Apr 20, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven (22) battles for the puck against New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes (43) during the third period of game one of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images The New Jersey Devils are not sure exactly who will be available as they try to rebound in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.
The Devils, already without star forward Jack Hughes and defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler for the series because of injuries, had defenseman Brenden Dillon leave Game 1 in the second period and forward Cody Glass in the third. Defenseman Luke Hughes also left in the third but returned.
The Hurricanes took advantage to earn a convincing 4-1 victory Sunday and take the early series lead.
New Jersey won’t know who will be available until game time Tuesday. Devils coach Sheldon Keefe, however, was concerned only about how the team played, at least publicly.
“To a man, myself included, we’re all going to have to be better,” Keefe said.
Carolina outshot New Jersey 45-24 in Game 1.
“(During) 5-on-5, I really didn’t have a lot of issues with our game other than what we expected with the energy and the pace,” Keefe said. “I thought in the second period, we were just overwhelmed and that was not good enough. Third period was good, but the damage is done by then.”
Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield scored early in the first period before forward Logan Stankoven scored twice in the second. Stankoven’s second goal, on the power play, put Carolina up 3-0 before Nico Hischier got the Devils on the board with a little over a minute left in the middle period.
Andrei Svechnikov added an empty-net goal late in the third period for Carolina.
“For us to win, we’re going to need 20 guys chipping in. I think that’s what we got tonight,” Hurricanes’ coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were ready to go. That first goal, I think, is huge just to really settle everything. It allows you to keep staying the course.”
Chatfield scored on a screened wrist shot from the right point 2:24 into the game.
“We called that play, we run it a lot,” Chatfield said. “(It’s) just getting pucks to the net. We did a good job getting to the front and causing chaos.”
Stankoven kept the momentum rolling in the second period with his pair of goals.
“It was just nice to get the first one out of the way and start off on the right foot,” Stankoven said. “When you come into a series, the first one is big, but there’s a lot of hockey left to play. It was a lot of fun playing out there.”
Hischier’s goal with 1:09 left in the second gave New Jersey some hope after they had been outshot 38-13 in the first two periods.
“We have to work harder, create, create your own lanes to the net,” New Jersey forward Timo Meier said. “They’re strong and they battle hard, they compete, all things we know. And like I said, we have a game plan. We got to execute it better.”
Said Keefe: “We’re not going to get a lot. That’s the reality of it when you play a team like Carolina. They’re going to make it real hard on you, but that said, you had more than enough to score more than we did. There are some opportunities there.”
–Field Level Media
