Goal resulting from play after a high stick?

[Grinder 2]

I'm just shaking my head at a goal scored against my team this past week. It just seems like there's something wrong with this picture:

I'm on D low in the slot moving traffic out. The point man sends in a hard pass which gets deflected into the air in the slot. My check taps it with a high stick (just over head height) and the it hits the ground at his feet. He needs a second to move his stance in order to shoot. I just have time to slide myself down to try to block the shot. He shoots, and it deflects off my helmet and into the net. The ref called it a goal.

"What about the high stick?" I ask. "You touched the puck, so the goal counts," he says. No point in arguing, so off I went. The goal didn't make or break the game, but it still annoyed me. I thought that it should have been whistled down the minute that the player gained a clear advantage (he wound up in a position to shoot and score) as a direct result of the high stick. I also thought that there would be a difference between having a shot bounced off my melon compared to say, blocking the shot, attempting to clear the puck and putting it back on his stick for the goal.

What's the correct call? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

Thanks in advance.

[shooter27 116]

The correct call depends on who touched the puck first after he hit it with the high stick. If the puck hit you before he touched it then the ref made the right call. If he touched it first then the whistle should have been blown when he touched the puck.

[Grinder 2]

Fair enough - since it all happened in a few seconds in a traffic jam, I couldn't say 100% if it bounced off me prior to the shot. I don't think it did, but with a tangle of bodies the ref must have seen something different. Thanks for the explanation.

[chippa13 1844]

The correct call depends on who touched the puck first after he hit it with the high stick. If the puck hit you before he touched it then the ref made the right call. If he touched it first then the whistle should have been blown when he touched the puck.

The correct call depends on who played the puck first after it was hit with a high stick. A high stick is not washed out simply because the next thing it hit was an opponent. An opponent has to have played the puck. Incidental contact doesn't count.

[shooter27 116]

I always thought it was any contact. Why else would the whistle blow automatically if a puck hit with a high stick hits the opposing goaltender? I could be wrong, that was just always my understanding of the rule.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

Chippa's correct. Shooter - a high-stick-hit puck that hits the opposing goaltender would be a shot on goal, which is why it is blown, or if the puck goes in, the goal is negated.

[shooter27 116]

I stand corrected then. So I guess in the case above the ref got it wrong since the original poster never played the puck.

[Grinder 2]

That seems to make a little more sense. I can't guarantee the puck didn't touch me as I hit the floor, but I in no way attempted to play the puck before he shot. The ref was riding me about everything but the colour of my laces all night, so I wasn't going to argue about yet one more thing. Thanks again, fellas.