Devils defenseman Simon Nemec picked a good time to have the best game of his career.
With the Devils’ defense hurting, Nemec scored a game-winning goal early in the second overtime against the Hurricanes in Game 3 of the first-round series on Friday, minutes before midnight. The 3-2 win at Prudential Center pulled New Jersey to 2-1 in the series with Game 4 set at home for Sunday.
New Jersey, which was already without defensemen Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes, played with five defensemen after the first period because of an undisclosed injury to Johnathan Kovacevic. But at least those defensemen included Jonas Siegenthaler, who played his first game, seemingly out of desperation, since Feb. 4 because of a leg injury.
On Friday, three Devils defensemen played more than 30 minutes: Brian Dumoulin (36:29), Brett Pesce (32:25) and Dougie Hamilton (31:16).
But it was Nemec, the defensemen who logged the least among the healthy defensemen (22:39), who made the difference.
Nemec took a dumped-in puck from his own blue line, skated through the Carolina zone and weaved through two Carolina players before he took a wrist shot that beat Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen at 2:36. Nemec had five shots on goal in the game. Including the playoffs, three of Nemec’s six goals have been game-winners.
As New Jersey controlled the pace of the game in the series’ first game back in New Jersey, Andersen stopped 34 of 37 shots, while Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves
The Devils scored the first goal at 16:11 of the first period, a reward for out-shooting Carolina 8-4. Devils captain Nico Hischier leaped into the boards and beamed a smile when he saw the puck cross the goal line.
Seconds before, Hischier caught an excellent set-up pass from winger Timo Meier in the center of the ice with only Andersen to beat. Hischier deked right and attempted a shot to the left, but his stick missed the puck. Without time to recover, he may have just whiffed the Devils’ best chance in the series.
Fortunately for Hischier, Andersen was so far out of position after committing to the fake that he couldn’t recover in time either. The untouched puck slowly slid across the goal line, giving the Devils the lead.
The Devils added their second goal early in the third period when winger Jesper Bratt entered the offensive zone without any help, raced around the Hurricanes’ defense and Andersen, and put a shot on net that Andersen dove on his stomach to save.
Devils center Dawson Mercer, in a prime position to make a play, took the rebound and guided the puck into the open net as Andersen was flailing out of position.
The Hurricanes continued their special teams dominance in this series to get their first goal about five minutes later. Forwards Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho skated through the Devils’ defense and made a sequence of passes to keep their possession alive before Jarvis buried a goal from the slot.
Aho got his own power-play goal six minutes later. Carolina went 2 for 4 on the power play, while the Devils went 0 for 5, extending their drought to 10 in the series.
With the emotions and exhaustion overwhelming them, the Devils were lucky to make it to overtime.
But the Devils came out of the break stronger. New Jersey out-shot Carolina 9-2 in the first overtime and 3-1 in the second one, the 23 minutes of overtime featuring up-and-down action until Nemec’s goal ended it.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Gabriel Trevino can be reached at [email protected] or on X @GabeCTrevino
