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Thrust into spotlight, Woll’s late heroics guide Maple Leafs to Game 2 win
In Game 2, Toronto’s 1B netminder took to the cage facing even more pressure, the fate of this so-far sterling Maple Leafs run seemingly resting on his shoulders.
TORONTO — Two weeks ago, on the first night of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ playoff journey, when this city was still steeped in nerves — in chatter about the weight of the moment, in shadows cast by past playoff failures — Craig Berube had sat in the bowels of Scotiabank Arena and boiled it all down to the bones. He was asked how his squad had fared on that first night, how they’d side-stepped a near-decade of pressure and disappointment and playoff ghosts, and tracked down a statement opening-night win. He grinned.
“They played. They just played,” he’d said then. “We’ve talked about this — yeah, the intensity ramps up in playoffs, and all this other stuff. You’ve just got to play.”
His club reeled off a series win after that, then a Round 2 opener that dragged this group into a different kind of intensity — a contentious Game 1 that saw Florida Panthers bruiser Sam Bennett tag Anthony Stolarz with an elbow to the head, sending the Toronto netminder to the hospital and, for now, out of this series. Then came the circus — debates about suspensions, about retaliation, the hockey world poring over every greasy collision Bennett’s authored over the past decade.
Lost in those intentionally muddied waters was Toronto’s near-dominant series-opening win. The focus tilted towards the fate of Florida’s No. 9, away from the question of whether the Maple Leafs could claim their most promising post-season start in nearly four decades. Just the type of fanbase-rattling distraction the veteran Cats had hoped for.
But Wednesday night, under the lights — with all eyes on how they might respond, how they might give Bennett what he’s owed — the Maple Leafs shrugged off the storylines, stayed the course, and just played.
“We knew they were going to play a very, very intense game — and we were able to match that intensity,” said veteran Max Pacioretty after the dust settled on a 4-3 Maple Leafs win. The victory gives Toronto a 2-0 series lead as they head to Florida, the most post-season success these Leafs have yet found in the Core Four era.
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Getting there, explained the 17-year big-league vet, came down to understanding what to carry into this Wednesday-night reunion, and what to leave behind.
“It’s knowing and learning how to win in different situations, and not getting too caught up in the past, or things we can’t control,” Pacioretty said. “Good teams find a way to handle that adversity. And we’ve faced a little bit of adversity in these playoffs. But every run I’ve been on, every time I’ve won rounds, you definitely have a lot of adversity.
“Tonight was a decent example of that, but the top guys found a way to break through.”
No Leaf had to battle through as much in this one as Joseph Woll, who was thrust into this series midway through that tumultuous Game 1 when it was deemed Stolarz couldn’t continue. Here, in Game 2, Toronto’s 1B netminder took to the cage facing even more pressure, the fate of this so-far sterling Maple Leafs run seemingly resting on his shoulders.
It wasn’t a flawless performance from Woll — the Cats hung three on him, including a tying goal in the third that could’ve been a spirit-crusher, and there were more than a few times it got dicey for No. 60 when he strayed out of his crease to play the puck.
Still, in the end, he did all that was required of him, turning aside 25 of 28 shots and, most importantly, allowing one fewer than the guy on the other side of the sheet.
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“Like we talked about all year, we have so much confidence in either goalie in our net,” said Mitch Marner, who tallied the crucial game-winning goal less than 20 seconds after that third-period equalizer. “Joe just comes in with such a calming presence. … There was never any worry with either guy in net, and Joe showed again tonight why he’s one of the best.”
His coach echoed the sentiment.
“Very calm and cool in the net, I thought — and made saves,” Berube said of his goaltender. “Pucks are coming to the net all the time playing Florida. So he was on his toes, and fighting through traffic, and making the saves that are needed. You know, very impressed with him tonight.”
That even-keeled demeanour came up particularly clutch in the final 10 minutes of the tilt, when the Panthers turned up the heat on the home side.
The flurry had begun minutes earlier, Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe both sweeping pucks off the goal line at different points in the final frame. Then young Mackie Samoskevich found the puck on his stick beside the Maple Leafs’ cage, a gaping net in front of him. The winger corralled the puck, swept it towards the goal line — and met the right pad of a sprawling, sliding Woll.
It wasn’t the last chance the Cats would have — the champs kept the Maple Leafs hemmed in their own zone for what felt like the entire latter half of the period, throwing all they could at No. 60.
“You know, they’re chucking everything at the net, that’s the way they play,” Berube said of the sequence. “And the guys did a good job, you know? Competing, battling, blocking shots — all the things that we need to do to be successful.”
“I was just trying to stay in the moment,” said Woll himself. “Stick to my process, focus on one save at a time.”
He made the ones he needed to make, at the times he needed to make them — and all that after it seemed Stolarz was a lock for starting duties for the foreseeable future. That ability to rise to the moment has his club taking a 2-0 series lead to Sunrise.
“It’s a very, very hard situation to come into,” Pacioretty said of the young goaltender. “But he’s such a worker. Every day, when he’s not playing even, he’s the first guy here, last to leave. It’s really nice to see a guy like that get rewarded, because he puts in the work, day in and day out.”
The same can be said of Pacioretty, who’s emerged as a surprisingly pivotal piece of this Maple Leafs run after his own return to the spotlight.
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Out of the lineup for the final months of the regular season, missing significant time in each of the past three campaigns, No. 67 has been a revelation for Berube’s squad. And particularly in this series — after factoring in on both of William Nylander’s quick-start tallies in Game 1, Pacioretty was all over it again on Wednesday night, scoring Toronto’s first of the night and setting up Nylander for another, both times pulling the Leafs level in the game.
“I think it goes back to his injuries, to the effort and commitment he put into getting healthy,” Berube said of the veteran who’s made his second line a game-breaker. “You know, he’s very dedicated in that aspect — he didn’t want to go out that way. He fought his way back, and now he’s doing a great job for us. In a lot of areas of the game, not just the scoring — he’s played a pivotal role with the physicality and how we want to play, a heavy style of game. He’s been a good fit.”
There’s no doubt the elite play of the man who lines up alongside him has been crucial to No. 67’s success. After back-to-back three-point games coming into Wednesday night, Nylander’s critical Game 2 tally moved him level with Connor McDavid atop the league’s playoff scoring race with 13 points to his name. He’s potted five goals over Toronto’s past three games alone, stretching back to the series-clincher in Ottawa.
Already having collected more points during this current run than he ever has in a single post-season, Wednesday’s goal made the 2025 post-season No. 88’s most prolific in the goals department, too.
“You know, there’s no too big a stage for this guy. He thrives on this stuff, in my opinion. He looks forward to it,” Berube said of his star winger late Wednesday night. “He wants to be in all those critical situations. And when he smells something, he’s there, you know? That goal, that’s as high-end as it can get, in my opinion. He has great, great skill with his hands, unreal hands, and ability on his skates, with his cutbacks.
“He’s a high-end player, he really is. And I don’t think he feels pressure, or anything like that — he just plays.”
