The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators gave fans one of the craziest games of the season in their return from the holiday break with a 7-5 thriller, and Matthew Knies was in the middle of it all.

The Leafs’ power forward scored two goals, including the game winner, to end a dismal nine-game goalless drought. Knies apparently just needed a couple of days off and a new spot on the power play to kick-start some production. With freshly named assistant coach Steve Sullivan running the Leafs’ power play, Knies found himself in a better shooting area, and some extra preparation with Max Domi paid off in a major way.

“Yeah, it was good. In morning skate we were working on it the whole time. It was a good shift by him there, I was pretty fortunate to score there.”

Knies scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season, and is now up to 33 points in 34 games. Toronto went 2-for-3 with the man advantage, the first time they’ve scored two power-play goals in the same game in weeks. Knies feels a shakeup of the structure certainly didn’t hurt.

“That’s a good question, I think just overall, we were executing better,” Knies said, when asked if it was a matter of execution or Sullivan’s coaching. “I was in a different spot on my goal, and I think that goal by Willy was just an entry play. We executed and found a way to score. So, little things like that, execution, structure, be in the right spots, it’s what helped us today.”

The latest instalment of the Battle of Ontario was a wild affair, so much so, the normally very quiet Scotiabank Arena was quite raucous for a game halfway through the regular season. The Maple Leafs had some serious jump setting the tone early on, but Knies knows there’s still plenty to clean up for the 17-15-5 hockey club.

“It was pretty electric, it was just back and forth, the crowd was into it. A lot of scoring, a lot of offense. But, I think we need to have a little bit better of a third period, especially the start. We found a way to win and that’s important.”

Knies, the new-look power play, and the rest of the Maple Leafs will look to find another way to win on Sunday, when they head to Motown to take on the Detroit Red Wings.

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