Hurricanes rally after slow start, eliminate Devils in double OT of Game 5

Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock, The News & Observer on Apr 29, 2025

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Among the handmade signs by the ice Tuesday at the Lenovo Center was one that read simply: “Finish them.”

Meaning the New Jersey Devils. Meaning the Carolina Hurricanes finishing off the Devils, winning their Stanley Cup playoff series in five games and moving on.

The Hurricanes did do that but it was anything but simple.The Canes had to rally from a stumbling start and had to go into a second overtime in Game 5 before emerging with a 5-4 victory.

Sebastian Aho’s power-play goal with 15:43 left in the second OT was the winner, taking the Hurricanes into the second round against the winner of the Washington Capitals-Montreal Canadiens series.

Early in the second OT, the Devils’ Dawson Mercer was penalized for high-sticking center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who left the ice bleeding. The double minor gave Carolina four minutes of power-play time.

The Canes were down to 53 seconds when Aho blasted the winner from the right circle.

Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom is the biggest reason the Devils had a chance. He was at his best in the first overtime, gamely turning back shot after shot as the Canes stayed in the New Jersey zone and got off 14 shots on goal.

The Devils almost ended it just before the horn sounded to end the first OT, Jesper Bratt forcing Canes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov into a tough save with a shot from the left circle.

The biggest storyline going into the game was the status of Canes goalie Frederik Andersen after Andersen’s run-in with Devils forward Timo Meier in the crease sent him to the locker room, although the Canes regrouped behind Kochetkov for a 5-2 win.

Meier was booed from the moment he stepped on the ice Tuesday night, and a lot of eyes were on Kochetkov and how he would handle the playoff start with Andersen unavailable.

“They have no tomorrow,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said Tuesday morning of the Devils. “They’re going to give it all they’ve got.”

Both teams did. They had to. The Devils were facing elimination and played it that way. The Canes refused to let a very poor start take them out of the game on their home ice.

The first period was all Devils — a 3-0 lead.

The second period? The Canes answered with a big push — four goals.

After 40 minutes, it was 4-4. After 60 minutes, it was 4-4. Then to overtime, then a second overtime.

The Devils took advantage of some uneasy play by Kochetkov in net and some sloppy defensive play by the Canes in the first period. The Devils’ confidence appeared to build, shift by shift, as they added to their lead — 1-0, then 2-0 and 3-0, all in the first 10 minutes.

Whatever Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour had to say during the first intermission, whether with some fire or some disgust, the message was delivered. The Canes’puck possession was better, their breakouts from the zone better, their intensity level high.

After being outshot in the opening period, the Canes went into attack mode.

Taylor Hall scored, poking in the rebound of a Logan Stankoven shot. Make it 3-1, Devils.

Rookie Jackson Blake scored, taking a pass from Mark Jankowski and circling the net for the shot. Make it 3-2, Devils, who used their timeout at that point.

But when Svechnikov ripped a shot past Markstrom, it was tied at 3-3 and the building rocking. It was the fifth goal of the series for the power forward, whose hat trick

Nico Hischier quieted the crowd — for a few minutes at least — by scoring from the slot after a line change. But a goal by Aho made it 4-4 and the decibel count again was high.

Aho’s goal came after the Devils’ Tomas Tatar and then Erik Haula were called for tripping, setting up the Canes with 55 seconds of a two-man power-play advantage.

Aho scored on a sharp angle to Marktrom’s left off a setup pass from Seth Jarvis, although the Devils did kill off the final 1:17 of Haula’s penalty to keep it a 4-4 game.

The Canes had the kind of start Brind’Amour hoped to avoid: his team, playing at home, possibly overconfident, falling behind while Kochetkov looked shaky in net.

The Devils were able to quickly get to Kochetkov, scoring the three goals in the first 9:55 of the game. Dawson Mercer scored on the deflection of a Brett Pesce shot, and Meier scored from the slot after Pesce forced a turnover in the Carolina zone and set up Meier for the shot.

The Devils did not score on their first power play but did just after it expired as Stefan Noesen, the former Canes forward, tipped a puck past Kochetkov, who appeared uncomfortable in net from the start.

The Devils had the edge in nearly every category in the first period, outshooting the Canes 13-9, winning 11 of 15 faceoffs and forcing 10 giveaways.

Things shifted quickly in the second, setting up a tense finish that needed two overtimes.