Twenty-four hours after Anthony Stolarz staked his claim on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ net for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Joseph Woll strode out to the visitors’ cage in Raleigh, took his position, and chimed in with a statement game of his own.
The Maple Leafs have the type of goaltending problem they’ve long been hoping for — the question of which of their steady, solid starters they should throw out first when the post-season arrives. Stolarz has all but sealed up the debate over this final stretch of the campaign, his Saturday-night shutout coming in his seventh straight win manning the blue-and-white’s net.
But Sunday in Raleigh, Toronto’s No. 2 proved he can still hold his own as a No. 1.
It didn’t take long for Woll to make clear he was ready to battle. Through the first 20 minutes of Sunday’s bout, it was all Carolina Hurricanes, the home side accounting for 11 of the game’s first 12 shots, coming at the visitors in waves, looking every bit the better club. But each time they advanced, flying up the ice, whipping passes around the offensive zone, there was Woll — holding them at bay, calming things down, keeping Toronto in it.
If not for the 26-year-old, the Maple Leafs seemed on track to head to the first intermission with a multi-goal deficit. Instead, the Canes came up empty-handed, while Toronto snagged a late lead courtesy of a buried rebound from Pontus Holmberg.
It was much the same story for the rest of the night. While Carolina did eventually end up getting one back — a power-play marker midway through the third that just beat Woll’s outstretched glove — the netminder’s performance allowed the Maple Leafs to pull ahead and put this one out of reach before the Canes broke through, the visitors finishing with a methodical 4-1 win.
With the 25-save performance in tow, Woll moved to a career-best 26 wins, his .909 save percentage just a hair above last season’s .907. While the net surely still seems Stolarz’s to lose come playoff time, there’s no doubt Sunday’s performance sent a message to the Maple Leafs brass — that No. 60 will be ready and up to the task too, if his time comes.
Benoit, Rielly lead Maple Leafs’ sterling defensive performance
It was no less impressive a night for the crew in front of Woll, particularly given the injuries that have ravaged the Maple Leafs’ blue line.
Still without veterans Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Toronto was forced to play a man short on Saturday, making do with the bodies still available. Reinforcements came a night later, with Dakota Mermis drawing into the lineup to give the club a workable six-man group against Carolina. But watching the quality defensive effort put forth by Toronto’s blue-line group Sunday, you could’ve been forgiven for forgetting they’re missing two 20-minute mainstays.
It was a particularly impressive night for Simon Benoit, who’s stock is flying high for these Maple Leafs of late.
The 26-year-old was all over the sheet in this one. In the first, as the Canes whirled around Toronto’s zone, trying to whip up some offensive wizardry, it was a pair of stiff checks from Benoit that snuffed out the o-zone pressure, breaking up Carolina’s cycle with brute force. Early in the third, it was a smart read from Benoit that spurred Toronto’s third goal, the defender jumping up and intercepting a pass at the top of Canes zone before delivering the puck to Max Domi and watching him set up William Nylander for a netfront deflection.
His finest moment came later in the final frame though, as the Leafs looked to stave off another Canes’ push and keep their lead intact, when the young rearguard offered up his best Joe Woll impression, sprawling out to block a shot with his left skate while the netminder was still recovering from his own acrobatic save a moment earlier.
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With a fully healthy lineup, that defensive depth would be important — amid the current injury woes ailing Toronto’s back end, it’s pivotal.
And then there was Morgan Rielly, coming up with a marquee performance of his own. Despite battling a down year in 2024-25, the veteran showed his best Sunday, collecting three assists — including the primary helper on each of Toronto’s first two tallies — to help lead the shorthanded Leafs to victory. The three-point night gives No. 44 his third-straight 40-point campaign. It also gives him six points his past five games, a fine time to be picking up steam with the playoffs around the corner.
Beyond the pair, it was a quality showing for the Maple Leafs’ blue-liners overall, though. Facing a top-10 offence, Toronto managed to hold their opponent at bay without their best goaltender, without two of their best defenders, and on a night that saw them decidedly outplayed through the early going. This group’s increasingly impressive ability to make it difficult for opponents to get close to their cage was a key reason.
Identity coming into focus for Berube’s Maple Leafs as playoffs loom
Big-picture, this was an important performance for a Maple Leafs squad that’s been looking to pin down their identity all season long. Rewind to just a month ago, and even then it wasn’t always clear what exactly that identity was. Even as the wins have piled up, there have been questions about this group on that front, about the success of their ability to remake themselves in Craig Berube’s image.
But heading into the final week of the campaign, there seems more clarity on that front. Sunday’s win served as a prime example. The Maple Leafs coach has preached patience since Game 1 of the campaign, and it was a calm, patient approach that earned them a win on this night. Even after a slow start, even with plenty of reasons to fold and gear up for another fight another day, they played with poise, they were opportunistic, and they let the game come to them. The end result was a fairly straightforward win.
With the victory in tow, Berube becomes the first Maple Leafs head coach to earn 50 wins in his first season with the club, as Toronto inches closer to claiming its first Atlantic Division title.
Matthews, Marner on late-season milestone watch
What seemed set to be a disappointing offensive performance ended up being a quality team effort from the blue-and-white’s forward corps too, with the Maple Leafs’ core leaders all factoring in on the scoresheet.
Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander all earned goals on the night, while Mitch Marner registered an assist. In doing so, Matthews moved to 399 career goals, one away from the 400-goal plateau. Marner, meanwhile, moved to 99 points on the season. The dynamic winger has finished just shy of the 100-point plateau three times in his career, including a 99-point finish two seasons ago. He has two more games to cement himself among the century club.
Perhaps more impressive when it comes to the offence, though, was the performance from the club’s bottom six. The lack of cohesion among the team’s third and fourth lines has been an issue all season long for this group — with a pair of games left, it’s not yet entirely clear who among the bottom-six group even stands to start Game 1, and who sits.
Sunday night brought a bit of movement on that front, though, the Maple Leafs getting a goal from Holmberg — playing between Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson — and the club getting a number of quality shifts from its Lorentz-Laughton-Jarnkrok fourth line, too.
A breakaway slap shot rung off the bar was all that stood in the way of an important night for Laughton as he continues to settle in with these Maple Leafs. Though the goal didn’t fall, it certainly looked like progress for a bottom-six group hunting for some late-season momentum.
