Despite Loss, Devils Show Right Response | COLUMN

RALEIGH, N.C. – Devils defenseman Brett Pesce didn’t mince words about his team’s Game 1 performance against the Carolina Hurricanes in the First Round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We got outworked. Not a good feeling,” he said after the 4-1 loss. “Next game we need to do a better job of matching their intensity.”

Pesce had a much better feeling about the team’s intensity in Game 2, which saw the Devils punch back in an evenly played contest. However, the Devils still ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard with a 3-1 loss at Lenovo Center Tuesday night.

“I thought we could have easily won that game. We gave it everything we had and came up short,” Pesce said. “We just have to carry that momentum.”

In a complete reversal from Game 1, the Devils took control of the game early. They dominated possession time, controlled the puck in the offensive zone, rattled off a 7-1 edge in shots in the opening eight minutes and even took a 1-0 lead with a Jesper Bratt goal at 3:51.

“I thought our guys took charge. They had a lot of fight in them early,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I thought we had fight all game. We competed at a high level.

“I thought our guys gave it everything they had today. It easily could have gone the other way. But that’s not the way it worked out. We’ll take this effort and build some confidence out of it and take it home.”

The Hurricanes scored two goals in the second period 2:57 minutes apart, the second being a shorthanded tally from Jordan Martinook that held up as the game-winner. The contest was essentially a one-goal game and Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen came up with several high-quality saves to styme the Devils’ attack.

It was a vastly different look from Game 1, where the Hurricanes ended up with a 45-24 edge in shots. Game 2 was a back-and-forth affair with the two teams trading blows, chances and shots. Even the shot clock, which the Hurricanes typically dominate, was nearly dead even (Carolina finished ahead at 28-26).

“From Game 1 to today there was a big step in our game,” Bratt said. “We found a recipe that we need to play, and we need to stick at it to be successful. If we do this night in and night out, things are going to go our way.”

The Devils put forth a strong performance despite facing the roughest circumstances of the season. The club was already missing franchise superstar Jack Hughes and stalwart defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler. The team suffered further blows with the loss of defensemen Luke Hughes, possibly the team’s best overall blueliner, and Brenden Dillon, a veteran leader with a lot of playoff experience.

Neophyte defensemen Simon Nemec and Dennis Cholowski both made their NHL playoff debuts. But the team really leaned on the top four blueliners. On the final tally, the top four finished with the following minutes of ice time:

Dougie Hamilton: 23:59
Brian Dumoulin: 23:48
Brett Pesce: 23:14
Johnathan Kovacevic: 19:54

Nemec’s played 13:15 and Cholowski clocked in at 8:35.

“We’re leaving here with a lot of confidence. From (Jacob Markstrom) to the defense to offense, it was a pretty solid game,” Bratt said. “Cholowski and ‘Nemo’ stepping in for Dillon and Luke did a great job.”

Perhaps no one stepped up bigger than Pesce. He finished the night with six of his team’s 10 blocked shots and even picked up three (unofficial) saves. First, he found a loose puck on the goal line and pushed it under Markstrom for a whistle before it crossed the goal line. In the second period he found another loose puck in the crease and swiped it away from danger before Andrei Svechnikov could reach it. Seconds later Pesce blocked the follow-up shot from Sean Walker while lying face down at the net on the same sequence.

“You can tell this guy wants to win,” Keefe said of Pesce. “He left it out there.”

For Pesce, it was all in a day’s work.

“It’s playoffs. You do literally whatever you can to win,” he said while wearing an ice pack on his shoulder. “There’s a reason why the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win. It takes everything and everyone.”

The Devils leave Carolina in a 2-0 hole in the opening round series. But they also leave with a lot of life.

“Overall, there is still a lot of belief in this room that if we continue playing this kind of hockey, it’s going to come our way,” Bratt said. “We’re going to keep working and realize this is the level we need to play at to win against a team like this.”

That will not be an easy task. As Game 2 proved, you can play a strong game against the Hurricanes and still come up short. But if you need inspiration, all you have to do is look back to the 2023 playoffs when the Devils lost their opening two games to the New York Rangers at home in Round One, but would ultimately prevail in the series in seven games.

There is a lot of work to be done. But the Devils have responded to tough situations all season long. It would be unwise to count them out just yet.

“I loved our response today,” Keefe said. “Just like it’s been all season, we’ve faced injuries all year. Our team, when faced with adversity, backs against the wall, they’ve played some of their best hockey. I liked that about our team. We showed attitude. We showed competitiveness. We showed care.”

And now they can show that same attitude, competitive and care in front of their own fans at Prudential Center in Game 3 on Friday night.

“We’re just going to bring that (effort) home,” Keefe said. “The fans are going to welcome us there. We’re going to need them to give us a boost and try to take care of home ice.”