Woll makes 29 saves, injured in Maple Leafs win against Senators

OTTAWA -- Joseph Woll made 29 saves before leaving the game in the third period of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

“It’s unfortunate, right?” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s been playing so well, he was building such great momentum here on his season and his career. It’s a setback here now. He’s going to miss some time, for sure. We’ll determine the extent of it once we get home. Obviously, he’s the big reason why we get two points here tonight.”

Woll needed to be helped off the ice at 10:22 with an apparent lower-body injury. He did not return. Martin Jones made nine saves in relief.

“It was tough to watch, obviously,” Jones said of Woll’s injury. “You don’t want to see that. Just tried to get my head in the game and get ready to go.

“[Woll] is solid. I mean, he does everything really well, the way he moves, the way he competes. You saw a couple saves tonight that were just unbelievable, just competing and battling in there. Hopefully he’s alright and comes back quickly.”

William Nylander scored the game-winning goal, and TJ Brodie and Jake McCabe each had two assists for the Maple Leafs (13-6-4), who extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1).

Jacob Bernard-Docker got his first NHL goal, Josh Norris and Claude Giroux scored, and Anton Forsberg made 18 saves for the Senators (10-11-0).

“We had two breakaways and two empty nets [that we didn’t score on] and [Woll] found a way to keep them all out,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “So, that’s probably the difference.”

Norris gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 19:34 of the first period. Jakob Chychrun’s flip pass from his own end bounced once in the neutral zone and landed on the stick of Norris, who beat Woll five-hole on a breakaway.

“I thought we played a really good game tonight and their goalie stood on his head, and sometimes that’s the way it goes,” Norris said. “I mean, you definitely have to like the way we played and yeah, sometimes that’s hockey, but at 6-on-4 there at the end of the game we’ve got to find a way to score there. … They put the puck in my hands and I’ve got to find a way to be better with that too.”

Mitchell Marner took a stretch pass from Morgan Rielly and scored with a wrist shot over Forsberg’s blocker to tie it 1-1 at 1:42 of the second period.

“That team does a really good job of just putting pressure on you in your own zone,” Marner said of Ottawa. “They’re good with their sticks, they’re good with their pressure all over the ice, so I think we did a pretty good job of making sure our first touches were clean, supporting each other, talking on the ice, getting out of our zone pretty quickly. When we needed to defend, we did a good job and obviously our goalies made a couple of massive saves for us.”

David Kampf gave Toronto a 2-1 lead at 17:40 when he stuffed in a rebound at the edge of the crease.

Calle Jarnkrok made it 3-1 at 3:35 of the third period. He finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with Max Domi and Nicholas Robertson on a 3-on-2 rush after Senators defenseman Travis Hamonic’s broken stick led to a turnover in the offensive zone.

The Maple Leafs hadn’t played since a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

“We’ve been looking forward to getting back in action,” Rielly said. “And I think after a break like that it takes a little bit of time to kind of find your legs. And once we did that, I thought we played pretty well.”

Bernard-Docker cut it to 3-2 at 5:14 when his slap shot from the point beat Woll.

“I probably celebrated like I’ve never scored one in my life, but it’s the first one so I figured I may as well, you know, give it a little celebration,” Bernard-Docker said.

Nylander beat a screened Forsberg with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle to make it 4-2 at 13:03.

“We did a lot of good things. Definitely frustrating right now,” Giroux said. “If we play like that every night, we’re going to win more than we lose. So, as frustrating as it is right now, we played a pretty solid game and we’re trying to build something here, so we’ve just got to keep pushing and try not to get too down here."

Giroux scored a one-timer from the left circle with Forsberg on the bench for an extra attacker for the 4-3 final at 18:07. Jones allowed the goal, but earned the win.

“The confidence and faith is high [in Jones],” Keefe said. He’s a veteran goalie, so a situation like tonight, that wouldn’t rattle him. He’s ready. He’s been a tremendous teammate when he’s been here and tremendous when he’s been down with the [Toronto] Marlies. He’s handled this whole situation incredibly well. That’s why you sign veteran depth. We were fortunate when he got through waivers and remained part of our organization. It’s for situations like this.”

NOTES: Keefe did not have a diagnosis or specific timeline for Woll. … Maple Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov, who has missed two straight games with an illness, is closing in on a return; he participated in the morning skate but was “somewhat unavailable” Thursday, Keefe said. … Jones earned his first win since April 8 when he helped the Seattle Kraken defeat the Chicago Blackhawks. … Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot, who has missed two consecutive games with a lower-body injury, will “probably be out at least four weeks,” Smith said. … With his 60th NHL goal, Norris (151 games played) became the second-fastest player to reach the mark with Ottawa, behind only Dany Heatley (97).