The Toronto Maple Leafs surprised much of the hockey world when goaltender Anthony Stolarz was in uniform and serving as the backup goaltender to starter Joseph Woll for Game 7 Sunday night in Toronto's second-round series against the Florida Panthers.

Stolarz was injured in Game 1 of the series and has been out with an upper-body issue since then. The goaltender was not expected to be active, but he took warm ups and did not suffer any obvious problems. As a result, head coach Craig Berube allowed Stolarz to remain in uniform and serve as the backup. If Woll suffers any kind of significant injury, Stolarz would get the call in the decisive game.

Stolarz was injured midway through the second period of Game 1 when he took an elbow to the head from Sam Bennett of the Panthers. Woll came into relieve Stolarz in that game and the Maple Leafs earned a 5-4 victory in the series opener.

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The Leafs also won Game 2 of the series but the Panthers won three consecutive games and had a 3-2 edge heading into Game 6. It appeared that Toronto was in big trouble after suffering a 6-1 home loss in Game 5, but Woll and the Maple Leafs responded with a huge effort and squared the series on the road with a 2-0 triumph.

The Leafs are depending on high-scoring Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander to provide the bulk of the offense in the decisive game. Toronto has also gotten surprising contributions from Max Pacioretty throughout the series.

The defensing Stanley Cup champion Panthers are confident that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky can hold the Leafs in check. He has a 2.43 goals against average and an .898 save percentage in the postseason. Sam Reinhart leads the Panthers in scoring with 10 points in the postseason. He is followed by Bennett, Brad Marchand, Keith Tkachuk and two others with 9 points.