Maple Leafs beat Senators, lose Woll to injury

Joseph Woll made 29 saves before exiting midway through the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on to defeat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 Thursday night.

Woll went down after reacting to a soft shot from Senators forward Rourke Chartier midway through the third period.

After the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe said Woll is going to “miss time for sure” and the team will determine the full extent of his injury when they return to Toronto.

The timing of the injury is really unlucky as Woll had really found his groove, and his head coach knows it.

“It’s unfortunate, right?” Keefe said. “He’s been playing so well and has been building such great momentum on his season and his career. It’s a setback here now… he’s a big reason why we got two points tonight.”

The 25-year-old netminder needed assistance to the team’s locker room and appeared unable to put any weight on his left leg.

Woll can't seem to put any weight on left leg as he goes down the tunnel.

— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) December 8, 2023

Veteran goaltender Martin Jones, who was called up on an emergency basis with Ilya Samsonov dealing with an illness, came in to replace Woll.

Woll has been the Maple Leafs’ most consistent goaltender this season. He came into Thursday’s game with an 8-5-1 record, 2.82 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.

Toronto led 3-2 at the time, but a William Nylander goal with 6:57 remaining provided enough support for Toronto (13-6-4) to earn the victory.

Mitch Marner, David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok also scored for the Leafs, while Martin Jones stopped 9-of-10 shots in relief.

Josh Norris, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Claude Giroux scored for Ottawa (10-11-0).

Anton Forsberg stopped 18 shots.

Jarnkrok gave Toronto a 3-1 edge 3:35 into the third period with a wrist shot. It was his sixth of the season and capped a run of three unanswered goals by the Leafs.

But under two minutes later, Bernard-Docker made it a one-score game with his first career NHL goal on a point shot.

Nylander then put the Leafs ahead 4-2 with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle.

Once again, though, the Senators made it a one-goal game with Giroux scoring on a one-timer with 1:53 remaining.

However, Ottawa was unable to complete the comeback despite pulling Forsberg and having a power play for the final 50.3 seconds.

Trailing 1-0, Marner tied the game 1:42 into the second period on a near-identical play to the Senators’ opening goal.

Morgan Rielly sprung Marner open with a long pass and Marner wristed a shot past Forsberg stick side.

Kampf, with his first goal since Nov. 11th, put the Leafs ahead after poking it past Forsberg from in close with 2:20 left in the middle frame.

Norris opened the scoring with 26 seconds left in the opening period. Jakob Chychrun fed Norris a perfect stretch pass to break in alone and beat Woll.

Files from Sportsnet.ca were used in this report