Woll looms large in U.S. victory
Maple Leafs draft pick gets world junior win in building he hopes will be future NHL home
TORONTO — When it was over, when the thrill of playing his first game at the Air Canada Centre had culminated with a 5-2 victory for his Team USA squad over Slovakia, goalie Joseph Woll got an education in Maple Leafs history.
Since his nickname fittingly is The Brick Woll, we had to ask him: Did he know that legendary Leafs goalie Johnny Bower was known as The China Wall?
“Really?” Woll said, breaking out into laughter. “No, I have to admit, that’s news to me.
“Obviously I understand who Johnny Bower is. I just hope one day to be able to wear that Leafs jersey just like he did.”
We’re not about to compare The Brick Woll with The China Wall. One is a kid who made his ACC debut Wednesday night; the other is a Hall of Famer who is acknowledged to be one of the best goalies to ever strap on a set of pads in the National Hockey League.
Nevertheless, this was a self-proclaimed special evening for Woll, who was selected in the third round of the 2016 draft by the Leafs.
“Skating out on the ice, I was just looking around thinking what it might be like to play here in the NHL for the Leafs,” he said.
“I actually got a sense of the Canadian fans the other night when I watched the Canada-US game.
“Maybe one day the (Leafs) fans in this building will be cheering for me.”
On this night, the Team USA puckstopper didn’t have to carry his team to victory over the Slovaks, who were thoroughly outplayed for a second consecutive night in preliminary round action at the 2017 world junior hockey championships.
Having said that, Woll, 18, was far busier against the Slovaks than goalie Connor Ingram had been 24 hours earlier in Canada’s 5-0 victory against the same opponent.
Ingram faced just six Slovak shots all night on Tuesday. While Ingram ended up seeing six Slovak shots in 60 minutes, Woll stopped that many in the game’s first 13 minutes Wednesday night. He ended up making 18 saves on 20 shots.
It’s a good bet that one of the most interested observers in Woll’s performance was Maple Leafs assistant GM Mark Hunter, the man in charge of the Leafs draft.
It was Hunter who pulled the trigger on the decision to pick Woll with the 62nd overall selection at the draft in Buffalo six months ago.
“We really believe he’s on an upward swing,” Hunter said at the time. “He’s going to a good program in Boston. We think he’s athletic and mentally strong.”
The 6-foot-2, 202 pound Woll has a 10-6-1 record with a 2.51 goalsagainst average and .917 save percentage with Boston College this season.
Growing up in the St. Louis area, Woll was coached by a couple of former NHLers, Keith Tkachuk and Jeff Brown. Woll’s goalie instructor was Bruce Racine, who played for Toronto’s farm team in St. John’s in the mid-1990s.
While Tyler Parsons stands to see the most action between the pipes for the U.S., Woll accounted well for himself Wednesday night.
Indeed, despite going through lengthy periods of inactivity, he looked right at home in the building he hopes one day will be exactly that — his National Hockey League home.
Cross checks
While there were plenty of empty seats once again at the ACC, attendance for games in Montreal is an issue as well. The announced crowd for the Switzerland-Sweden game at the Bell Centre was 5,630.