Toronto – Joseph Woll returns under the attention of the postseason.
It is a place that Toronto Maple Leafs goalkeeper has prospered in the past.
Woll will have the beginning for Toronto in game 2 of the playoffs series of the second round of the team Stanley Cup against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night.
The 26 -year -old entered the first game from Monday to the middle of the second period after the starter Anthony Stolarz took an elbow at the head of Sam Bennett.
“We have a lot of confidence in him,” Leafs captain Auston Matthews on Wednesday, he said Wednesday about Woll. “It is extremely concentrated, it does all the right things.”
Craig Berube coach left the door open for Stolarz to play in game 2, but told journalists at Scotiabank Arena after Toronto’s skame, the 31 -year -old player is “recovering” and “well.”
The veteran Netminder Matt Murray, who spent most of this season at the American Hockey League, will serve as Woll’s support on Dennis Hildeby. The rookie was in the bank in the third period of game 1.
“The experience, I think, more than anything,” Berube said about resorting to Murray, twice a cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“He has been there, he did.”
Meanwhile, the Panthers will have the defense Aaron Ekblad available after a suspension of two games for a shot in the head in the eaves of Tampa Bay, Brandon Hagel, in the first round.
“He was pointing to his chest and caught him in his chin,” Ekblad said in his first comments from the incident that eliminated Hagel from the series. “I never go out to hurt anyone on the ice. The way the result occurred is unfortunate.
“It’s what it is and we all keep going.”
Ekblad, 29, was selected No. 1 in general in the 2014 Draft had recently returned after 20 games were suspended for violating the policy of the NHL/NHL players association on drugs that improve performance.
Ekblad returned for game 3 of the Tampa series before the Hagel incident in game 4 that led to its most recent suspension.
“The whirlwind of a season,” he said. “It is not the way I wrote it, but we are here now. We are in the playoffs. It is a great opportunity to continue playing hockey.”
Woll was solid from the bank and held the Panthers at the end of a 5-4 nail jam victory on Monday for Toronto, stopping 17 of 20 shots when Florida recovered after continuing 4-1 to 40 minutes.
“It is not easy to drop in the fire like that,” Matthews said. “He will be prepared and ready to start. A lot of confidence in him.”
Stolarz, who also took a shot from his mask at the beginning of game 1, was able to continue briefly after the collision with Bennett, a bruise center and a former teammate on the Panthers list winner of the Stanley Cup last season, before vomiting at Banco de Toronto a few minutes later and heading to the locker room.
Stolarz was then transported to a hospital for evaluation, but returned with his teammates on Tuesday morning in the installation of Leafs practice.
Woll has a solid savings percentage of .910 in 78 regular seasonal games. Their numbers in the postseason are even better. The netminder of the suburbs of St. Louis has stopped 113 of 119 shots in four beginnings of playoffs for a .950 savings percentage.
Selection 62 in the 2016 Draft, the same year that Toronto took Matthews to number 1, helped the leaks to eliminate the second round 3-0 to Florida in 2023 after Ilya Samsonov fell with an injury before making 40 stops in a loss of 3-2 in extra time in game 5.
Woll began game 5 in the open spring opening round against the Boston Bruins when Samsonov scored again. It allowed two goals in 59 combined shots in the next two games to help game 7 of the Leafs strength, but had a back problem and could not play at the end of the Toronto series fell 2-1 in Ot.
“It’s mentally very resistant, very strong,” said Matthews. “Nothing really reaches him.”
___
AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
