With just under a minute remaining in Thursday's game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Minnesota Wild, and the Canadiens leading 4-3, Max Pacioretty streaked up the ice towards the Wild's empty net. He was hooked from behind by Kurtis Foster -- enough to draw a whistle, in my opinion -- but, rather than continue to fight through it, Pacioretty tried to sell the call, hopping to his belly like there was a slip n' slide in front of him. The officials didn't buy it, and play continued.
Then the Wild scooped up the loose puck, brought it down to the other end, and, with the net still empty, Devin Setoguchi tied the game.
What an odd sequence.
Considering the strange game that preceded everything above, this was a fitting end to regulation. But I it ends differently if A) Pacioretty makes the conscious choice to stay on his feet and B) his great leap forward isn't the second such incident in the game.
If the officials hadn't already been burned by Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck on a blatant dive in the second period, I think Pacioretty gets this call. But officials can be sensitive about such things, you know.