Shootout in Montreal ends in controversy with serious playoff implications.

Fans of the Montreal Canadiens are fuming and fans of the Columbus Blue Jackets are breathing a collective sigh of relief after a highly controversial ending to Monday night's game between the Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks.

60 minutes of regulation play was not enough to determine a winner and, despite some good chances for both teams in overtime, the game would eventually go to a shootout which is where the controversy would take place.

It was Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar who was at the center of controversy on Monday night, although it wasn't his fault in the slightest, after his shootout attempt was initially ruled as no goal. Nazar lost control of the puck during his attempt but managed to regain enough control to put a nifty move on Habs goaltender Samuel Montembeault before the puck seemed to vanish into thin air. It seems the officials had assumed the puck had gone out of play, and the shootout proceeded with Patrick Laine of the Montreal Canadiens even going through with his attempt.

It was at this moment however that the officials would head to the replay booth, seemingly after a call had come down from the league, where they were shown a replay of Nazar's goal clearly going into the net. As for the disappearing puck? Well Nazar's shot was so clean that it lodged itself right under the water bottle in the net.

Here's a close up look of the puck in the net.

The Blackhawks were rightfully awarded the goal but the Canadiens weren't at all happy with the decision to let their player shoot before knowing the actual results of the goal. It is possible that Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis would have chosen a different shooter had he known his team was down a goal, so the Canadiens being unhappy with how things played out is certainly understandable.

Keep in mind that a win in this game would have punched the Canadiens' ticket to the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs and eliminated the Columbus Blue Jackets from those very same playoffs. This result now keeps the Blue Jackets alive and could even result in the Canadiens potentially missing the playoffs.

Here is a replay of the entire bizarre and controversial sequence from Monday night: