With just over five minutes left in the third period, there was a melee behind the Jets net. Two Winnipeg players pinned Yegor Sharangovich against the boards, trying to recover the puck and move it up the ice.

Both players, Adam Lowry and Neal Pionk, were able to get the puck off Sharangovich’s feet, and Winnipeg defenseman Pionk began moving the puck up the ice. That’s when Kadri came on the scene to try to take him out, and in doing so, he delivered a pretty significant blow to Pionk’s gloves and stick.

Refs decided to penalize Kadri for action. And what made the situation worse was that the Flames had just taken an important penalty at 5 on 3 following a neutral zone penalty from Martin Pospisil and a penalty from Rasmus Andersson.

“What are you going to do?” Kadri said after the match, via Flames TV. “We had a great game on our hands. It’s really a shame, that’s what it had to come to. I feel like you have to have a certain feel for the game. Especially when they’re coming out of a 5-on-3, to have that one called is upsetting…I think both teams played really well. It was great hockey there. It was just a hand-to-hand battle. And someone made a few too many decisions on the play.”

The Jets continued to score on this power play with a Cole Perfetti wrist shot from the bottom of the right faceoff dot.

The Jets sealed the deal in an empty net with one minute and 15 seconds on the clock.

Even though Kadri’s penalty seemed like the right decision on paper, it’s easy to understand why he was frustrated that the referees chose to call it a penalty in a physical and fast-paced match thus far. He was trying to get the puck back and made a tough play around the puck carrier’s hands to try to generate a turnover after the forecheck.

However, that being said, there are probably better times to make this play than in the latter stages of a draw right in front of the referee. There are also better ways to “cover up” something like this instead of the two-handed hack that even broadcast microphones picked up because it was so difficult.

The Flames were expected to avoid a penalty shootout, having already surrendered a shorthanded goal earlier in the game to Kyle Connor, but due to an error in judgment, they did not do so and paid the ultimate price: zero points in the standings. It’s always frustrating when a game like this is decided by a late decision that gives one team the advantage.

Nonetheless, the decision was made to hit the hand area quite hard right in front of the referee, so it’s hard to blame him for making the decision despite the other circumstances. Kadri has every right to be frustrated that this happened, but on the other hand, it’s hard to fault the official for calling what seemed like a fairly apparent minor penalty.