Referees Who Made Controversial Knights-Sharks Game 7 Call Will Not Officiate Second Round

The referees were on the ice for a pivotal major penalty call in the third period of Tuesday night's Game 7.

Two referees who officiated the Las Vegas Golden Knights' Game 7 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday will not be working the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

According to ESPN's Emily Kaplan, Dan O'Halloran and Eric Furlat will not officiate the second round after being on the ice for a pivotal major penalty call in the third period that gave the Sharks a five-minute power play.

Neither O'Halloran nor Furlatt signaled for a penalty when Sharks captain Joe Pavelski was cross-checked by Golden Knights forward Cody Eakin in the chest. Pavelski was helped off the ice while bleeding, and Eakin was given a major penalty and a game misconduct.

During the power play, the Sharks scored four times in four minutes to erase a 3–0 deficit. San Jose ended up winning the game 5–4 in overtime.

Las Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault took exception to the penalty after the game.

"Furlatt said, 'It looks pretty bad.' If it looks pretty bad, then clearly you did not see it," Marchessault said. "It's a faceoff. It's a push. Probably 50% of the faceoffs, players—if they lose—they probably give a small cross-check, right? If you want to call the cross-check, fine, call it. It's a cross-check. But seriously, he falls bad. It's unfortunate. Don't get me wrong: I'm a huge fan of Joe Pavelski. And he went down, and I really hope he's OK and he comes back. But that call changes the whole outcome. It changes the whole future for us and the outcome this year. It's a joke. I would be embarrassed if I was them."

O'Halloran leads all active refs in career playoff games officiated (212).

According to Kaplan, O'Halloran is expected to miss his first conference final series in over a decade.