Playing in his second consecutive game with an amateur goalie as his backup, Ilya Samsonov continues to prove his worth with a 45-save performance against a desperate Florida Panthers team.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Matthew Knies was supposed the biggest story heading into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ game against the Florida Panthers. He was, but not in the way you'd think.

The 20-year-old made his NHL debut against the Florida Panthers on Monday. It wasn’t planned despite the club signing the forward on Sunday. But injuries to Calle Jarnkrok and Sam Lafferty forced Knies to dress.

Shortly after Sheldon Keefe confirmed Knies' entry into the lineup, the Maple Leafs' coach disclosed that an amateur goaltender would back up Ilya Samsonov for the second consecutive game.

The Maple Leafs had hoped to call up Joseph Woll for Monday, but the NHL denied Toronto's request for an emergency goalie under a salary cap exception. 

The reason for the denial wasn't clear, but it's believed that by signing Knies one day after playing with University of Toronto goaltender Jett Alexander as their backup against the Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs elected to sign Knies instead of calling up another goaltender. Thus, the Leafs created an emergency situation for themselves and were once again forced to play a game short.

Keefe said the Leafs wanted to dress the best lineup possible against the Panthers, so Ilya Samsonov might have got the nod in goal anyway. The 26-year-old goalie performed well against a desperate Panthers team hoping to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Instead, he forced the Panthers to wait another day by making 45 saves in a 2-1 victory.

"In terms of battling, competing and being committed to the job, nobody exemplified it better than Ilya tonight," Keefe said of Samsonov. "He was awesome." 

Samsonov had to make several difficult saves that could have changed the course of the game. One example of that came in the second period when Knies' backhand pass was intercepted by Florida's Anthony Duclair. Samsonov stretched out to just get his toe on Duclair's scoring chance.

With the game tied 1-1 in overtime, Samsonov had to make another difficult stop on Florida's Matthew Tkachuk.

Auston Matthews scored his 40th goal of the season, the fifth time he's done that in a season for most times in franchise history, and he continues to be in awe of Samsonov's goaltender.

"He gives us a chance to compete in these games, a chance to win and he's just such a competitor in there," Matthews said of the goalie. "I really just admire his mindset and just the way he goes about his business and just a lot of fun to see him do his thing."

Since goaltender Matt Murray went down with a head injury on April 2, Samsonov has not had much support behind him, due to the salary cap shenanigans of trying to squeeze Knies onto their roster. But as they've leaned harder into Samsonov, the goaltender has delivered.

Samsonov made 31 saves on 33 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss to the NHL-best Boston Bruins. He made 20 saves on 21 shots against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday before his 45-save performance against Florida.

Through it all, Samsonov is ready to play as often as needed, knowing at least over the past two games that he really was Toronto’s last line of defense.

"Nothing has changed for me," the Russian goaltender said after the game. "I just play as hard as I can. Doesn't matter who is on the bench. For me, it's more important what I am doing on the ice right now to get prepared and ready for a game. That (the goaltending backup plan) is not in my control. I can only control what I can control."

Samsonov's save percentage over his last three starts is .960. He's ramping up at the right time as Toronto gets ready to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the playoffs. If he can continue on this current trajectory, Toronto has a good shot of finally getting over that opening-round playoff hump. 

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