The Carolina Hurricanes have secured their first playoff berth since 2009, thanks in part to a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils in the final home game of the season. Coupled with Montreal’s 2-1 regulation loss to the Capitals, the Canes have secured their spot in the 2018-2019 postseason.
The Hurricanes (45-29-7) started the game in a hole after New Jersey (30-41-10) grabbed the early lead, but goals from Warren Foegele, Justin Faulk, and Nino Niederreiter allowed Carolina to climb back in and secure the victory.
“I believed in this group from day one,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I’ve seen the talent we have here and the pieces we were putting together. You got to give a lot of credit to [general manager Don Waddell] and [majority owner Tom Dundon] because they took a lot of heat for things we did, but every move that was made along the way there was a process in mind. ‘Okay, is this going to help the group?’ We took a lot of criticism, and yet we stuck to it. This is not our end goal, but it’s proved a lot. It’s a good gratification to this organization because we did do it right and we got the right pieces in here. Playoffs are not the end, but it’s a huge step considering where we came from.”
Another huge contributor to the Hurricanes’ win was their special teams which went one for two on the power play and three for three on the kill. The Canes’ penalty kill was tremendous, narrowly missing out on a shorthanded goal on a breakaway by forward Sebastian Aho.
The Devils jumped on the Canes early as New Jersey defenseman Andy Greene found the back of the net under five minutes in to give New Jersey the 1-0 lead.
The Hurricanes responded soon after, as Aho stole the puck in the offensive zone and found forward Nino Niederreiter alone up top, who fed it back to Aho for the one-timer opportunity, but Devils goaltender Cory Schneider made a spectacular sprawling pad save to preserve New Jersey’s lead.
Minutes later, Foegele answered the bell for the Canes after finding himself all alone with Schnieder off a stretch pass from defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Starting from the defending right circle, Hamilton found Foegele who received the puck at the blueline behind the New Jersey defense and beat Schnieder on the breakaway opportunity.
“[Brind’Amour] was saying before the game,” Foegele said, “You need everyone to win their shifts, and for our line there we won our shift. It’s nice to contribute there.”
Whether it be nerves or a sleepy start, the Canes found themselves at the mercy of the Devils early and Petr Mrazek managed to keep his team in it through the first period.
“Can’t say enough good things about our goaltending in general,” Brind’Amour said. “You could see it tonight. We weren’t playing that well, give the other team tons of credit, but it didn’t feel like they were going to score. It was like ‘Okay, we’re going to mess up, but Petr’s got it. Petr’s got it,’ and that’s real comforting to us and the guys.”
Carolina entered the second period on a five-on-three power play and after the first penalty expired; Faulk finally capitalized on the man advantage with a top-shelf ripper after the power play reverted back to five on four. Faulk also helped keep the play alive for the Canes, who had kept the zone for the entirety of the power play, with an earlier desperation dive at the blueline.
After the first seven seasons of his career ended with game 82, Faulk will get his first taste of playoff hockey.
“It’s just been kind of a fun atmosphere the whole year,” Faulk said. “Everyone really enjoys coming to the rink every day. When you have that, it makes it easy to work, and that’s probably the biggest thing.”
The score remained the same through the period despite a few chances for both teams, including a chaotic sequence where New Jersey had multiple high-danger chances and a breakaway where Aho nearly beat Schneider with a backhand try.
Niederreiter took the last of the worried nerves out of the building as Pesce found him for a breakaway, where he went top shelf with 3:25 remaining on the clock to give the Hurricanes the 3-1 lead that would carry out to the final horn.
“The biggest thing is winning hockey games, and that is exactly what we did,” Niederreiter said. “I came here and I wanted to help the team make the playoffs and it took every single guy to make that happen. That’s exactly what we did and that’s why we deserve to be in the playoffs.”
Although Carolina has secured a playoff spot, it still has one game to play and can finish as high as third in the Metropolitan division or as low as the second wild card depending on various games around the league over the next two days. The Canes would need to win their last game and have the Pittsburgh Penguins lose theirs in regulation to claim third in the division.
The final game of Carolina’s regular season is Saturday in Philadelphia, as the Canes take on the Flyers at 7 p.m.
Right wing Nino Niederreiter dribbles the puck in New Jersey Devils territory prior to scoring the game winning goal, helping the Canes clinch a spot in the playoff, Thursday, April 4 in PNC Arena. The Canes beat the Devils, 3-1 in regulation.
