Hurricanes breeze past Devils in Game 1 of Eastern 2nd Round

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes held the New Jersey Devils to 18 shots, including one in the first period, and won 5-1 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at PNC Arena on Wednesday.

Jesper Fast had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Staal had two assists for the Hurricanes, the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division. Frederik Andersen made 17 saves.
"That was obviously the way you want to do it," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said after his team's first game in five days. "I was a little bit concerned that maybe [after] the layoff, I didn't know how we were going to respond. But you could see we had a little bit more legs. Credit to the guys, we came ready to go."

Nathan Bastian scored for the Devils, the No. 2 seed in the Metropolitan. Vitek Vanecek made 10 saves on 11 shots in relief of Akira Schmid, who allowed three goals on 11 shots.
The Devils defeated the New York Rangers 4-0 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Monday.
"In my eyes, coming off a huge emotional win, quick turnaround, you look at the energy Carolina] came out with," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "They backed us into a corner right away. We didn't execute. You've got to give them a lot of credit.
"I can only imagine the emotion and the amount of people telling you what an unbelievable game the previous one was. We all felt the same way. You start thinking this is pretty good, and then you get an eye-opener tonight. You're right back in the playoffs again."
***[RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs. Devils series coverage]*
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here Friday.
Carolina took a 1-0 lead at 9:41 of the first period. Staal won a face-off to Brett Pesce, who scored on a blocker-side wrist shot through traffic from above the left face-off circle.
"I saw a lane, just tried to get it through," Pesce said. "Our start was just how we wanted it. [We] played fast, physical and got some pucks to the net."
Seth Jarvis made it 2-0 on a breakaway at 14:43. He intercepted Ryan Graves' pass inside the New Jersey offensive zone, then chipped the puck into the neutral zone before scoring on a wrist shot over Schmid's glove.
"I was like, 'I've got to get going. I've got to move, I've got to move,'" Jarvis said. "But finally I kind of was able to cut in and knew [Schmid] was going to probably play the pass, so shot was my only option."

The Hurricanes outshot the Devils 10-1 in the first period.
"They created a lot of pressure," Ruff said. "Their [defensemen] were heavily involved in their forecheck, and we just didn't win enough of those 50-50 battles in the first period."
Jesperi Kotkaniemi pushed the lead to 3-0 at 1:55 of the second period. He took a pass from Fast and fanned on a chance at the right post, but Jordan Martinook fed the puck back to Kotkaniemi for a tap-in, chasing Schmid.
"I thought we did a good job of being above it for the most part and trying to grind it out down low," Martinook said. "We were kind of sitting here licking our chops. We haven't played in four or five days, so we were fresh and ready to rock."

Bastian cut it to 3-1 at 5:02 when he took a pass from Michael McLeod, got behind the defense and lifted a wrist shot over Andersen's right shoulder.
"We're a confident group, and the first period was not good enough," Bastian said. "To come back and maybe start feeling our game a little bit in the second, obviously it's positive. We have no doubt in this group that we'll come out better next time."
The Devils outshot the Hurricanes 9-6 in the second period, including a point-blank chance from Nico Hischier with 1:04 remaining.
"Every game there's different ebbs and flows in who kind of has control of it," Andersen said. "They'll put some pressure on. There's a lot of good skilled players on that team. I'm glad we were able to regroup for the third (period)."

Brady Skjei extended the lead to 4-1 at 10:17 of the third on a one-timer off a pass from Sebastian Aho.
Fast scored into an empty net with 3:16 remaining for the 5-1 final.
NOTES: New Jersey forward Timo Meier, who had been a game-time decision with an undisclosed injury, was scratched and is day to day. … The Devils' 18 shots were their fewest in these Stanley Cup Playoffs. … Kotkaniemi's goal was his first in 21 playoff games with Carolina. … Aho has six points (three goals, three assists) during a four-game point streak.