On the heels of a stellar freshman season in which he was named a finalist for the Mike Richter Award, the 19-year-old goaltender has looked dominant through his first four starts, recording a perfect 4-0-0 record behind an eye-popping 1.50 goals-against average and .955 save percentage.
This past weekend, he also earned his first two shutouts of the season, blanking Providence in both halves of a home-and-home series. After stopping 30 of 30 shots in Game 1 on Friday, he somehow looked even better in Game 2 on Saturday while turning aside all 36 shots he faced.
In 2019-20, Knight finished the season tied for third in the nation with five shutouts.
"Seeing how it just ended and everyone just left and parted ways and didn't have a chance to go on that run, that kind of stuck with me," Knight told FloridaPanthers.com in May. "I think that's the reason why I wanted to come back and want to get back so bad already. Some guys didn't get to live out that end-of-year national championship run. For me, it those kinds of things. Everyone talks about what could have been, but there's nothing we can do about it. It's just going to serve as motivation."
Later this month, Knight will hope that his hot start carries over to the international stage when he is expected to man the crease for Team USA at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is scheduled to take place from Dec. 25, 2020 through Jan. 5, 2021 in Edmonton.
At last year's World Juniors, he registered a 2-2-0 record with a 2.49 goals-against average and .913 save percentage over four starts and was honored as one of Team USA's top-three players.
"Playing last year definitely helps," said Knight, who also won a silver medal as a backup goalie at the event in 2019. "As a goalie, I think every good goalie wants to play. They feel better when they're playing and not just going in and out of games and stuff. That causes inconsistency. Being able to play a bunch, feel the grind of a tournament, it's a lot. I think that's actually a good part."
