Best Leafs goals of 2024-25: Matthew Knies beats the buzzer vs. Penguins

It was a true breakout season for Matthew Knies, who emerged as one of the NHL’s best young power forwards last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Knies showed constant improvement throughout the season and by the latter half of the year, many Leafs fans and media considered him the fifth member of the Core Five. Knies also has a flair for the spectacular and few moments represent this idea better than his buzzer-beater against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 2.

It appeared that the Leafs and the Penguins were entering a routine sequence to end the second period, with Sidney Crosby on the ice to take a defensive zone faceoff. Crosby won the draw and puck tipped back to Erik Karlsson, where all hell broke loose. Karlsson hastily fired a pass to his teammate and Knies jumped the route. Displaying real situational awareness, Knies gunned it down the ice for a breakaway, looked up and fired a shot before reaching the hashmarks, past Penguins goaltender Joel Blomqvist.

Knies timing eh pic.twitter.com/47h44JfRuA

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 2, 2025

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Knies provided the Leafs with a 5-4 lead entering the second intermission, in what was one of the most entertaining games of the season. Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the first period, before Cody Glass, Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby recorded consecutive goals to provide the Pittsburgh with a 3-2 advantage heading into the first intermission. Rickard Rakell forced overtime in the third period, setting the stage for a dramatic finish, where William Nylander recorded the overtime winner for the Maple Leafs on a terrific individual rush:

Knies showed off his tremendous skill set throughout the year, bullying small defenders with his combination of speed, size and power, while displaying excellent scoring touch around the net. You could make a strong argument that Knies was the Leafs’ second-best forward in the playoffs after Nylander, and he’s certainly ready for a larger leadership role as the bridge between the team’s current win-now window and an uncertain future. This was the type of play which indicated that Knies was taking a leap, and it amounted to one of the coolest goals of the year in an early-March thriller.