Injured Woll out for Game 7, Samsonov starts for Maple Leafs, Matthews returns
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There was no brick Woll in goal for the Maple Leafs in Game 7 on Saturday night.
Ilya Samsonov got the start in the Leafs net at TD Garden in Boston against the Bruins in the win-or-go-home game.
Woll, who starred in Games 5 and 6 after taking over from Samsonov, didn’t dress for the game.
The Leafs posted on X as the pre-game warmup started that Woll would not play because of an injury the 25-year-old suffered in Game 6. It’s believed Woll was hurt on the last play of the game, when he stretched across the crease to try to stop a Morgan Geekie shot. Geekie scored on the play, ending Woll’s shutout bid with less than one second remaining. The Leafs won 2-1.
Martin Jones dressed as the backup to Samsonov.
On the positive side for Toronto, No. 1 centre Auston Matthews was back in the lineup after he missed the past two games, believed to be because of an injury. Initially, Matthew missed practices and morning skates as he dealt with an illness. Sometime in the past week, the thinking is that it was an injury that kept Matthews out.
Matthews took the pre-game warmup centring a line with Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok on the wings.
Coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t mess with the top two lines, keeping Max Domi between Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner, and John Tavares between Matthew Knies and William Nylander.
David Kampf centred Connor Dewar and Noah Gregor on the fourth line.
With Matthews back, Nick Robertson was scratched.
Woll took over in the Leafs net for the third period of Game 4 and allowed just one goal in each of the next two games as the Leafs rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the best-of-seven series 3-3.
Samsonov had an .883 save percentage in the first four games of the series.
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