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By now, most folks have seen the replay of Team Belarus goalie Ivan Kulbakov's unusual -- but far from unprecedented -- panic move late in his team's 4-2 loss to Slovakia at the World Junior Championships in Helsinki. With Kulbakov pulled for an extra attacker, the Slovaks broke out of their defensive zone and headed towards an attempt at the empty net.
Kulbakov left the bench and went out onto the ice surface, nearly bumping into the refere and dropping down in an apparent attempt to trip up Slovakian attacker Juraj Siska. Confused but undaunted, Siska eluded Kulbakov and scored into the empty net.
All around, this sequence was a terrible decision by Kulbakov. Let me count the ways:
1) The rules in every domestic and international league are explicit in stating that a player interfering with an empty net goal attempt -- such as someone leaving the bench or throwing equipment -- will automatically result in a goal being awarded to the attacking team, whether or not the puck goes into the net.
2) As soon as Kulbakov left the bench, Team Belarus had too many men on the ice. Let's say hypothetically that the Slovak player mishandled the puck in the neutral zone and the fumbled puck was about to be regained by a Belarus player as the goalie dashed out onto the ice. There would be no chance for a counterattack.
3) The goalie wound up getting injured on the sequence, hurting his right leg and needing help to get back off the ice.
In other words, this was failure to the third degree. Even if Kulbakov had "succeeded", he'd have disliked the result. This play was far from the only time I've ever seen someone attempt to interfere with an empty net attempt and cost his team an automatic goal, but it was definitely one of the stranger instances.
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Today, Stewart serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC at both the Division 1 and Division 3 levels.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.