Maple Leafs' Anthony Stolarz in line to face ex-Florida Panthers mates, Joseph Woll earns NHL honour

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Anthony Stolarz saw a lot of Florida Panthers playoff success from their bench.

On Wednesday, he’s likely to be in the thick of the action against his former team, trying to knock them down a peg.

After limited success trying to bring in help from former championship teams, the Leafs are getting contributions so far from goaltender Stolarz, defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and winger Steven Lorentz.

But none more than Stolarz, who has an NHL-best .927 save percentage as of Monday morning.

He has had the triple effect of cutting goals against while the Leafs transition to new coach Craig Berube, filling in for Joseph Woll when the latter had another brief injury setback and pushing the younger Woll to maximize his playing time since.

Berube adjusted their recent rotation to give Woll the past two starts — a shutout of Vegas and 3-2 win over Utah — presumably to have Stolarz stare down his old mates in Sunrise.

The Leafs could even rest Woll after he was named the NHL’s third star of the week on Monday for stopping 54 of the 56 shots he faced in two games.

In earning his second career shutout versus Vegas, the 26-year-old owns a 5-2-0 record through seven total appearances this season, leading NHL goalies with a minimum seven game appearances with a his 2.00 goals-against average and ranking eighth with a .921 save percentage.

Behind Sergei Bobrovsky last year, Stolarz started 24 games with a record of 16-7-2 and .925 save percentage. This year, approaching age 31, he has seven wins for 50 in his NHL career and one shutout, his ninth.

At 6-foot-6, 243 pounds he has left little room for opposition shooters this term, though he craves a chance in playoffs where he just had one mop-up role for Bobrovsky and no appearances in Philadelphia, Edmonton or Anaheim, prior to joining the Panthers last year.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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