How the Hurricanes flipped the script on the Devils to roll to a 6-1 playoff victory
The only word missing in the coach’s postgame comments was “horrible.”
Had New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff worked that into his assessment of a 6-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, it would have been a near repeat of what Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had to say Sunday.
The Devils did nearly everything right and the Canes so much wrong Sunday in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series. The Canes lost 8-4, leaving Brind’Amour to say, “We were no good” and adding, “I’ve never seen us play like that.” And, throw in “horrible.”
If was Ruff’s turn Tuesday. The Devils took a 1-0 lead two minutes into Game 4 on a Jack Hughes goal, but had the Canes tie it late in the period and then had it all come completely undone in the second period when the Canes stayed on the attack and scored five times for a 6-1 lead.
Playing at home after a big win, with a chance to tie the series, with the Prudential Center rocking, the Devils fell flat. The Canes, more experienced and seemingly more determined, now have a 3-1 lead in the series.
“That’s about as poorly as we’ve skated and supported the puck in any game this year,” Ruff said. “Tonight was about as disappointed as I’ve been about a game, in a crucial game, with the way we skated.
“They kind of flipped it. They competed harder on pucks. They won more battles than we did.”
At one point in the second period, Canes center Sebastian Aho took one, two, three whacks at the puck along the boards near the blue line, trying to get it out of the Carolina zone. Behind him on the Devils bench, getting a close look at that “battle,” was Ruff.
Aho got the puck out. It was all about effort, about not being denied, about making the play, and Aho won.
“We continually put pucks behind them and stayed on the forecheck and created turnovers,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said. “Push them back and get ‘em tired and wear them out. Change a little earlier than they do and then right back on them. It’s about building a game and wearing them out.”
After the Game 3 debacle, Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin talked of how it stung to give up eight goals — a “snowman,” as he put it — and how he believed the team would respond. It wasn’t just talk.
“We played the right way,” Slavin said after Game 4. “Maybe a little shaky start, but guys just focused on the next shift and we played our game. It was all 20 guys competing, contributing.
“We know what makes us successful and how we have to play, and that’s what happened tonight. Every part of our game was better tonight. Pucks in deep, back pressure from the forwards, putting pucks in the right spots. Everyone was on tonight.”
When forward Andrei Svechnikov was lost to a knee injury late in the regular season and then forward Teuvo Teravainen to a broken hand early in the playoffs, there were questions about who and how the Canes would or could make up for their missing offense. And especially so against a speedy, run-and-gun team like the Devils.
The winger had an assist taken away in the official scoring after the game Tuesday, but now has nine points in the series after his goal and two assists in Game 4 that made him the game’s first star.
“It’s great to see,” Staal said, smiling. “He’s on fire and you need that. It doesn’t really matter who gets it in this group but ‘Marty’ has been a consistent guy in the playoffs.
“He’s been our best player. It’s been awesome to see.”
There was plenty of scoring in this game from the Canes. Martin Necas had two goals. Jesper Fast scored. Defensemen Brett Pesce and Brent Burns had goals.
In their opening playoff series against the New York Islanders, the Hurricanes held a 3-1 series lead after a Game 4 road win, returned home for Game 5 and lost a tight game. That took them back to Long Island, where the Canes closed it out and prevented a pressurized Game 7.
“It can go back and forth,” Slavin said. “We know they’re going to be better next game and we just have to do what we did tonight. We just have to play our game and worry about us.”
