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The Ottawa Senators outhit the Toronto Maple Leafs 44 to 25 in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
But when it came to quality versus quantity, none were perhaps bigger than the bodycheck that Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz delivered on Ottawa’s Ridly Greig in the first period.
“That’s playoff hockey,” said a laughing Stolarz following the Leafs’ 3-2 overtime win.
It’s no secret that the Senators’ game plan is to get bodies in front of the net in an attempt to disrupt Stolarz. So far, it’s a strategy that hasn’t worked particularly well — mostly because Stolarz is a hard guy to push around.
Just ask Greig, who took a couple of hard whacks to the back of the leg courtesy of Stolarz’s goalie stick, before getting levelled by the 6-foot-6 and 243-pound goalie.
Stolarz received an interference penalty on the play, while Greig went to the penalty box for roughing.
When asked if the penalty was one of his first, Stolarz smiled.
“No, I’ve taken quite a few penalties in my day,” he said, downplaying the ongoing battle with Greig.
It was likely payback for Greig having slid feet-first into Stolarz in the previous game. Though Stolarz said he didn’t know who he had hit.
“I just got caught up in the heat of battle,” Stolarz said. “It’s just one of those things that didn’t matter. I didn’t even know who it was. You’re in the heat of the moment.”
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No Panic: Ottawa Senators Lose Again, But They'll Be Better For It In The Short- And Long-TermThere are no moral victories in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so the reality is the Ottawa Senators find themselves down 2-0 in the Battle of Ontario and face an enormous task getting back into this first-round series. Luckily for the Leafs, who are heading to Ottawa with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, Stolarz has been just as dominant in stopping the puck. So far, he’s allowed just four goals on 61 shots. In the process, he’s showing that he can’t be pushed around.
“I’ve known 'Stolie' for a long time, and I’ve seen that in junior, too,” said Mitch Marner, who was teammates with Stolarz in OHL London. “He’s a big man. He sticks up for himself. It’s good for him.”
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