Stolarz makes 30 saves, Maple Leafs slow down McDavid, Oilers

Anthony Stolarz made 30 saves for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who slowed down the Edmonton Oilers in a 7-2 win at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday.

"The vibes are great,” Stolarz said. “We got a great group, an influx of kids that have a lot of energy, and they're really bringing out the best in everyone. It's an exciting time to be to be a Maple Leaf."

William Nylander scored twice, Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist, and Auston Matthews also scored for the Maple Leafs (7-4-2), who have won four in a row. Kirill Marchenko had two assists.

"You recognize the challenge you're going up against and you need everybody on board to meet that challenge,” Matthews said. “It's not pretty at times, but we stuck with it. Penalty killing was great, defense was great, Stolarz was great, and we were able to put the puck in the net when we needed to."

Leon Draisaitl scored twice to extend his goal streak to six games (nine goals), and Tristan Jarry made 25 saves for the Oilers (8-2-1), who had won three in a row, including 6-5 in a shootout against the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his season-opening point streak to 11 games.

“I loved our last game. I thought it was great,” Edmonton coach Mike Babcock said. “We played a really good team, and I thought we were ultra competitive. I thought they took over at times, I thought we took over at times, and my hope for today was we were going to match that level of compete and then raise it. We didn’t do any of that, so that’s a step back.”

The Maple Leafs went ahead 1-0 at 14:16 of the first period. Easton Cowan’s shot on a 2-on-1 was stopped by Jarry, but Roslovic got his stick on the rebound before Jake Walman inadvertently swatted the loose puck into his own net.

Roslovic had 36 points (21 goals, 15 assists) in 69 games with the Oilers last season before signing at two-year contract with the Maple Leafs as an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Matthews made it 2-0 at 5:29 of the second period. He took a pass from Cowan, which went between the legs of Ryan Shea, and shot past Jarry’s blocker on a 2-on-1.

Troy Stecher pushed it to 3-0 at 6:23. After hitting Marchenko with a lead pass, Stecher followed up the play and took a return feed in the slot before beating Jarry short side.

"Obviously, it means a lot,” said Stecher, who played 79 regular-season games with the Oilers from 2024-25. “Played parts of three (seasons) here and a couple of long playoff runs with them, and a lot of friendships on the other side. So, it was nice to get one offensively, for sure.”

Draisaitl to cut it to 3-1 during 4-on-4 play at 19:04. He took a drop pass from McDavid and scored blocker side through a screen from above the circles.

Nylander made it 4-1 at 5:59 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from Darren Raddysh at the left face-off dot for a power-play goal.

“They were just better than us,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “They were more competitive, they won more battles. ... They scored a big one when it counted to make it 4-1. We had a power play a couple times early in the game where if we get one there it maybe changes it, but they just beat us in every area today.”

Zack MacEwen extended it to 5-1 at 13:39. His initial shot on a rush was stopped by Jarry, but MacEwen batted the puck out of the air and over the shoulder of the goaltender.

Draisaitl scored a power-play goal with a one-timer off a pass from McDavid, who was behind the net, to make it 5-2 at 16:35.

Nylander shot into an empty net at 17:56 to make it 6-2.

“I didn’t like anything about tonight,” Babcock said. “... We didn’t have enough guys. If you are going through the list and you’re talking about a few guys, that’s not enough guys.”

Vinni Lettieri scored five-hole from the left circle with 31 seconds left for the 7-2 final.

"Everybody played well, the goalie, too," Toronto coach Jim Hiller said. "We had some really good saves, we had some really good shot blocks. They had their looks, no question, but I thought we had a pretty good team effort without the puck."

NOTES: It was MacEwen's first NHL goal since Oct. 14, 2024, and Lettieri's first since April 1, 2025. ... Nylander’s second goal was his 300th in the NHL. He is the fourth-fastest Swedish player in NHL history to reach the milestone (763 games), behind Tomas Sandstrom (675), Mats Sundin (698) and Filip Forsberg (742). ... McDavid has 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) during his season-opening point streak.