{"id":394064,"date":"2026-01-07T14:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/394064\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:34:11","slug":"matthews-maple-leafs-pounce-on-panthers-to-net-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/394064\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthews, Maple Leafs pounce on Panthers to net win"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Matthew Knies scored a goal and set up a red-hot Auston Matthews<\/a> to push the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> to a 4-1 win against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Former Maple Leafs draft pick Carter Verhaeghe broke Joseph Woll\u2019s shutout bid with 8:22 remaining as Toronto (20-15-7) won its sixth straight at Scotiabank Arena. The Panthers (22-17-3) have been blanked only once this season.<\/p>\n

Knies made it 2-0 early in the second period. Then, less than four minutes later, he set up Matthews with a pass in front for the captain\u2019s team-leading 21st.<\/p>\n

Former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin was in attendance. He was part of a pre-game ceremony to mark Matthews becoming the all-time franchise leader in goals. Sundin had the mark at 420. Matthews now sits at 422.<\/p>\n

Matthews has seven goals and 11 points in five games since the three-day Christmas break and was foiled by Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky on an early-game power-play breakaway.<\/p>\n

Florida outshot the home side 32-23 as Bobby McMann added an empty netter.<\/p>\n

This was the Panthers first visit to Toronto since hammering the Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series on May 18. Toronto has won both meetings this season by a combined score of 7-2.<\/p>\n

Leafs: Defenceman Brandon Carlo (foot surgery) returned to the lineup after a 23-game absence.<\/p>\n

Panthers: Super-pest Brad Marchand did not play in the third period. He revealed earlier in the day that he considered signing as a free agent with the Maple Leafs last summer. \u201cIt was between Florida and Toronto where I was going to go. I never thought it was going to be possible to re-sign with Florida. I really didn\u2019t.\u201c<\/p>\n

After Easton Cowan scored with 24 seconds remaining in the first period, Knies redirected a Troy Stecher point drive 42 seconds into the second period for a two-goal advantage.<\/p>\n

Compared to their 42-game marks a year ago, the Panthers are five points behind the pace they set, and the Maple Leafs are nine points back.<\/p>\n

Panthers: Visit the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs: Visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Matthew Knies scored a goal and set up a red-hot Auston Matthews to push the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-394064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}