The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off a gutsy win on Thursday night, defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 in overtime.

It was Anthony Stolarz’s finest performance of the young season, where he out-battled Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the low-scoring affair. Speaking after the game, Stolarz shared what he saw from Toronto’s strong performance.

“It was a good team effort, I thought it was kind of a playoff-like atmosphere,” Stolarz said. “You know, grind it, dump it in, any shot could go in. And it was a good goalie duel. I liked the way that we stuck with our game and stayed patient, didn’t try to open it up too much. I thought we started getting pucks in and wearing ’em out. I think that’s what we’re gonna have to do come the rest of the season here.”

Stolarz finished the night with 28 saves on 29 shots faced, good for a stellar .966 save percentage. During the third period, Stolarz made a save while his mask was off, the play should’ve been called dead, and the 31-year-old discussed the dangerous scenario afterwards.

“I saw the rebound go to the side, and as I was going, the helmet kind of flew off,” he said. “Just trying to be a competitor and slide across. Obviously it’s not an ideal situation, but at that stage of the game you’re just trying to do anything to keep the puck of out of the net.”

Stolarz said that he understands the rule is that if there is an imminent scoring opportunity, the referee can choose to let it play out. With Joseph Woll out indefinitely, Stolarz will continue to carry the lion’s share of the Leafs’ starts for the foreseeable future. Now finding his groove, it remains to see how taxing that load of games will be on him. Toronto resumes its schedule Saturday, hosting the Seattle Kraken.