Auston Matthews returns for Game 7, but Leafs without injured goalie Joseph Woll

BOSTON – Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews returned to the lineup for Game 7 against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.

Toronto was also missing a big piece that helped the club dig itself out of a 3-1 hole to force the do-or-die matchup: Goaltender Joseph Woll was nowhere to be found when the teams headed to warmups at TD Garden. .

The Leafs announced as players hit the ice that the 25-year-old suffered an undisclosed injury in their victory in Game 6. Woll was outstanding, allowing two goals in seven periods of action as part of back-to-back 2-1 victories for drag Toronto back to its first-round playoff series, but appeared to be hurt in the closing moments Thursday.

He was on the ice to skate Saturday morning at the starting net. She briefly stayed down in two sequences after moving left, but ended the session. Ilya Samsonov, who started the best-of-seven matchup before being pulled in Game 4, was back between the pipes for Toronto.

Matthews, owner of an NHL-high 69 regular-season goals, missed the final two games after being removed from Game 4 with an illness.

The 26-year-old was on the ice for a morning skate and seemed to be moving well, but head coach Sheldon Keefe seemed to suggest the Leafs were once again preparing to be without their main attraction.

Toronto winger Mitch Marner said Matthews, who arrived at the rink Saturday morning wearing a Star Wars jersey, has been handling the absence as expected.

“They ask you 1,000 times a day, ‘How are you?'” Marner said. “It’s annoying. He wants to be out there. He’s a great competitor. You’ve seen it at every level.”

Keefe was asked before Game 5 if there was anything else, namely an injury, that worried Matthews, but he declined to answer directly.

The workhorse skated Wednesday at the team’s practice facility in Toronto and again Thursday for about 30 minutes before Game 6.

Woll, meanwhile, started the 2023-24 season strong with an 8-5-1 record and a .916 save percentage before suffering a sprained ankle in December that sidelined him for exactly 12 weeks.

His numbers weren’t as good after returning to action on February 29 – 4-6-0 with an .890 save percentage as Toronto leaned on Samsonov down the stretch – but he took a step forward in the playoffs with his team in desperate mode.

The Leafs also dealt with the absence of winger William Nylander (undisclosed injury) for the first three games of the series.

Toronto rallied from 3-1 deficits in 2013 and 2018 against Boston before losing Game 7 on the road. The Bruins also defeated the Leafs in a series that went down to the wire in 2019 at TD Garden.

The winner of Toronto-Boston will face the rested Florida Panthers in the second round starting Monday after they dispatched the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1.

Matthews, a three-time winner of the Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer, had a monster three-point Game 2 to help Toronto even the series with the Bruins, but didn’t look like himself two nights later in a He lost 4-2 while battling the illness that would eventually force him out of Game 4.

Toronto is 3-0 this season without Matthews, including two elimination-facing wins this week and a 7-0 regular-season win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in mid-December.

The Leafs entered Saturday with a 1-16 all-time record when trailing 3-1 in a series, but Boston blew the same lead last season in the first round against Florida.

Matthews became the first NHL player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 to reach 69 goals, coming one shy of becoming the ninth in history to reach 70.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2024.