Spencer Knight was the last player to leave the ice at the end of a hectic first period in his NHL career. The Florida Panthers tied him to an early lead and, after withstanding some late scares from the Columbus Blue Jackets, he paused just before heading into the dressing room for the first period and leaned up against the wall in front of the Panthers’ bench.
It was the day he waited his whole life and, for a moment, the ice was all his. A little less than two years ago, Florida took him with the 13th overall pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft. It was the first time the Panthers ever spent a first-round pick on a goaltender and they envisioned turning to him in games like these — games with playoff implications in front of energized crowds in Sunrise, Fla. — and they didn’t hesitate to throw him into one Tuesday. With fewer than a dozen games left in the regular season and Florida in thick of a race for a division title, the Panthers turned to Knight and the rookie delivered his new team to a 5-1 win in his debut.
Knight saved 33 of the 34 shots he faced and gave up just one goal on a power play in the first period. Florida staked him to a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes and he held on to win in his debut, less than a month after he was playing for the Boston College Eagles in the NCAA tournament.
Star center Aleksander Barkov and versatile forward Sam Bennett both scored in the first period, and Bennett and left wings Jonathan Huberdeau and Ryan Lomberg both scored in the second to pull away from the Blue Jackets at the BB&T Center. For the second straight day, the Panthers (30-12-5) led wire to wire to beat one of the worst teams in the league and gain ground in the tight Central Division race.
With nine games left in the season, Florida is 10-3-1 in its last 14 and on pace for its best points percentage ever. The Panthers took a gamble Tuesday to trust Knight to debut in high-stakes contest and found the goalie can more than hold his own in the NHL.
Florida made most of the opening period easy on Knight. He didn’t face any particularly difficult situations for the first 13 minutes until Patrik Laine squared up an open shot against from the right circle with 6:16 left in the first. The star winger tried to place a shot over Knight’s right shoulder and the 20-year-old batted aside the attempt. The crowd broke into a round of applause and spent most of the game celebrating its next potential star.
When the Panthers drafted Knight in 2019, they had spent years trying to figure out solutions for their perennially porous defense. Knight was regarded as one of the best American goaltending prospects ever, so Florida spent a first-round pick on him.
Less than two years later, the situation has drastically changed for the Panthers, although expectations haven’t for Knight. Florida signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a massive seven-year contract less than two weeks after drafting Knight and the goaltender is now entrenched as the starter. Chris Driedger, ostensibly the backup goaltender, ranks fourth in the NHL in save percentage this year. They’ve formed one of the league’s best 1-2 punches in net.
While the Panthers were building their deep cache of goalies, Knight was playing up to his lofty expectations. He was a finalist for the Hobie Baker Award at Boston College this year and led the United States to a gold medal at the 2021 World Junior Championships in January with a 34-save shutout against Canada in the championship game. Last month, he signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Florida and the Panthers didn’t waste time getting him into a game, even with defensemen MacKenzie Weegar and Aaron Ekblad, and forwards Carter Verhaeghe and Noel Acciari all out with injuries.
Knight finished his first period with 10 saves on 11 shots and the only goal he gave up came on a power play when Jack Roslovic buried a rebound to cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 with 3:44 left in the period. Roslovic briefly seemed to tie the game with 57 seconds left in the first, but his breakaway goal was wiped off the board when coach Joel Quenneville challenged and the officials determined the Columbus forward was offside.
When the chaos of his period was over, Knight retreated to the locker room and returned to shut out the Blue Jackets (15-24-9) the rest of the way.
