Martinook on 'tenacious' streak for Hurricanes in Eastern 2nd Round

NEWARK, N.J. -- Even Jordan Martinook seems surprised at his production in the Eastern Conference Second Round because the Carolina Hurricanes forward hasn't changed how he plays.

The grind is still there. The speed, tenacity and energy are all still very much fixtures of Martinook's game. He leads with his work ethic. It's his calling card, if you will.

But nine points in four games, all multipoint efforts, including three on a goal and two assists in a 6-1 win at Prudential Center on Tuesday to help the Hurricanes take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series against the New Jersey Devils after they got walloped 8-4 in Game 3 on Sunday?

That's different. That's something no one has seen from Martinook in the NHL, regular season or Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"I just try to come and play hard every night, try to set the tone with my work ethic," Martinook said. "I guess this series they're going in and I'm getting the points, but I think even the first series I was playing well and just didn't get any points.

"We lost a lot of key guys, and we need scoring from everywhere. I feel like in the games we've won in this series we've been getting it from everywhere, and that's what we need moving forward."

RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs Devils series coverage]

Martinook didn't have a point in six games against the New York Islanders in the first round. He still made an impact, including his team-high seven shots on goal in a series-clinching 2-1 overtime win in Game 6.

"That whole series, I felt good about my game," Martinook said. "I was around it and it just wasn't going in. I don't think I've changed anything in this series."

That's the beauty of it, because Martinook really is the perfect picture of the Hurricanes.

If anyone wanted a video description of how Carolina plays, they could just put an iso camera on No. 48 and watch the way he skates and works. It's exactly how coach Rod Brind'Amour teaches it and preaches it every single day.

"He's one of those players that a lot of times doesn't get a lot of recognition for the work he puts in," Brind'Amour said. "That's the nature of the game. We always look at guys who score the points and they're the guys that get all the talk, and yet these other guys that are doing all the work sometimes get kind of forgotten."

Martinook is clearly one of those guys. He has never been a prolific scorer. Until this series, that is.

He had 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 41 Stanley Cup Playoff games entering the second round, all with the Hurricanes since 2019. He had one multipoint game (two assists in a 4-3 double-overtime win at the Nashville Predators on May 23, 2021).

In the regular season, Martinook has 18 career multipoint games, including four three-point games, in 559 total games. He never had back-to-back multipoint games.

He has four straight against New Jersey, a franchise record for most consecutive multipoint games in the playoffs. Martinook is the third player in NHL history with nine or more points in a series after getting shut out in his team's previous series in the same postseason, joining Lanny McDonald (1984) and Craig Janney (1988).

In Game 4, he had an assist with a brilliant saucer pass to Martin Necas on Carolina's first goal that tied the score 1-1 at 17:40 of the first period. He had an assist on Brent Burns' one-timer at 12:46 of the second period that gave the Hurricanes a 5-1 lead. He scored to make it 6-1 at 19:36 of the second.

Martinook was initially credited with an assist on Jesper Fast's goal at 11:07 of the second, but that was later taken away, killing his chance at his first four-point game in the NHL.

"It's always nice to see a guy like that get rewarded," Carolina captain Jordan Staal said. "It doesn't really matter who gets it in this group. We're happy for whoever has a big night, but 'Marty' has been a consistent guy and he's been our best player."

The fact is the Hurricanes have needed the production from Martinook. They're trying to march through the playoffs without three of their more prolific scorers in forwards Teuvo Teravainen (broken hand), Andrei Svechnikov (knee) and Max Pacioretty (Achilles).

Svechnikov and Pacioretty are done until next season at the earliest. Teravainen could possibly return in this postseason, but Carolina has to keep going for that to happen, which means it needs production from unlikely sources, like Martinook, who is getting a bigger opportunity to be an impact scorer because of the absence of some of the Hurricanes' key players.

He has a point on nine of Carolina's 21 goals against the Devils. Martinook needs one point to tie the Hurricanes record for most points in a single series; Bates Battaglia had 10 in the 2002 Eastern Conference Semifinals and Cory Stillman matched that in the 2006 Eastern Conference Final. Carolina reached the Stanley Cup Final in both of those years, winning it in 2006.

Martinook is arguably the biggest reason they're one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Final this year.

"He's got all the tools and he works hard," Staal said. "He's been tenacious. He's been hard on pucks. His work ethic is bar none, and it's been fun to watch."