The Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up their regular season with a 6-3 beatdown of the New Jersey Devils at home on Thursday, April 28.
With their sixth consecutive win, the Canes (54-20-8) picked up even more steam heading into the playoffs by jumping out to a 3-1 lead over the Devils (27-45-9) heading into the first intermission. Carolina kept its foot on the gas from there, only surrendering a pair of goals in garbage time to finalize the scoreline.
Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi set the tone for the game with three points in the first period alone. In his first point since sustaining an injury against the Washington Capitals on March 28, Kotkaniemi rattled off two assists and a goal in the first 13 minutes of play.
“He didn’t miss a beat,” said left wing Jordan Martinook. “It was good to click with those two. KK was great, [center Martin] Nečas was skating. It was a great night.”
The victory wound up seeing a bevy of Carolina contributors. The Hurricanes shared the puck throughout the night with six different goal scorers and 13 players with at least a point. Kotkaniemi and Nečas were the only Canes to have multi-point nights
After securing the Metro division title, the Canes’ had already secured their playoff seeding, so a few role players enjoyed some increased ice time. With center Jordan Staal, right wing Andrei Svechnikov and defenseman Jaccob Slavin all getting a night off, center Steven Lorentz slotted in on the top line with centers Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis, while center Derek Stepan took over Staal’s usual spot on the third line with right wings Nino Niederreiter and Jesper Fast.
Defenseman Ian Cole bumped up to the first defensive pairing with defenseman Tony DeAngelo, while defensemen Brendan Smith and Ethan Bear anchored the third pairing. Lorentz and Bear both capitalized on their chances by finding the net.
“I just came into tonight with the mentality that I wasn’t going to change my game,” Lorentz said. “I was gonna go do the work and let those guys’ skill take over. I’m fortunate enough that we had a bunch of chances, and Jarvis found me at the back in the third period there. That one felt good; it’s been a little while since I’ve been on the scoresheet.”
On the defensive side, goaltender Antti Raanta picked up right where he left off after exiting April 24’s game against the Islanders with a lower-body injury. Raanta saved 27 of 30 shots, with two of those goals coming in the last six minutes when the game was well in hand. With the playoffs just a few days away, having a steady presence in net bodes well for Carolina.
“It was good to see him in there tonight,” Kotkaniemi said. “He did a great job. We know he’s ready to go with the playoffs next week. It’s good to have goalies ready.”
The Canes will either play the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs pending the results of those teams’ games on Friday, April 29. The playoffs will get underway on Monday, May 2.
“We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see who we play, but [we’ll take] a little bit of rest for sure,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “We’ve had some good rest in terms of we haven’t practiced, but [we’ll] mentally take a day here and refocus. Then we’ll reconvene and get ready for the next phase.
