On Sunday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils kicked off their playoff run at Lenovo Center to face the Carolina Hurricanes. To nobody’s surprise, the arena was rocking as the Caniacs showed out despite the mid-day Easter start. And the Canes delivered, completely dominating the Devils in a 4-1 victory to take a 1-0 series lead. Frederik Andersen stopped 23 of 24 (.958%), including a couple highlight reel saves in a stellar effort.
Just 2:24 into the first, Jalen Chatfield flicked one towards the net from the blue line and it made its’ way through, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. Carolina continued to keep their foot on the gas, ending the frame with a 17-5 shots advantage, but Jacob Markstrom stood tall to keep it a one-goal game.
The Canes continued their pressure and added another as a Logan Stankoven shot leaked through Markstrom. It didn’t stop there: the recently struggling Canes’ power play broke through as Stankoven scored again, wiring one from the circle to make it 3-0. Then Brenden Dillon exited after getting tangled up with William Carrier. Thankfully, Keefe did say he was “eager to come back” and was held out for precautionary reasons.
Despite the Devils still getting outplayed, Nico Hischier came through during a 4-on-4 for the Devils’ first goal of the playoffs. At the end of the period, shots were 38-13 Carolina.
The Devils turned up the pace for the first time all game in the third, but then one disastrous shift put a damper on not just this game, but possibly moving forward: Luke Hughes got tangled up with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and left the game holding his shoulder. Seconds later, Markstrom went to take a shot at Andrei Svechnikov with his stick, but accidentally hit Cody Glass, who went down and did not return.
An incredibly tough sequence for New Jersey, which loses two players on the same shift.
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) April 20, 2025
Luke Hughes went down the tunnel with what appeared to be an upper-body injury, and then Cody Glass goes down because of … this. pic.twitter.com/MIZDc6OHlv
After the game, Keefe said there was “no update” on Glass. Hughes ended up coming back out at towards the end of the third, but it’s possible he wasn’t anywhere near 100%. He had two shifts – 36 and 28 seconds, respectively, and appeared to be grimacing on the bench in between. Svechnikov added an empty netter to officially put the game out of reach, as the Canes finished with a 45-24 shots advantage.
After the game, Devils’ head coach Sheldon Keefe told The Hockey Writers, “We’re going to get outshot probably every game in this series. That’s just the reality…we’re not focused on the shot clock. We got to find our way to mitigate some of the pressure that they put on us, and get through and get to our game a little bit more frequently, and then maximize the chances that we get.”
Both teams will return to action for Game 2 on Tuesday evening (6:00 PM EDT), at the Lenovo Center.
