Logan Stankoven was a beast as a dominant first two periods ended the game early.
The Carolina Hurricanes came ready to play in game one in front of a raucus crowd. The New Jersey Devils did not. In a game that saw Carolina dominate from beginning to end, the Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-1 to take a 1-0 lead in their best of seven first round series.
The first period was all Carolina, as it appeared the rest that several players received during the leadup to the playoffs was exactly what they needed. The Canes outshot the Devils 17-5 in the first period, dominated time of possesion, and easily killed one Power Play that the Devils had when Jalen Chatfield was called for interference. The Devils were able to get a couple of shots, but then coming back from a shorthanded chance, the Devils had more than a few too many men on the ice, negating the rest of the penalty.
Meanwhile as part of the dominance from the Canes early on, Rod Brind’Amour sent out the Jack Roslovic, Eric Robinson, and William Carrier line off a New Jersey icing. Roslovic won the face off, funneling the puck to Robinson who got it out to Jalen Chatfield at the blue line. Chatfield launched it at the net while Carrier provided traffic and Devils’ goalie Jacob Markstrom was unable to stop it. Although New Jersey took time to see if they would challenge for interefence, they let it go.
The dominance continued in the second period for the Canes, as it became the Logan Stankoven Period. The Devils came out with some fight to start, but the Canes continued to dominate at five on five, it eventually lead to the first goal from Stankoven. First he broke up the play in the Devils’ zone, pushing it down the ice to Jordan Martinook while continuing to the net. Martinook would go behind the net, feed it to Stankoven who blasted it by Markstrom for the important 2-0 lead.
The Canes then were able to convert on the Power Play. All afternoon, the second Power Play unit was the best on the ice, generating the most chances, and they were finally rewarded as Taylor Hall—the oft forgotten part of the Rantenen trade—pushed the puck deep while Stankoven set up at the opposite dot. Hall fed a perfect pass to Stankoven who hit the bar and in to give the canes a 3-0 lead and blew the roof off Lenovo Center.
The Devils were able to get one back late in the second as matching minor penalties were assessed to Timo Meier and Shayne Gostisbehere to create a four on four situation. Soon after, Nico Hischier was able to win a face off and rush up the ice past Sebastian Aho and wrist one past Frederick Anderesen. The Canes would go into the locker room up 3-1 and with New Jersey having some momentum, but the shots were still an astounding 38-13 for Carolina.
The Third period saw the Devils give their biggest push of the game, but Andersen came up strong. The Canes were able to get Andrei Svechnikov an emtpy net goal with two minutes left to seal the scoring at 4-1.
Anderson made 20 saves, and Markstrom just was peppered all night.
Round two will be Tuesday night at 6 PM