Devils season ends in crushing fashion with 2OT loss to Hurricanes
RALEIGH, N.C.— Rod Brind’Amour had just watched his Carolina Hurricanes skate through a debacle of a first period, putting them in a three-goal hole on a night they had a chance to advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on home ice.So what was he hoping to see in the second period?“Anything,” he said matter-of-factly.He got it and more, all the way through to Sebastian Aho’s ticket-punching goal that finally buried the New Jersey Devils.Aho hammered a one-timer past Jacob Markstrom at 4:17 of the second overtime to help the Hurricanes beat the Devils 5-4 on Tuesday night to clinch their first-round playoff series in five games.Aho’s score off a feed from Shayne Gostisbehere came with the Hurricanes on a four-minute power play on a double-minor high-sticking penalty by Dawson Mercer that sent Jesperi Kotkaniemi skating off to the tunnel with a towel to his right eye.
Aho provided the capper, the only lead Carolina would have in a wild game that pushed them into the second round.“Unreal,” Aho said.“Obviously you almost like black out for a second there.
The crowd goes nuts, guys are jumping on you and it’s unreal.Yeah, really good feeling.”Carolina is the first team to advance to the second round, and next faces the winner of the Montreal-Washington series.
The Capitals lead 3-1 in that one.The Hurricanes are also the fourth team in league history to win a series in seven straight postseasons, first since the Montreal Canadiens went 10 straight from 1984-93.The Devils skated out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes, only to see Carolina erupt for four goals in a chaos-filled second period to level the game.But things settled down into a tough grinding finish for the third period and extra periods, capped ultimately by Aho’s second goal on the power play on the night.Aho also had the goal that tied it 4-4 with 8:33 left in the second period with the Hurricanes holding a two-man advantage.Taylor Hall, Jackson Blake and Andrei Svechnikov also ...