The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils 6–1 and are one win away from the conference finals.
Carolina head coach Rob Brind’Amour stated after the previous game that he has never seen Carolina play like this. At that time, Carolina had lost 4–8 to the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the NHL playoffs.
On Wednesday morning Finnish time, Carolina had another sound on the clock. The Hurricanes scored four goals in five minutes in the second period and crushed the Devils 6–1.
Carolina leads the series 3–1 and is one win away from the conference finals.
The Devils got off to a great start when Jack Hughes gave his team the lead after two minutes of play. Martin Necas brought Carolina to the level in the opening set and after that it started to happen.
Necas scored the second of the night in 27:26, after which Carolina scored three more goals at a fast pace. In 32:46, Carolina already led 5–1, when Brent Burns hit Jesperi Kotkaniemi input.
After Carolina’s fifth goal, the Devils’ head coach Lindy Ruff changed Vitek Vanecek too rookie keeper To Akira Schmid.
– Right now this is hard to explain, we just stopped playing. We had the game, we were in the position we wanted to be in, and something like that happened. That is simply unacceptable, Devils Nico Hischier comment after the game.
Carolina manager Rob Brind’Amour was pleased with how his proteges recovered from the Devils’ excellent start.
– The game didn’t start the way we wanted, but the guys did a good job with their concentration after that. They do that all the time, all year round.
– They took advantage of our mistake in the beginning, but after that we reduced our mistakes during the rest of the game. And that was the key to victory.
The Hurricanes hero was Jordan Martinlook with powers 1+2. They also succeeded in finishing Brett Pesce and Jesper Fast. Finnish striker Jesse Puljujärvi sat in the stands and also Antti Raanta was still on the sidelines.
NHL:
2nd round of the playoffs (continue with 4 wins):
New Jersey – Carolina 1-6
CAR: Jesperi Kotkaniemi 0+1.
Carolina leads the match series with a 3–1 win.
Seattle-Dallas 3-6
DAL: Roope Hintz 1+1, Miro Heiskanen 0+1, Joel Kiviranta 0+1, Esa Lindell 0+1
The match series is tied 2–2.