In the last home game of 2024, the Carolina Hurricanes hosted the New Jersey Devils for their final matchup of the regular season on Saturday, Dec. 28. After losing the night before 4-2 in Newark, the Hurricanes were looking to get some revenge of their own in familiar confines of Lenovo Center. When the final horn sounded, the revenge was returned as they dominated the Devils in a 5-2 win that saw four unanswered goals in the third period.
Game Recap
While there was no scoring in the first period, the second period saw many chances for both sides. The Devils got a lead under three minutes into the period as Paul Cotter took advantage of a Jesperi Kotkaniemi turnover in the neutral zone and beat Dustin Tokarski over his right leg. It was a brutal turnover by Kotkaniemi who blew a tire, which led to the giveaway. As the period went on, the Hurricanes threw shot after shot at Jake Allen but could not get one by him.
Related: Hurricanes End December With Critical Stretch of Games
However, with under 30 seconds left into the middle frame, Dmitry Orlov’s blast of a one-timer went off Allen’s arm and into the net to make it a 1-1 game very late in the period. It was a huge goal that set up a monumental third period with plenty of goals and playoff-like feistiness.
The third period saw a combined five goals, the last four by the Hurricanes unanswered. Ondrej Palat was able to get space from Brent Burns on the backdoor and got a clean feed by Jesper Bratt to make it a 2-1 Devils lead just over a minute into the third period. However, the Devils’ lead would not last long as Sebastian Aho scored 51 seconds later with some puck luck to re-tie the game back up 2-2, and it squeezed through Allen between his body and right arm.
Just over halfway into the third period, rookie Jackson Blake scores his eighth of the season with some great hand-eye coordination to deflect a Kotkaniemi shot into the goal to give the Hurricanes their first lead of the game. Special teams played huge in the game for Carolina as they killed off both of their penalties and went 1-for-3 on the power play.
Almost two minutes later, the Hurricanes got an insurance goal from Jack Roslovic for what was his team-leading 15th goal of the season after a great saucer pass from Seth Jarvis. It was not long before Roslovic added his second of the night as four minutes later he ended up scoring on the Devils’ empty net to secure the 5-2 win in a four-goal onslaught by the Hurricanes.
Roslovic had a three-point night (two goals and one assist) along with Jarvis (three assists), and Aho (a goal and assist). Tokarski finished the night stopping 21 of 23 shots faced. Carolina is now 22-13-1 after their last home win of 2024.
It was a milestone night for head coach Rod Brind’Amour who recorded his 300th regular season win as Hurricanes coach. The fastest to ever do so in 488 games behind the bench.
One Last Game Before 2025
The Hurricanes’ last game in 2024 will be on New Year’s Eve in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. The puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern for another Metropolitan Division showdown. Meanwhile, the Devils travel to Southern California to take on the Anaheim Ducks for an 8 p.m. Eastern puck drop for their final game of 2024.
