Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel was fined for dangerously crossing-checking Florida's Eetu Liostarinen. The penalty was reduced from a major to a minor after review.
Hagel was following Luostarinen through the Lightning zone. Hagel gave a cross-check on the lower back to Luostarinen as they approached the end boards. This appeared to knock him off-balance and sent him into the boards.
Frederick L'Ecuyer, Referee, had his arm raised immediately.
L'Ecuyer called the ice a 5-minute major for cross-checking. Dan O'Rourke, referee, and L'Ecuyer rushed over to review the play.
Rule 20.6
Referees will review all plays that resulted in an assessment of any Major Penalty (other Than a Major Penalty For Fighting) for purposes of confirming or modifying their original call on ice.
These reviews will only be done by the Referee(s) in ice with consultation with other OnIce Official(s) as appropriate. Communication between the Situation Room, the On-Ice officials and the Referee shall be limited to... ensure that the Referee receives any and all video they might need as well as any replay angles they may require to review the penalty call. The On-Ice Official(s), NHL Situation Room and any other non-game participants shall not have contact or consult with each other.
Officials had the option of sustaining the cross-checking major, or reducing it to a minor. They could not switch to, for example, a boarding call.
Cross-checking determines the difference between a minor and major by the severity of the contact. The major includes an automatic game misconduct.
Referees O'Rourke and L'Ecuyer reviewed the call and decided to give a minor penalty for cross checking.
Don Koharski (retired NHL referee and rules analyst) looked at the official's decision.
Hagel was boarding when the NHL's Department of Player Safety took a weigh-in.
It is important to note that while on-ice officials must stick with their initial call, Player Safety can take into consideration any infractions. They called out the dangers of the hit in this instance. Although the hit itself was not as violent, the cross-check created an unsafe situation when it was delivered close to the boards.
Cross-checking and Boarding are similar, but the act is different. It's a judgement call on the severity. Rule 41 states that any player who pushes or checks a defenseless opponent so as to cause the opponent's boards to be hit violently or potentially dangerously by the opponent shall receive a boarding penalty. The Referee shall decide the severity of the penalty based on the impact with the boards.
Hagel was fined $3,750 under the CBA. This is without any formal hearing.
On the power play that followed, the Florida Panthers won. The Panthers would have been on the power-play for an additional 4:22 if the major penalty had not been applied. They lost Game 3 to Lightning 5-1.
The game was refereed by Dan O'Rourke (9th) and Frederick L'Ecuyer (17th), along with the linesmen Steve Barton (#59), and Ryan Daisy (#81).
