Toronto Maple Leafs forward Max Domi had arguably his best game of the season on Thursday against the Florida Panthers.

On a night that had major implications for the Atlantic Division title race, Domi made his presence felt early on with a big open-ice hit on Carter Verhaeghe and then demolished Nate Schmidt in a fight at centre ice shortly after. He got the crowd pumping early in the third with a breakaway goal that got the Leafs back within one.

“ Nothing was really said, but I kind of figured it’s a big hit on one of their big players. I wasn’t sure it was going to come up, but just kind of reacted,” Domi said to reporters after the game. “That’s part of the game.  I think I might have caught him a little bit on the way down, and obviously I don’t like doing that, but it definitely wasn’t my intention.  I’ve got a lot of respect for him. Schmidty hung in there.”

That sequence lit a spark in the 30-year-old who described the night as ‘as close to a playoff game as you’re gonna get.’ He was working hard, engaged defensively, and won a good chunk of the puck battles. You could feel the momentum shift in the Leafs’ favour every time Domi stepped on the ice and he gave them a good chance to claw their way back into the game.

He even got rewarded by head coach Craig Berube with some shifts alongside John Tavares and William Nylander, and was even on the ice with the net empty to try and get the tying marker.

“Had a heck of a game, in my opinion,” he said. “Big hit, fight, scored a goal. He was skating and working. I thought he was good.”

It was the kind of showing that Domi needed badly as it has been a difficult season for him offensively up to this point. At the time of filing, he has only 26 points (five goals and 21 assists) in 57 games played which is a far cry from the 47 points he had a season ago.

While this showing against the Panthers won’t erase all of the struggles that Domi has endured this season, he will surely hope that this is a game he can build off of down the stretch. The Leafs will certainly need all of the help they can get from their secondary contributors to provide the offence, especially when the stars are snakebitten like they were in this one.

“ He came out hot.  A big hit, nice fight, huge goal. He had a great game,” Nylander said. “ It fires everybody up. I think everybody was fired up and that got everybody more fired up.  He did a great job there on the hit and the fight and the goal.”

If they can get performances like this one from Domi more often than not, it will make their bottom six more difficult to play against. This in turn will go a long way to making their ultimate goal a lot more realistic to achieve, especially if he can continue to build chemistry with newly acquired forward Scott Laughton.

“His 200-foot play.  He was making plays in the D zone,” goalie Anthony Stolarz said. “He’s got one hell of a shot. When he can get it off and open space like that, he’s going to beat a lot of goalies. So hopefully this is the start of, a little hot streak for him and he gets a little confidence going forward here.”

Domi and the Leafs will look to get back in the win column when they take on the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. EST.