Sebastian Aho scored his second goal of the game at 4:17 of the second overtime period, and the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 5-4 win against the New Jersey Devils in Game 5 on Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.
With less than a minute remaining on a high-sticking double minor to New Jersey’s Dawson Mercer, Aho beat goalie Jacob Markstrom with a one-timer from the right circle.
Aho also had an assist and Pyotr Kochetkov made 31 saves for the Hurricanes, who overcame a three-goal deficit to capture the best-of-seven series. Taylor Hall, Jackson Blake and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, which will face the winner of the Washington Capitals-Montreal Canadiens series in the next round.
“I give the guys so much credit,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “There (are) not many games, even when we don’t play well, that we don’t get back in the game. We find a way — and that’s what happened tonight.”
Carolina’s Shayne Gostisbehere and Seth Jarvis each logged two assists.
Stefan Noesen had a goal and an assist, and Brett Pesce had two assists for the Devils. Dawson Mercer, Timo Meier and Nico Hischier added goals, and Markstrom made 49 saves.
New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said his team fought hard after losing Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon in Game 1.
“We knew at that time they weren’t going to be back in the series. But our team fought, pushed,” Keefe said. “I thought our guys gave everything they had. We were on fumes in overtime, but our guys just kept fighting, hanging on. … There was lots to like about it. Just disappointing. We want to win. I felt we could win. There was a path there for us to win. Came close to it today.”
Mercer gave New Jersey a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the first period, deflecting Pesce’s shot from above the circle over Kochetkov.
Meier made it 2-0 at 5:31 when he took a feed from Pesce and snapped it from the high slot past Kochetkov.
Noesen capitalized three seconds after a New Jersey power play to make it 3-0, deflecting a Simon Nemec point shot past Kochetkov’s blocker at 9:55.
The Hurricanes scored three goals in less than four minutes early in the second period to pull even.
Aho said the Hurricanes “talked a little bit in the room that we kind of needed to restart in a way there — and obviously a big goal by Hallsy, got some momentum, crowd really picked up there and gained a lot of momentum and kind of took over the game after that.”
Hall got it started at 1:46, seconds after a Carolina power play. Logan Stankoven’s one-timer down low hit Markstrom’s right pad, bounced off the inside of the goalie’s left leg through the five-hole, stopping on the goal line, and Hall pushed it over to cut the margin to 3-1.
Blake narrowed it to 3-2 when he collected the puck in the right corner and looped around the net before spinning and sneaking a wrist shot over Markstrom’s right pad short side at 4:01.
Svechnikov beat Markstrom with a rising snap shot from above the left circle to make it 3-3 at 5:40.
“They got the momentum, and we just panicked a little bit,” the Devils’ Hischier said. “We found ourselves back on our heels. It’s how it goes sometimes.”
Hischier put New Jersey ahead 4-3 at 7:26 of the middle period, scoring from the right circle off Paul Cotter’s backhand pass from below the goal line.
Aho tied it 4-4 when he put a low shot off by Markstrom’s left skate on a five-on-three advantage at 11:27 of the second.
“It’s tough right now,” Markstrom said. “Put up four goals on the road in Carolina against a good team, we should have brought it home. That should have been enough.”
–Field Level Media
