Anthony Stolarz credits short-term memory for winning performance in Game 1 win vs. Senators

The Toronto Maple Leafs took Game 1 of the Battle of Ontario, and they did it with authority.

Much was said about the Ottawa Senators’ inexperience as a group heading into the playoffs, and the final score reflected that. But just because the Leafs had the clear edge over the Senators from an experience standpoint, the Leafs had a debut of their own tonight with Anthony Stolarz.

The Maple Leafs’ netminder was the backup goaltender to Sergei Bobrovsky on the Florida Panthers’ 2023-24 Cup run, and although he provided stellar play from between the pipes during the regular season, he never got a shot to do so in the playoffs. That changed on Sunday night. He made a number of key stops en route to a 22-save performance in the Leafs’ win. It was undoubtedly a huge personal milestone for Stolarz, but he shares the same priority as the rest of his teammates.

“The win,” Stolarz said when asked what he’ll remember the most about his first ever playoff win. “It’s obviously the most important thing that we’re striving for, I just thought the atmosphere was great, you kind of get goosebumps when you step on the ice and the crowd goes nuts, so I think we accomplished a lot tonight.”

While Stolarz might want to have the first goal against him back, he cancelled it out with a number of huge saves in high-danger situations after the Sens didn’t get much from a high-quality standpoint in the first period. He made sure to credit a willingness to flush and move on as part of his success tonight.

“That’s part of being a goalie, the short term memory. You gotta worry about that next shot,” Stolarz said. “The guys did a really good job for me, keeping them to the outside, when my number was called to make a big save, I just tried my best to do that. Like I said, though, our commitment to playing a 200-foot game, blocking shots, getting sticks in lanes, I thought that was the key to our success tonight.”

John Tavares scored one of the team’s two power play goals, and said that Stolarz’s blend of calmness and competitiveness is what’s made him so good all year.

“We’ve had tremendous goaltending all year and Stolie’s been a massive part of that,” Tavares said of his goaltender. “He made some key saves at some real key times, I thought, it speaks to the type of competitor he is, the type of goalie he is. He’s really starting to prove himself as an elite netminder, just love his demeanour, his lightheartedness, and once those pads and mask go on, you get the competitor. He’s barking at guys, he’s competing extremely hard, great to see him make some of those key saves and have a great night like he did.”

Oliver Ekman-Larsson opened the scoring a little over seven minutes into the game, and echoed Tavares’ sentiments about Stolarz, who he was teammates with on that Cup-winning Panthers team.

“I thought he looked good. I thought he made some big stops when we needed him to, and I thought we defended well in front of him as well.”

The Leafs know all too well that having a goaltender who can make the timely save is arguably the most important ingredient of a strong playoff team. It can be so back-breaking to be playing a strong game only to allow a goal that the goaltender should have had. A perfect example of this was a breakaway stop that Stolarz made on Brady Tkachuk when it was 2-1 Toronto, immediately before the slew of penalties that led to the next two Leafs goals. Head coach Craig Berube gave his goaltender props for stepping up when the team needed it the most.