The Toronto Maple Leafs have been able to overcome injuries to their top two goaltenders, and they look to continue that trend Thursday night against the visiting San Jose Sharks.
With Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll out injured, the starting role fell to Dennis Hildeby.
So far, Hildeby has been impressive. He stopped 29 shots Monday night in a 2-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning to earn his first career shutout in his 15th NHL game.
“I’m just trying to enjoy it,” Hildeby said. “It’s easier said than done. But at the end of the day, it’s what I’ve been dreaming of since I started playing hockey. So, you just have to remind yourself of that and have a lot of fun in the meanwhile. And just compete.”
Hildeby has a 2-2-2 record with a 2.15 goals-against average and .936 save percentage.
“He’s trusting his ability and his size, and staying pretty calm and cool in net, that’s what I see,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “His puck play has been good. But overall, his mindset is really good.”
Woll (lower-body injury) skated apart from the team Wednesday, but there has been no timeline set for the return of Stolarz (upper-body injury).
The Maple Leafs have won five of their past seven games and are 1-0-1 to open their five-game homestand.
The Sharks lost 4-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday to go 1-2-0 to start their five-game road trip.
Collin Graf scored for the third straight game at 11:33 of the first period on the Sharks’ first shot on net for a 1-0 lead, but the Flyers took over from there.
“They got on us early, and we just couldn’t get out of it,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We had good energy, I thought, a good game plan on how we wanted to approach this one, and we obviously didn’t execute it.”
Sharks forward Ryan Reaves said the game plan was “not hard.”
“When they have a good neutral zone, and they’re clogging it up, you’ve got to put the puck behind them and then go to work,” Reaves said.
The Sharks could not build on a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.
“We’ll keep working at it, teaching, keep coaching, keep meeting with guys individually and as a group, to get an understanding of how we need to play each and every night,” Warsofsky said.
Alex Nedeljkovic started in goal on Tuesday because Yaroslav Askarov was scratched due to illness.
The Sharks signed 39-year-old former NCAA goalie Justin Kowalkoski to an amateur tryout contract to back up Nedeljkovic on Tuesday. It was not certain if Askarov would be available to play at Toronto.
Nedeljkovic made 28 saves on Sunday and 26 on Tuesday in starting consecutive games for the Sharks for the first time this season.
Toronto forward Bobby McMann was suspended for one game by the league for high-sticking Tampa Bay Lightning forward Oliver Bjorkstrand on Monday. McMann will miss the game against San Jose.
The incident took place at 3:00 of the third period and followed a game misconduct given to Tampa Bay’s Gage Goncalves for his knee-on-knee hit on Toronto defenseman Dakota Mermis.
Mermis was put on injured reserve Wednesday with a lower-body injury and defenseman Henry Thrun, a former Shark, was promoted from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. Berube said that Mermis will miss about a month.
Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly missed practice Wednesday because of illness.
