Thompson skated in from the left wing, feigning a shot before seemingly slipping the puck past Rittich’s pad at 8:55 in the second period, giving the Sabres a 2-0 lead at a pivotal moment in the match. While the puck was obscured beneath Rittich and not visibly over the line, Peyton Krebs made a move to prod it further, but the goal was credited to Thompson.

This left both Rittich and Islanders coach Patrick Roy perplexed post-game, as neither saw any camera angle confirming that the puck had indeed crossed the line.

Because it was called a good goal on the ice, though, the burden of proof was on the Islanders — and they could not challenge without having a clear shot of the puck not crossing the goal line.

“I see nothing,” Roy said. “I never saw the puck in the net. So it was hard. The reason why we didn’t challenge it is very simple: It’s because the referee said that the puck went in right at the start. Us, we thought the puck went in when [Krebs] poked it into our goalie’s pad. But they gave the goal to Thompson, so there was no way we could win that challenge.

“It was inconclusive in my opinion, so we would not have won the challenge. But if they would’ve given the goal to [Krebs] when he hit the pads, then we would’ve challenged it. And I don’t know how the referee saw it at the beginning. That’s the other thing I’m not sure [about].”

Maxim Tsyplakov and Marshall Warren both came into the lineup, with Max Shabanov and Adam Boqvist coming out as healthy scratches.

Roy said that healthy scratching Shabanov for the first time this season had nothing to do with his performance but that he merely wanted to get Tsyplakov in.