Anthony Stolarz credits Maple Leafs teammates for his first win since November 5

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz delivered an outstanding performance against the Edmonton Oilers to record his first win since November 5th.

After struggling in his last two starts following his return from a nerve injury, Stolarz posted arguably his best start of the season in stopping 34 of 36 shots against. Not only did he show flashes of the stellar play from the 2024-25 campaign, but his efforts also helped keep Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl off the scoresheet for the first time since December 14, 2021.

“ Right now, points are at a premium, and we need every point that we can get. Anytime that you can go out there and get the team a chance to win, make some big saves, and do your job back there. It felt nice to be able to do that,” Stolarz said to reporters after the game. “ Happy for all the guys, especially that power play being able to score two goals like that pretty quick. I know it’s a huge part of our team.  We got a lot of skills. So if we can kind of limit the team’s chances and goalies can make some saves, we should come out on top more times than not.”

Stolarz felt that the Leafs were able to do a good job playing within the structure of their system while not letting the Oilers dictate the pace of play. Given that they were coming in after playing a game on fewer than 24 hours rest and their opponent was rested, it makes the relentless forecheck that Stolarz pointed to that much more impressive.

It helps that the Leafs got a strong defensive showing from the new-look shutdown pairing of Jake McCabe and Brandon Carlo.

“ It was fantastic,” Stolarz said of their performance. “ Brando was stepping up and getting into a fight, Caber playing against their top line. The way they were able to block shots, keep guys to the outside and just stay physical, it’s tough. We played last night, travelled. So they definitely earned these next couple of weeks here.”

The victory puts the Leafs on a three-game win streak and five points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Wild Card spot heading into the Olympic break. While all signs point to the team becoming sellers at the trade deadline, perhaps getting the next few weeks off could help set them up to push the pace in the final stretch of the season.

Stolarz may be just getting into a groove after all that time off, but he feels the Olympic break will allow him the chance to keep working his way up to full health.

“ I’m gonna continue to work out. Might go away for a few days, but I’ll be back in Toronto pretty quick here,” Stolarz said. “Already had a little bit of a break, so maybe just go somewhere with some sunshine and then get back and get back to work.”