Devils Take Down Hurricanes 4-2 for Third Straight Win – The Hockey Writers NHL News Latest News, Analysis & More

The New Jersey Devils faced their division rival Carolina Hurricanes on Friday evening as part of a home-and-home against them. They came out with the victory in game one, as they stormed the Hurricanes en route to a 4-2 victory. Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 of 31, with a +3.99 goals saved above expected. (via MoneyPuck)

The Devils have now won three straight and will be vying for their fourth tomorrow night. They move to 24-11-3, while the Hurricanes drop to 21-13-1.

The Devils were buzzing early, but the Hurricanes struck first as Eric Robinson knocked a loose puck past Markstrom. The Devils quickly answered back with two of their own: Ondrej Palat deflected one past Kochetkov, and 42 seconds later, Nico Hischier scored on a 2-on-1.

Just 22 seconds into the second, Brent Burns leveled the score at two. But Luke Hughes wired one past Pyotr Kochetkov to put the Devils back in front.

Well would you Luke who found a loose puck and an open net. pic.twitter.com/2i0xaLOpWE

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 28, 2024

Then, Dawson Mercer struck to stretch the lead to 4-2, banging home a rebound. The Devils thought Hischier scored shortly after, as the puck seemed to have gotten knocked in during a scramble in the crease. But after review, it was deemed that there was a whistle, so no goal was awarded. The score remained 4-2 at the horn as Markstrom made some key saves when he needed to.

In the third period, the Devils shut the opposition down as they have in nearly every third period. They’re now 19-0-1 this season when leading after two.

Sheldon Keefe told The Hockey Writers, “We were not at our best here today, you know, today’s game is good enough to win today, it will not be good enough to win tomorrow. We’ve got to get better; we’ll look at it and look at some things tactically that we can do better and reinforce. Today was no masterpiece defensively.”

Carolina’s 31 shots are the most the Devils have allowed in quite some time, but at the end of the day, the two points are all that matters. This “never satisfied” attitude from Keefe is a large reason why the Devils have been so successful. He demands a lot from them, and he gets a lot.

The teams will face off again at 7:00 PM on Saturday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.