A late-night sprint down the ice late Friday night provided Simon Nemec redemption, offered a path back into the Eastern Conference quarterfinals for the New Jersey Devils — and reminded the Carolina Hurricanes of the precarious nature of their position as favorites in the series.
The Devils will look to even the best-of-seven set Sunday afternoon, when they host the Hurricanes in Game 4 in Newark, N.J.
The Devils cut the Hurricanes’ lead to two games to one Friday night, when Nemec’s unassisted goal 2:36 into the second overtime lifted New Jersey to a 3-2 victory.
The must-win nature of Game 3 for the Devils was amplified by how Friday night unfolded.
New Jersey’s defenseman depth, already thin due to the absences of Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes after they suffered undisclosed injuries in Game 1, was further tested when defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic didn’t return after suffering an undisclosed injury in the first period.
Jonas Siegenthaler played 27:09 Friday in his first appearance since he was injured Feb. 4. The game-winning goal by Nemec, a healthy scratch in Game 2, capped an evening in which he played a season-long 22:39.
“I’m just so impressed with our team tonight,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The defense in particular. So fitting that Nemec gets the game-winner for us. Our whole team — just the way we dug in tonight, stayed with it.”
Nemec’s goal also prevented the Devils from suffering a doubly discouraging defeat. New Jersey squandered a two-goal lead in a span of 6:09 in the third period Friday, when the Hurricanes scored a pair of power play goals.
The Hurricanes have three power play goals and one short-handed tally in the series.
“We have to get better in special teams,” Keefe said. “If we want to extend this series and have a chance to really compete and win it, we’ve got to find a way to get on the other side of the special teams.”
For the Hurricanes, the loss underlined how New Jersey has steadied itself following a Game 1 in which Carolina outshot the Devils 38-13 over the first two periods.
The Hurricanes have been outshot 74-62 since, including 37-27 on Friday and 12-3 in the overtimes.
“We hung in there, but we were just hanging in there,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That’s basically what was going on tonight.”
The Hurricanes, whose power play in the regular season was second-worst amongst playoff teams, were just 1-of-11 on the power play in the series before Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho scored on the man advantage in the third period.
Carolina might not have gotten to overtime Friday if not for goalie Frederik Andersen, who made perhaps the save of the postseason to preserve a 1-0 deficit in the second period.
Andersen fell on his stomach while turning back point-blank shots by Erik Haula and Jesper Bratt as a pileup developed in the crease. The puck squirted to Timo Meier, but Andersen, still flat on the ice, reached up and snared Meier’s shot with a little more than six minutes left.
“Freddie obviously kept us in that game, really,” Hurricanes center Jordan Staal said. “But really, there’s lots of things we could have been better at — five-on-five, forwards all the way down to the D, getting back to our forecheck, All of the stuff we do well, we didn’t do that great tonight.”
