. There was a ton of confusion on the Islanders bench, but upon review, the Islanders were offside.

As it turned out, Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier was offside on a line change.

While the linesman was near the bench, potentially blocking Beauvillier’s first attempt at a change, he had the ability to hop on the bench a few inches over. Instead, he glided alongside the bench to the far door, which is located inside the Stars zone, hence the offside call.

Butch breaks down why the #Isles were called for offsides and goal was waived off pic.twitter.com/Y8WFmu3Bhy

— Isles on MSGSN (@IslesMSGN) January 11, 2023

That mental mistake turned into the game’s turning point, as no goals were scored during the remainder of regulation or the overtime frame before the Islanders fell in a shootout.

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Following the game, New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert was asked if that was an unlucky play or a mental mistake by Beauvillier.

“No, I think you have to be more aware of where you are,” Lambert said.

The mistake did not result in lost time on ice for Beauvillier, as he played 16:46 minutes, with six shots on goal and two giveaways.

Over the last six games, the Islanders have scored just 13 goals over their previous six games, but that included a six-goal performance against the Vancouver Canucks.

When you are not scoring goals, these mistakes could be the difference in hockey games, and on Tuesday night, Beauvillier’s error came back to bite them.