The Toronto Maple Leafs won their second game in a row with a 2-1 overtime win at home over the New York Rangers. Despite a valiant effort from the Rangers, who have been struggling to score goals in the first few games of the season, the Leafs were able to hold them off enough to pick up two points, largely thanks to the performance they got from Anthony Stolarz in net.

Stolarz stopped 28 of 29 shots to secure the win, which is a solid outing on paper, but it was more the quality of the chances against that spoke to his performance. In one specific instance, Stolarz made a save with his mask that knocked it off his head, and when the rebound popped out, he made another save with his mask off. While it was an exciting moment for the fans and the rest of the team, head coach Craig Berube believes play should have been stopped when Stolarz lost his mask.

“Obviously it’s a judgement call by the referees, I think they felt that they [Rangers] had an opportunity to make a play quickly and maybe score, so they didn’t blow it down,” Berube told media after the game. “I’m not totally sure on all that, it’s a tough call. I think your goalie loses his mask, he’s in a very vulnerable position, and a position to get really hurt. I don’t think anybody wants to see that ever. So, in my opinion, blow it down. But that’s me.”

Matthew Knies, who opened the scoring for the Leafs, echoed his head coach’s sentiment and said that he was shocked the play was allowed to keep going.

“I was a little scared, to be honest,” Knies said of watching his goaltender make a save without a mask. “I don’t know how it came to that. I thought it was supposed to be blown, but I don’t know. That was a shocker for sure.”

While the Rangers clearly won the battle in terms of high danger chances, the Leafs played a solid game defensively and got saves from their goaltender when they needed them the most. Berube said that their lack of discipline in the first period and getting caught on long shifts later on hurt them, but overall, he’s satisfied with the two points.

“It’s good to see the power play get a goal,” Berube said of his team’s performance. “There were four penalties in the first period so that really summed up that period for me. Second period, I thought we got caught extending our shifts, and they transitioned from defence to offence quickly and caught us on some odd-man rushes. They had the momentum. We grinded it out though, goalie was good. We got to be better than that, but it was a win.”

The Maple Leafs will be back in action on Saturday night when they host the Seattle Kraken.