The Carolina Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils 6-1 on Tuesday to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference second-round series.
Martin Necas with a brace, Brett Pesce, Jesper Fast, Brent Burns and Jordan Martinook scored for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots.
Jack Hughes scored the home side’s lone goal, while goaltenders Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid blocked 12 and 10 shots respectively.
The Devils started the game strong, scoring just 1:55 into the game. The team took advantage of a poor pass on defense at the Hurricanes, and Hughes deflected Timo Meier’s shot to give the Devils the lead .
It was the sixth of Hughes’ playoffs, having scored twice in the team’s 8-4 Game 3 win.
The two teams then exchanged scoring opportunities, but it was not until the end of the first period, after 17:40 of play, that another goal was scored.
A quick recovery from the Hurricanes, with Jordan Martinook breaking through in the offensive zone, tied the game. Receiving the pass from Jaccob Slavin, Martinook served a clever lobbed pass to Necas, who deflected the puck, on the fly, behind Vanecek to make it 1-1.
After one period, the Hurricanes had one more shot than the Devils, leading 9-8 in shots.
After a fairly balanced start to the second period, the Hurricanes broke the tie when Necas netted his second of the game for the visitors.
After 7:26 of play, Necas scored his fourth of the playoffs to give the Hurricanes their first road lead in this series.
Having just assisted Necas on their second of the game, Pesce doubled their lead less than three minutes later. As if that wasn’t enough, after 11:07 of play, Fast made it 4-1 shortly after Necas netted.
Burns then delivered a blow to the Devils, scoring his first goal of the playoffs less than two minutes later to make it 5-1. With the score 5-1, the Hurricanes still had just eight shots left in the second period.
In the closing seconds of the second period, Martinook also got on the scoresheet, and the Hurricanes finished the period with a 6-1 lead.