Stolarz blasts Maple Leafs following OT loss
TORONTO – Anthony Stolarz has had enough.
The Maple Leafs goaltender cut a frustrated figure Saturday following a 4-3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken in a physical matchup where he twice found himself flat on his back following contact.
Stolarz was thumped to the ice on two separate occasions — bruising forward Mason Marchment did the most damage — and then watched Josh Mahura move in on a breakaway and score his first goal in 134 games in the extra period after Toronto winger William Nylander lost his man in coverage.
The hulking netminder was asked post-game if the lack of cohesion has anything to do with early-season rust.
A fuming Stolarz was having none of it.
“A lot of guys have been here for a while,” he fired back. “Overtime, you can’t let someone beat you up the ice there and get a clearcut breakaway. You want to be on the ice in that situation, you’ve gotta work hard, gotta work back. It cost us a point.
“When we work hard, the results come.”
Stolarz, who smashed his stick after Mahura’s winner, said Toronto needs to stiffen up in front of its own net — and make life more difficult for his opposite 200 feet away.
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“We just didn’t play our game,” he said. “They outworked us in front on the net. They blocked shots, they beat us up and down the ice. And the score was indicative of that. They just outworked us — plain simple.”
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“We’ve got to start going into the cage a little harder, make it harder for their goalies,” Stolarz added. “It’s not fun. I don’t like having 225-pound guys landing on me. Hopefully learned a lesson.”
Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly said that intensity is something the team values.
“You want guys who care,” he said. “You want guys who are motivated and who want to win, and he is that. He brings a lot of personality and a lot of energy to our group, and that’s extremely valuable.”
Toronto blueliner Brandon Carlo, who knocked Jaden Schwartz into Stolarz on Seattle’s 3-2 goal in the second, said the club must do a better job in the game’s dirty areas.
“Getting into the interior and pressure their goalie,” Carlo said. “The same way that they do ours.”
Leafs head coach Craig Berube, who watched Marchment run Stolarz over on a sequence that saw the incandescent goalie angrily shove the net out of the way to get at his opponent before a scrum ensued, hasn’t been happy with his team’s overall response in similar situations.
“Not good enough,” said Berube, a Stanley Cup-winning bench boss. “That play there … that happens at times, but in general, we’re not clearing out the crease enough. We’re not doing a good enough job.
“We have to protect our goalie. We’ve got to be harder around our net. I’m not preaching go and take guys’ heads off, but enough’s enough.”
Rielly said it’s a fine line when a team’s puck-stopper gets knocked around.
“There’s a time where you gotta do what you gotta do, and the line is out of sight,” he said. “And then there’s a time where you might need a goal and you need to go on the power play and wait for later.”
The Leafs sit 3-2-1 early in a campaign that has already seen them play six home dates, but there are some worrying signs with on-ice details, including how Saturday’s OT session unravelled.
“We didn’t do what we should have done,” Berube said. “We want to be in more of a wedge so we don’t get beat by speed like that. We’re too spread out, we’re all man-on-man. It’s a difficult play for Willy, but he’s got to have that guy if he wants to man-up like that.
“And the guy skated by him.”
Despite it only being Toronto’s seventh game on the schedule, Stolarz sounded the alarm in a locker room that has enjoyed plenty of regular-season success — and very little of it in the playoffs.
“How many time points are we gonna leave out there?” he asked rhetorically. “We have the skill, we have the grit, we have the grind. It’s just frustrating that we just can’t put together right now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
TORONTO – Josh Mahura scored his first goal of the season at 3:06 of overtime as the Seattle Kraken topped the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 on Saturday.
Shane Wright, with a goal and an assist, Jani Nyman and Vince Dunn provided the rest of the offence for Seattle (3-0-2), which opened a six-game road trip with consecutive extra-time losses against the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators.
Joey Daccord made 26 saves. Mason Marchment had two assists.
John Tavares, with two goals to give him 500 career points with the Leafs, and Morgan Rielly replied for Toronto (3-2-1). Anthony Stolarz stopped 24 shots. William Nylander added two assists.
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Tied 3-3 through 60 minutes, Mahura took a pass in the extra period and moved in on Stolarz before ripping a shot upstairs.
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The Kraken arrived at Scotiabank Arena sporting Mariners jerseys. Seattle’s baseball team leads the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 in the American League Championship Series and can clinch the franchise’s first-ever World Series berth with a victory Sunday in Game 6 at Rogers Centre. Game 7, if necessary, would be Monday.
TAKEAWAYS
Leafs: Steven Lorentz drew into the lineup for fellow depth forward Calle Jarnkrok, who entered as Toronto’s goal leader with three. Head coach Craig Berube said the move was simply “a numbers game” after Lorentz missed Tuesday’s game with an upper-body injury before sitting out Thursday as a healthy scratch.
Kraken: No. 1 defenceman Brandon Montour wasn’t available because of what the team called a “family matter.” Cale Fleury drew in on the blue line. Seattle also announced centre Frederick Gaudreau (upper-body injury) will miss up to six weeks.
KEY MOMENT
Tavares scored his second goal of the game early in the third period on a power play to knot the score 3-3.
KEY STAT
Tavares became the fourth player in NHL history to record 500 points with multiple franchises after also reaching the mark with the New York Islanders. The others players to accomplish the feat are Ron Francis (Carolina/Hartford), Mark Messier (Edmonton/New York Rangers) and Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton/Los Angeles).
UP NEXT
Kraken: Visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
Leafs: Host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
CALGARY – Vernon Adams Jr. threw three touchdown passes in the first half for the Calgary Stampeders in a 44-13 win over the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.
Cornerback Adrian Greene scored off an interception, Dedrick Mills contributed a rushing touchdown and Dominique Rhymes, Tevin Jones and Jalen Philpot each caught touchdown passes for Calgary (10-7-0).
CFL rushing leader Mills ran the ball a season-high 115 yards for his fourth 100-plus game this season, and added 62 receiving yards.
Rene Paredes kicked field goals from 49, 45 and 30 yards, but missed from 50, in front of an announced 22,528 at McMahon Stadium.
Adams surpassed a career 20,000 passing yards with an interception-free 213 on Saturday.
The quarterback, who went 12-for-14 in pass attempts, came out of the game late in the third quarter after he was sacked. Joshua Love completed five of eight pass attempts for 67 yards in relief.
The Stampeders held a playoff berth before kickoff because of an Edmonton Elks 37-24 loss to the B.C. Lions on Friday night.
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So the stakes for Calgary on Saturday were the race for second in the West Division in a season that will feature a crossover to the East Division for the first time since 2019.
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders (12-5-0) host the West final Nov. 8.
Calgary needs both a win over the Elks on Friday and the Lions (10-7-0) to drop their regular-season finale Saturday to Saskatchewan, to claim second in the West and host the division semifinal Nov. 1.
The Lions hold the tiebreaker with a 2-0 record against the Stampeders this season.
Calgary holds the tiebreaker (3-0) over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (9-8-0), who meet the Montreal Alouettes next Saturday.
After winning the Grey Cup two of the last three years and reaching the East Division finals four straight years, Toronto (5-13-0) will finish outside the playoffs in 2025.
Spencer Brown caught a touchdown pass from Max Duggan in the final minute of the game.
Jarret Doege starting in place of injured Nick Arbuckle (shoulder) went 15-for-19 in passing for 119 yards and one interception.
His third-quarter replacement Tucker Horn completed half of his eight pass attempts for 18 yards. Duggan in the fourth quarter went 13 for 16 for 109 yards.
Lirim Hajrullahu kicked field goals from 56 and 50 yards, and missed from 58 and 47 yards.
Calgary’s defence produced four sacks, a forced fumble and a pass knockdown by halftime when the Stampeders led 28-7.
Mills scored his 11th rushing touchdown this season on a one-yard charge in the third quarter.
Adams threw to Jones and Philpot in the end zone in the second quarter for three-yard and seven-yard touchdowns, respectively.
Hajrullahu’s 56-yard field goal with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter gave him a dozen from over 50 yards this season.
Adams scrambled to escape Toronto linebacker Branden Dozier and got a pass away to Rhymes for a 55-yard touchdown.
Greene picked off Doege on Toronto’s opening drive, when Argos wideout Dave Ungerer stumbled, and ran the ball back 64 yards to score for his second pick-six and sixth interception this season.
Toronto countered with a 54-yard Hajrullahu field goal on the Argos’ next drive.
UP NEXT
Argonauts: Finish the regular season on a bye week.
Stampeders: Conclude the regular season Friday in Edmonton against the Elks.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
TORONTO – John Schneider isn’t backing down from how he managed the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen in a devastating 6-2 loss to Seattle in the American League Championship Series on Friday.
Schneider decided to go with inconsistent relief pitcher Brendon Little against Mariners MVP candidate Cal Raleigh with Toronto holding a narrow 2-1 lead in Game 5 of the best-of-seven playoff series.
Raleigh homered to tie the game, then Little issued two walks. Seranthony Dominguez came out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen next and he hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch to load the bases then served up a grand slam to Eugenio Suarez to blow the game wide open for Seattle.
The Mariners hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, a win away from reaching the World Series for the first time.
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After the game Schneider said he trusts Little and Dominguez and he doubled down on that position Saturday.
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“We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve gotten to because of every single guy on our team,” said Schneider in a news conference during optional workouts at Rogers Centre. “I can sit here and say it’s not a mistake, and you guys will all write that I said it’s not a mistake, and I’ll get crushed on social media for saying that. I get it.”
He continued on to explain his thinking of bringing on Little against as tough an out as Raleigh rather than bring on a reliever used to more high leverage situations.
“I trust my players. I trust my players,” said Schneider. “In hindsight, I had a couple other options to do. That’s what I decided to do. So, again, I have all the information that I need, and I don’t think I made a mistake.
“Players have to go perform. There is always risk when you put a player in a situation that he won’t get the job done. That’s part of the game.”
When asked if closer Jeff Hoffman was available to play on Friday, Schneider gave a terse “He’s on the roster, yeah.”
Schneider said that having to ignore past what-if scenarios is part of the job as a manager in Major League Baseball.
“Every decision you make that doesn’t work out, I regret. You know what I mean?” said Schneider. “No matter who it is. Whether it’s a hitter, a pinch-hitter, a pitcher, a starting pitcher, it’s part of the job, you know.
“There’s what-ifs always. You know what I mean? There’s what-ifs always in this game. I think that you learn from ’em. You trust your people around you when you are making decisions. You make ’em and you move on. That’s where I’m at with it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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