Devils leaning on Pesce's experience in 1st round against Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Brett Pesce had the look of a grizzled prize fighter at his locker stall while answering questions to the media Tuesday, ice pack tucked inside his shirt strapped to his shoulder.

The New Jersey Devils defenseman found the energy to smile at one point after emptying the tank over 23:14 of ice time, tying an NHL career-high with six blocked shots and preventing another three pucks from crossing the goal line in a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round.

"It's Stanley Cup Playoffs ... you do whatever you can to win," Pesce said. "There's a reason why the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win. It takes literally everything, and everyone."

The 30-year-old is the beacon the Devils can look to as they head home down 2-0 in the best-of-7 series with Game 3 at Prudential Center on Friday (8 p.m. ET; FDSNSO, MAX, MSGSN, TBS, TVAS2, SN360).

"You can tell this guy wants to win," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. "He was on the left side playing with Dougie (Hamilton), a guy he's never played with as a partner, and he left it out there. There's a lot of those type (of) efforts that you want to see get rewarded, but our reward, I guess, is just going to have to be the fact we know we can compete in the series.

"We have to take that home, and whether we won or lost [Tuesday], we got to go home and play well and win games so that mindset isn't different. We'll focus on getting a very important win in Game 3."

Pesce was a coveted free-agent acquisition last offseason and signed a six-year contract with the Devils after playing his first nine NHL seasons with the Hurricanes. Nights like Tuesday made it easy to see why.

His presence was even more valuable Tuesday with defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon unable to play because of injuries. The right-handed shot was asked to play on his off-side at left point alongside Hamilton and didn't miss a beat.

"He's a very special player and that's why everybody wanted him," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "He'll always be special to me because I saw that night in and night out for a long time and I watched him grow as a player and into what he is now, which is one of the top defenders in the League."

Pesce, who plays a role on the Devils penalty kill as he did with the Hurricanes, knows New Jersey needs to improve on special teams if it hopes to rally in the series.

After they ranked third in the NHL during the regular season on the power play (28.2 percent), the Devils are 0-for-5 thus far in the series, and also allowed a short-handed goal on Tuesday.

"We lost the best special-teams battle two games in a row, and in (the) playoffs, the game is so tight 5-on-5 you need [your] special teams to come up big," Pesce said.

Defensively, however, the Devils were better in Game 2. Pesce aided his goalie, Jacob Markstrom, on numerous occasions, sweeping away a puck about the cross the goal line at 3:15 of the second period and did it twice more in the third period.

"I just kind of saw it behind 'Marky'," Pesce said of the second-period save. "I didn't even know if it was in or not but figured, why not try to fish it out of there? Thankfully, it didn't fully cross."

New Jersey allowed 28 shots, a big improvement after yielding 45 in a 4-1 loss in Game 1 on Sunday. Hamilton played a game-high 23:59, Brian Dumoulin played 23:48 and had five hits, Johnathan Kovacevic logged 19:54 and had seven hits.

Defensemen Simon Nemec played 14:12 and Dennis Cholowski 9:12 filling in for Hughes and Dillon and each making his playoff debut.

"So much respect for [Cholowski and Nemec] for stepping up," Pesce said. "They played with a lot of confidence, a lot of patience. Everyone's committed defensively ... you have to be at this time. You've got to do what it takes; it's the playoffs and you kind of need that extra gear."