It was a special night for Joseph Woll on Tuesday, as not only did he pick up his first win of the season, he beat his hometown St. Louis Blues for the first time in his NHL career.
Woll stopped 28 of 29 shots in front of the home crowd at Scotiabank Arena, and hundreds of family and friends watching back in Missouri. Woll admitted postgame to reporters that it felt extra special for it to come on his first win of the season.
“Yeah, pretty sweet,” Woll said. “Pretty cool games these first two games playing at United Center, and then playing against St. Louis. So, it’s special one.”
Woll takes nothing for granted in his young career. It’s been an interesting start for his 2025-26 season, and he’s quickly gone from a conditioning stint to get his legs back under him after a long layoff, to holding down the starter’s crease with Anthony Stolarz on the shelf. Regardless, Woll’s up for the challenge, he showed it against the Blues, and as soon as the horn sounded in victory, he jumped right into reflection mode.
“Pretty sweet. Pretty nice to win at home with the fans like that. I always try to look around and take it in, really, when we win like that, especially in overtime.”
Woll kept the Maple Leafs in the game and was a big reason the contest made it to overtime. That’s when John Tavares and William Nylander took over, as both veterans put on a show during the final shift of the game. Tavares held off three Blues’ defenders in the corner and bought himself time, and then made an exceptional area pass with his skates to find Morgan Rielly, who then slid it over to Nylander, and the rest is history.
“He’s a beast, John in the corner, and I was just kind of mesmerized watching Will. Fired me up, so it was pretty cool.”
It wasn’t all pretty for Nylander on Tuesday night, as he opened the game by batting the puck past Woll, to give the Blues a 1-0 lead on his own goal. It was a head-scratcher, as many were left wondering why Nylander tried to play the puck back towards his goal, so close in tight. Woll heard from him shortly after during a TV timeout.
“Not much, he made up for it, so we’re all square. One for one.”
Woll’s posted a .934 save percentage early on, which is a great sign for a Leafs’ team who could use some consistency in net. Woll’s expected to carry a heavy workload with Stolarz unavailable, so don’t be surprised to see him start on Thursday, when the Maple Leafs host the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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