Woll fills in admirably for Stolarz as Maple Leafs take 2-0 series lead on Florida
Bobrovsky continues to struggle for Panthers as Maple Leafs’ four goals came on just 20 shots
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The Maple Leafs have flipped the goaltending script on the Florida Panthers in taking a 2-0 series lead.
While there’s still concern about whether Joseph Woll can finish the job begun by Anthony Stolarz, the Panthers aren’t yet getting the big saves needed from Sergei Bobrovsky. And that’s without Toronto captain Auston Matthews having his desired impact as this series shifts to Sunrise, Fla.
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Woll fills in admirably for Stolarz as Maple Leafs take 2-0 series lead on Florida Back to video
The Leafs’ 4-3 win came on just 20 shots Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena on top of the 30 on net in their 5-4 series-opening win. Mitch Marner hustled to score the winner on a long-range high wrist shot just 17 seconds after Anton Lundell had tied it. The Cats kept exposing Bobrovsky to odd-man rushes and breakaways until they assembled another strong final-period push.
Max Pacioretty, William Nylander and Max Domi also scored for the Leafs, while Woll stopped 25 shots in his first full game after Stolarz was hurt midway through Game 1.
Down a goal just 15 seconds into the middle period and pressed into a couple of giveaways, the Leafs tied it and moved ahead in lively fashion.
Pacioretty caught up to an Oliver Ekman-Larsson clear, backhanding it through Seth Jones’ skates for a Nylander heel tip, all at full speed. Nylander’s team-leading 13th playoff point, tied for second among all post-season scorers, was part of a wild 20 minutes of cheap calls from the officials, missed calls and the Leafs becoming unglued with giveaways.
One was committed by Woll during a Pontus Holmberg penalty, but he atoned with a couple of stretched pad saves, one on Brad Marchand and a lte short side stop on Mackie Samoskevich. After a bench huddle, coach Craig Berube put his energy forwards Scott Laughton and Steve Lorentz with Domi and it paid off right away. Lorentz found Domi on a 2-on-1 for his first regulation goal of the playoffs.
The Leafs were a few ticks from going 0-for-8 on the power play in this series when the second unit was able to click to end the opening frame tied at 1-1.
Pacioretty used his reach to tip in Morgan Rielly’s shot through Bobrovsky. The five-forward power-play ‘A’ team struggled against Panthers penalty killers and their 91% playoff efficiency rate, unable to turn three advantages with puck control into quality shots or a quantity of shots when they weren’t mucking up breakouts.
Florida instantly converted its only man advantage of the first period with Aleksander Barkov beating Matthews on the draw and getting the puck back from Jones to snap it past Woll.
The latter made a couple of early saves, given a day to prepare for this start, and tried to convince the refs that Marchand had bumped him in the latter’s fly-by behind the net.
All of the Leafs no doubt hoped the officials would look more closely at any goalie contact given Stolarz’s suspected concussion could have been traced to Sam Bennett’s unpenalized elbow in Game 1. Berube went from Tuesday’s surprising statement that Stolarz might play Wednesday after spending time at a hospital to listing him as “recovering” after he wasn’t at the morning skate. Matt Murray backed up Woll.
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While the Leafs would want Stolarz back, his absence on the ice and at the bench will serve as a subtle message for the officials if another crease incident happens in the next couple of games.
Woll is far from being a raw rookie. He played a career-high 42 games this season and Wednesday was his ninth playoff appearance, including previous experience starting against the Panthers.
“He seems to be feeling better,” Matthews said of Stolarz. “He’s been around the rink and stuff. It’s good to see him. We really aren’t trying to pester him with questions and stuff, just be there to support him and hopefully he’s back here soon.”
The last time the Leafs won the first two games at home in a second-round series was in the 1963 Cup final against Detroit. They did it four straight times in the first two rounds in 1962 and 1963 against Detroit, Montreal, Chicago and the New York Rangers.
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