St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko was called for playing with illegal equipment at a crucial juncture in Friday night’s 4-3 overtime victory over the visiting Colorado Avalanche after picking up teammate Colton Parayko‘s stick in overtime.
Blues interim coach Craig Berube said the penalty was called because the 6-foot-6 Parayko has an exemption to the NHL’s stick length rule. The 6-foot Tarasenko does not.
“If it was somebody else’s stick, say it was [Jaden Schwartz‘s] stick, he could pick it up and use it,” Berube said.
Ryan O’Reilly bailed out the Blues with a short-handed, breakaway winner 2 minutes, 5 seconds into overtime.
“I had no idea,” O’Reilly said of the rule. “I think our whole bench had no idea, but with the win tonight I don’t think we care. We got it done.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.