Woll, Maple Leafs defeat Panthers in 6-round shootout

Joseph Woll made 38 saves, then had five more in the shootout for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 2-1 win against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

Noah Gregor scored the deciding goal for Toronto in the sixth round with his first shootout goal in the NHL.

Evan Rodrigues appeared to have won it for the Panthers in the fifth round, but his goal was disallowed after video review initiated by the NHL Situation Room determined his shot crossed the line as a result of a rebound when he double tapped the puck before it went in.

“No [I’ve never seen anything like that] but good call, I’m happy with the call,” Woll said. “I didn’t really know he double tapped it until I got back in the locker room and someone told me I might be going back out. It was huge by Gregor to get that goal to go ahead and a big win for us.”

“Truthfully, I wasn’t too emotional. I think that’s probably helpful in that situation. It was interesting. Obviously, a bit of a low and then a nice high with the win.”

Gregor scored in regulation for the Maple Leafs (11-6-3), who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.

“It’s big,” Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “Coming back here at home after an overseas trip (Global Series in Sweden) and then a quick road trip to be back at home, we wanted to try to take advantage, so the win is big. That said, I think there are areas of our game we can clean up. Part of … that first period I didn’t think was our best hockey but obviously to battle back, play well at other parts of the game and ultimately get two points was a good feeling.”

Kevin Stenlund scored and Anthony Stolarz made 31 saves for the Panthers (13-7-2), who defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-0 on Monday.

“I’m happy with the game,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s all I’m saying. I’m happy.

“I liked the fact we never lost our composure … The coach was a little sour back there but the players were good. The players handled it better than the coach.”

The Panthers killed off a double minor for high sticking to Jonah Gadjovich at 16:56 of the third period that lasted until the Maple Leafs took a too many men penalty with six seconds remaining in the third period.

“I just thought we played hard. We played the right way,” Rodrigues said. “We played well defensively. We didn’t’ give them much. Our penalty kill was outstanding. It was a tight game, a good game. We just didn’t come out with the win.”

Stenlund put the Panthers up 1-0 at 15:29 of the first period. After Woll stopped Gadjovich trying to jam in his own rebound off the end boards at the side of the net, Stenlund put in a loose puck just below the left face-off circle.

The Panthers outshot the Maple Leafs 15-7 after the first period.

“I thought we started the game fine and were finding our way through the game,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Eight minutes left in the first period shots I think were 7-7 at the time, it was 0-0 and then we just sagged after that. Credit to Florida making it hard on us but it coincided with Mitch [Marner] taking that puck in the face. I don’t know if that’s it, I don’t think it should be it … We just really had an emotional sag after that. You sag emotionally or competitively or lose your intensity against that team and it’s going to look the way it did the rest of that first period.”

Gregor tied it 1-1 at 12:54 of the second period when he got to a loose puck in the neutral zone that got by Dmitry Kulikov at the blue line and shot high blocker from the left hashmarks after shielding the puck from the backchecking Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

“I’ve had quite a few chances off that left side, trying to cut in and make a good shot,” Gregor said. “I’ve looked at some video and have been working some of the skills coaches with different moves I can do and just trying to protect the puck and make a good shot. I was happy to see it go in.”