"I liked everything," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of Knight's performance. "I thought he was quiet. I thought he was big and that his timing on everything was impeccable."
Gaining some confidence in the minors, Knight, who improved to 10-6-2 this season, put together a string of strong starts prior to his recall, including a 44-save shutout on March 2.
"I think it was really important that he got in game-like situations," Brunette said of Knight, who went 7-3-0 in the AHL. "It's good for a young player to kinda earn it a little bit and battle through. The American League isn't always fun, and he went into it with a great attitude. He had great help down there. We know how good he is. He's as good as a goalie as I've seen at that age."
Helping out their young netminder, the Panthers put up plenty of goals against the Sabres.
Back on the ice in Buffalo for the first time since being sent to South Florida at last year's trade deadline, Brandon Montour opened the scoring for the Panthers when he one-timed a backdoor pass from Aleksander Barkov into the back of the cage to make it 1-0 at 5:22 of the first period.
Picking the perfect time to net his first goal of the season, Noel Acciari doubled the lead for the Panthers in the second period when he cut to the net, skated right around Rasmus Dahlin and let loose a sharp-angle shot that pinged off the far post and into the net to make it 2-0 at 5:54.
Entering tonight's matchup with a pair of power play goals in each of their last three games, the Panthers continued to fan the flames of their man advantage when Anthony Duclair took a pass from Barkov and lifted in a shot from the slot to pad the lead for the Panthers up to 3-0 at 7:39.
Just four minutes later, the Panthers kept piling it on when Carter Verhaeghe re-directed a centering feed from Mason Marchment, who dished out three assists against the Sabres in just 13:16 of ice time, past Craig Anderson from right around the doorstep to make it 4-0 at 11:39.