Shake, rattle and Woll.
Toronto Marlies goaltender Joseph Woll, headed back to the Maple Leafs as an understudy, certainly got his share of action on Wednesday night in a 2-1 shootout loss to Milwaukee at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
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The poised Woll made 26 regulation saves, came through two collisions with big Admirals forwards and was called once for roughing as he cut off an intruder behind his cage.
“It definitely helps you get into the game,” Woll said.
He continued a strong American Hockey League season, coming into Wednesday with a .928 save percentage and 16 wins in 19 games.
“He’s been like that all season, the most mature version of himself I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” coach Greg Moore said. “He’s come a long ways with his energy, his technical ability to play a system. And today with the contact, he could’ve very easily got off his game, yet he strayed calm.
The only regulation goal he surrendered came on multiple rebounds that his teammates couldn’t clear. He stopped two of three in the shootout, the Marlies failing to score one on a hot Yaroslv Askarov, other than defenceman William Villeneuve on the power play in regulation..
Woll was expected to re-join the Leafs as Matt Murray’s back-up in Florida on Thursday after Ilya Samsonov returned home for the imminent birth of his son.
With Murray having such an unpredictable season, it’s good Woll is not sitting around as the Leafs’ third goalie and might see some action on the trip this weekend in Carolina or Nashville if Samsonov is still on the home front.
AN OVIE IN T.O.
He’s quite a few goals behind the NHL ‘Ovie,’ but Dmitry Ovchinnikov should be an interesting project for the Leafs organization.
The fifth-round pick in 2020 terminated his deal with Sibir in the KHL after its season just ended, having compiled 13 points in 68 games, to rejoin the AHL team where he had two goals in seven games last season after signing an entry-level contract with the Leafs.
The left winger puts one in mind of swift Siberian sniper Nikolai Borschevsky from 30 years ago. Teammates were naturally shouting ‘Ovie’ when he had the puck or they were signalling a pass to him. He used his compact 5-foot-11 frame for some nice feeds down low and received some power play time on Wednesday.
Moore put him out in the last minute of regulation.
“I saw a lot of similar things as last year with us,” Moore said. “For a smaller guy, he’s very competitive, not afraid of contact or to get his nose dirty and stay on the puck.
“He’s fast and thinks the game really well, a lot of upside to him.”
An upper-body injury to Alex Steeves and the absence of Joseph Blandisi meant Moore emulated Sheldon Keefe and the parent team, going with 11 forwards and seven defencemen.
Centre Ryan Tverberg, the Richmond Hill native who signed his ELC last week after 69 points in 85 games through three years at the University of Connecticut, didn’t play after debuting Saturday. Jonny Tychonick, a six-foot defenceman and former second-rounder of Ottawa, has not yet appeared after signing a two-year AHL deal.
The Marlies are leading the North Division by a few lengths, but have now lost three in a row for the first time after weekend losses to Charlotte.
KNIES NEWS
The Leafs will have eyes on the NCAA regional semifinals Thursday in Fargo N.D., with prized 2021 second round forward Matthew Knies and his Minnesota Golden Gophers in action against Canisius. Michael Koster, an offensive defenceman and fifth rounder from 2019, is also on the team for the single game elimination tournament. Minnesota is top ranked.
Knies is expected to sign with the Leafs when his school either advances and wins the Frozen Four or gets knocked out along the way, despite using up a full year of his entry-level contract.
Before that 9 p.m. game Thursday, Finnish-born right winger Veeti Miettinen, a sixth-rounder in 2020 from St. Cloud State, is in action versus Minnesota State. Friday in Bridgeport, Conn., Harvard plays Ohio State with sixth-rounder freshman forward Joe Miller in the Crimson’s lineup.
lhornby@postmedia.com
