Despite playing lights out for nearly all of his first five starts, Flyers goaltender Joseph Woll finally got a well-deserved victory last night against Colorado. Woll, making his sixth appearance of the season, was responsible for Philadelphia’s first (and only) two points of the season during the nine-game winless streak. But no blame could be placed at his feet. And he’s making a case more and more that a possible 54/30 split between Dan Vladar and himself concerning game starts could end up looking a lot more closer to both keepers ending up with close to or just over 40 games each.

Last night following Philadelphia’s 3-2 win, which put them at 2-6-3, Woll was asked about his play so far, and how good it felt to finally register a victory after playing so well. “Yeah, it’s obviously huge to get a win, so it’s great for both of us to get a win here these last couple of games,” he said. “I think we’re rolling and we’re playing, we’re really playing Flyer hockey.”

Woll, who stopped 24 of 26 shots for the second consecutive game he started (for a .923 save percentage), has been stellar thus far. He’s stopped all but 13 of 148 shots he’s faced, for a .912 save percentage, and a 2.64 goals-against average. Woll has had five quality starts and has a Goals Saved Above Average number of 4.8. As well, with goaltenders over Woll’s time on ice (363:37, which puts him tenth overall), only Minnesota’s Jesper Wallstedt, Ottawa’s Linus Ullmark, and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman have higher save percentages than Woll.

Woll is standing tall but now getting more help

“Obviously, I didn’t watch a ton of Toronto games on TV but he looks big in the net,” head coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. “I didn’t know how — he’s very technical and the guy works harder than any guy I’ve ever seen, him and Vladdy work really hard — but he looks big out there. When you’re on the bench and you see shots, there’s not much room. He’s played that way for us all year.”

Woll was solid throughout Monday night’s win, stopping Brock Nelson on a one-timer that required him getting from post to post to close the short side. Other times his positioning proved to be just as effective. When he had traffic in front of him, his athleticism and size enabled more pucks to hit him. Perhaps the most impressive thing of all has been Woll’s ability to swallow nearly all of the initial shots opponents take on him. You are not going to see a lot of juicy rebounds resulting from the goaltender’s play. If anything, the offensive attempts are generally Woll cushioning the initial shot to keep it covered.

Woll, who was acquired before the season began along with Simon Benoit from Toronto in exchange for Emil Andrae and Sam Ersson, has been a great addition thus far. He was perhaps looking to be more of a backup goalie when he arrived, but his play has been a huge bright spot in a season that was, until two games ago, heading south in a hurry. The netminder credited his teammates with giving him a lot of help, whether it was veterans like Sean Couturier or a guy like Cole Knuble playing his first National Hockey League game.

“I think that it’s important that anybody can be substituted in the lineup, you come in and play hard,” he said. “You got guys playing bigger roles, and you got guys coming into the lineup. For me, it seems like we didn’t take a step down at all from our systems, and honestly elevated our play, so it was pretty cool to see from my vantage point.

“We have a lot of guys like that where they’re making really smart plays, making important back checks, and blocks, and stuff like that in a game. Anytime somebody does something like that it makes my job easier.”

Although it’s unclear how the rest of the season will pan out, and if both Woll and Vladar will be healthy for the remaining 73 games, the new goalie has made a statement thus far: he’s hear to not just help Vladar, but perhaps make this much more of a true tandem situation than anybody anticipated when Woll was acquired. If that’s the case, it should bode well for the Flyers as they continue trying to dig themselves out of a very large hole. Perhaps most importantly, the players in front of both goaltenders seem quite comfortable having either one between the pipes. It’s something that might have been said in the locker room a lot last season, but rarely appeared that way in game action. There’s a confidence in that position Philadelphia hasn’t had in quite a while.

Stats courtesy of NHL.com and Hockey-reference.com.