Matthew Knies scored his second goal of the year on Thursday night, as the Toronto Maple Leafs took a 2-1 overtime win over the New York Rangers.

Playing on the eve of his 23rd birthday, Knies opened the scoring for the Leafs on the power play, planting net-front and deflecting a shot from William Nylander in. Speaking after the game, Knies shared that it’s a play the two have developed in practice.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve worked on that play,” he said. “Just hang on the back post, make myself big, and hopefully it bounces in. Fortunately, it did.

One big star for Toronto on Thursday was Anthony Stolarz, who turned away 28 of the 29 shots he faced for his best outing this season so far.

“He gives everyone in this room confidence,” Knies said of Stolarz’s performance. “He carried us through the whole night and kept the game tight. A lot of props to him.”

Stolarz bring a big presence to the Maple Leafs, known for being especially vocal amongst the team. In tight games, Knies said that comes in handy.

“He’s good in the room, he’s good on the ice,” Knies said. “He over-communicates and I think that’s a good thing.”

Knies had a big cheering section in the stands on Thursday, with his parents and friends from Slovakia present and repping his name on their jerseys. Now, the American forward has a day off on his birthday, but don’t expect to hear of any big partying from the now-24-year-old, who’s locked in on the season.

“Nothing crazy,” Knies said, of his plans for Friday.” There’s a lot of games going on, so I don’t know. Probably just getting rest here.”

With a day off, Knies and his teammates can also tune into Game 5 of the Toronto Blue Jays series against the Seattle Mariners, after having to piece together the score from crowd reactions while playing on Thursday.

“I noticed the little boos when they were losing and then I noticed the loud cheers when they got the lead there, so that’s pretty cool,” he said. “Now we’re going to go watch the rest of it here.”

Just like the Maple Leafs, the Blue Jays took home a big win on Thursday night. Toronto’s MLB team will look to keep riding that high Friday night with the series tied 2-2. For the birthday boy, let’s hope they can carry a series lead back to Toronto.