Pete DeBoer says game-deciding penalty ‘soft call’ against Knights

DENVER — The ninth minor penalty called in Game 2 of the Golden Knights’ second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche decided the outcome.

Naturally, the teams had different views of it.

Knights coach Pete DeBoer called right wing Reilly Smith’s slash on right wing Mikko Rantanen a “soft call” and accused the Avalanche of embellishing all game. Rantanen got the last laugh by scoring a power-play goal 2:07 into overtime at Ball Arena to give Colorado a 2-0 series lead.

“I can’t even blame the refs because they’re fighting through the embellishment of grabbing your face or falling down or dropping your stick every period,” DeBoer said. “They fooled them on it.”

The penalty happened after the Avalanche iced the puck 41 seconds into overtime. The Knights sent out their second line for the offensive zone-draw, and center William Karlsson sent the puck behind him on the faceoff.

Rantanen tried to cut inside Smith once play started to cover the point. Smith brought his stick down in front of Rantanen, hitting Rantanen’s stick. Rantanen’s stick fell to the ice, and Knights left wing Jonathan Marchessault grabbed the puck. Play was stopped to send Smith to the penalty box.

Knights captain Mark Stone said he gets into a similar play about 30 times a game, gets slashed on most of them but never drops his stick. Stone said the Knights still have to kill the penalty, but noted it’s hard to stop a power play as good as the Avalanche’s when they get six opportunities.

“It’s a tough call and especially in overtime,” Stone said. “In that situation, there has to be a little bit of onus on the guy holding his stick. It’s a stick battle.”

The Avalanche saw things differently. Rantanen denied that he dropped his stick on purpose in the defensive zone.

“It’s all over the league: The call is that if you slash the other guy’s stick out of his hands or break his stick, it’s always a penalty,” said Rantanen, who has a 16-game playoff point streak. “I’m a pretty strong guy, too, so I can hold onto my stick, but that was a pretty hard slash.”

Colorado coach Jared Bednar also disagreed with DeBoer’s assessment that it was a “soft call.” He said if the officials didn’t call it, the Knights would have had an easy scoring chance.

“It’s an easy one to call for me,” Bednar said. “In that situation, I would want that called. I know it’s overtime, but if we’re going out to that point with no stick, we’re in trouble.”

1. Early penalties

The Knights had a tough time keeping up with Colorado in the first period and were called for four minor penalties.

They only took that many in a period three times during the regular season. It happened once against Colorado and twice against Minnesota.

The Knights killed three of the four first-period penalties, but gave up a power-play goal to center Tyson Jost.

2. Theodore steps up

Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, who was tied for seventh among defensemen in scoring in the regular season, had two points in the team’s first-round series against Minnesota. Both came in Game 7.

Theodore doubled that point total Wednesday. He recorded secondary assists on both goals.

He and defensive partner Nick Holden were the team’s only two skaters to finish plus-one at five-on-five.

3. Fourth line wins matchup

It will be interesting to see if Bednar adjusts his lineup because the Knights got the better of the battle of fourth lines.

Left wing William Carrier, center Patrick Brown and right wing Keegan Kolesar finished with a 7-3 edge in shot attempts when they were on the ice at five-on-five.

Colorado left wing Sampo Ranta, playing in his second NHL game, former Knight center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and rookie Alex Newhook struggled to defend against their forecheck.

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.