It’s rare that an athlete asks for a penalty against the opposing team to be rescinded. But, oddly enough, that’s exactly what happened during Monday’s game between the Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders.
Late in the opening period, Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar gained control of the puck behind his own goal and was being chased by Islanders center Mathew Barzal.
Makar quickly fell to the ice on the play and it appeared that Barzal tripped him up. The referee’s arm immediately went up and called Barzal for a tripping penalty.
But even though the call went in Colorado’s favor, Makar approached the referee and revealed that he didn’t believe that a penalty should be called on the play. Makar fell down on his own accord on the play, and explained it as such to the ref. Then, just seconds later, the referee changed his mind and rescinded the tripping call.
Take a look at the play:
Makar explained what when down following the Avalanche’s 1-0 shootout win.
“The ref who called it wasn’t the guy at center ice,” Makar said, according to Sportsnet. “He was kind of behind the net on the far side. I don’t think he had a good angle on it. He just saw me fall. I would like to think most times I fall it’s usually because somebody trips me. That one I just lost an edge. I felt pretty guilty for the boys there.”
A closer look shows that Barzal definitely didn’t trip up Makar on the play, but his stick did make contact with Makar’s shoulder before the Colorado defenseman fell to the ice a moment later.
“Obviously good sportsmanship on his part,” Barzal added. “I don’t know if I would have done the same, to be honest with you.”
Makar clearly just wanted to display good sportsmanship. It was certainly a classy move from one of the sport’s best defensemen.
