ST. PAUL, Minn. — Marcus Johansson was awarded a game-winning goal in overtime — the sixth of his career and first since 2022 — Tuesday night when the NHL determined that Nashville Predators goaltender Justus Annunen knocked the net off the moorings to nullify an imminent scoring chance.

“Just by the physics of pushing, I don’t think that was what he’s trying to do,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said on whether he thought Annunen intentionally knocked the net off. “I thought they’d miss the net. If the net didn’t dislodge, it would have ended up behind the net. Unfortunately, they didn’t see it the same way. And we move on.”

It was the second time the Preds goalie did it in the game and something he nearly did earlier in overtime on another Minnesota Wild rush.

The awarded goal delivered the Wild a 3-2 overtime win after Nashville’s Steven Stamkos tied the game with three-tenths of a second left in regulation.

“Obviously weird, weird play,” Stamkos said. “I can see the confusion, but the confusing part for us was why it was so emphatically felt. Like, I get it. Listen, the net came off. But if the puck goes in right away, no problem if the net’s off.

“But he missed the net, and the puck actually bounced back to him because the net was sideways, and then he hit the back of the net and it popped back. So my interpretation of the rule is that if the net wasn’t off, that puck wouldn’t have (come) back to him to have an open net. It would have went behind the net, and then the play would have been blown dead because the net was off. I understand the net came off. I don’t think there was any intent from our goaltender to knock it off. It came off twice today, but our vantage point is obviously going to differ from theirs.”

Predators forward Michael McCarron added, “I don’t know how the ref can stand there with a straight face and call it a goal, and then they call Toronto, and they still decide to call it a goal. I mean, I’m dumbfounded. I feel like we got screwed tonight.”

A TRULY WILD ENDING! 😱

Marcus Johansson secures the Subway Canada OT winner for Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/By1CCyVZc2

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 5, 2025

Johansson, 35, who was playing his 997th game, had picked Erik Haula’s pocket in the defensive zone to force a turnover and quick counterattack. Kirill Kaprizov sent the puck to him backdoor when Annunen pushed the net off before the shot. Referee Trevor Hanson immediately signaled that it was a goal.

“(Hanson’s) explanation was in his opinion it was a goal. I disagree with his opinion, but that’s the way it is,” Brunette said.

The NHL Situation Room said that “video review supported the Referees’ call on the ice that the actions of Nashville’s Justus Annunen caused the net to be displaced prior to the puck crossing the goal line. Therefore, the Referees awarded Minnesota’s Marcus Johansson with a goal.”

“I don’t know really what happened,” Johansson said. “I didn’t know if we were supposed to celebrate or not. Didn’t know what the call was going to be. When it’s pushed off like that, it’s the right thing to do. Thankfully I put it in even though the net wasn’t there.”

The decision, the league said, was made in accordance with Rule 63.7, which states, “In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the Referee may award a goal. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”

“From my angle when it happened originally, I didn’t know he had knocked it off with his arm prior to the goal, I wasn’t sure,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “But then when I went back and watched it, I understood the call for sure and the rule.”

Last Friday, the NHL also awarded Anaheim’s Chris Kreider a goal in the third period when Detroit’s John Gibson knocked the net off the moorings.

John Gibson may have knocked the net off its moorings, but this Chris Kreider goal counts just the same.#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/miUVIpql9o

— Victory+ (@victoryplustv) November 1, 2025