Owen Power Furious After Trevor Zegras’ High Stick Leads To Wrong Penalty Against Buffalo Sabres

Owen Power was left frustrated after being penalized for a high stick that came from Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras during Wednesday's game against the Buffalo Sabres. Zegras accidentally caught his own teammate, Matvei Michkov, up high, but the officials assessed the penalty to Power instead. The replay on the arena's video board made the mistake clear to players and fans, and Power reacted angrily from the penalty box. The call also forced Buffalo to kill a five-on-three disadvantage at a crucial point in the game.

Owen Power Reacts After Officials Get High-Sticking Call Wrong

The incident happened late in the second period, shortly before Jason Zucker scored a power-play goal to bring Buffalo within 2-1. Michkov was struck by Zegras' stick, but Power was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking. The Sabres defenseman was visibly upset after seeing the replay on the video board, banging his stick and yelling from the box.

“You see the video, it's pretty obvious,” Power said.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the referee later acknowledged the mistake when he came over to the bench. 

“When you're gonna put a team down five-on-three, you've got to be right about the call,” Ruff said. “I mean, that was the point I made with him when he came over just after the play. I just said, ‘Listen, you got it wrong.' He said, ‘We know.' But I said, ‘If you're going to make that call, you got to be right.' So it was a tough call for us at that time of the game.”

Buffalo managed to kill the penalty, and Zucker scored shortly afterward. However, the Sabres could not build on that momentum in the final period.

Ruff added, “We had some great looks in the first period, some good looks in the second period, too. I still think we missed the net too often. Our net-front coverage, again, we just handed them an easy goal. They won the net battle for a couple goals. We didn't.”

Sabres Fall 3-1 as Flyers' Rookie Leads the Way

Philadelphia defeated Buffalo 3-1 at KeyBank Center, handing the Sabres another disappointing result after they had entered the game at 4-3-2. The Flyers had struggled early in the season but arrived in Buffalo on a two-game winning streak.

Rookie Cole Knuble scored twice in his second NHL game, opening the scoring at 14:49 of the first period before adding another goal early in the third. Zegras also scored on the power play to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead late in the opening period.

The Sabres managed only five shots in the third period against Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar.