It was tough sledding for the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 on the road on Friday night.
For the second game in a row, the Carolina Hurricanes got off to a poor start against the New Jersey Devils.
Unlike in Game 2 in Raleigh on Tuesday night, they did not get away with it this time.
Devils captain Nico Hischier provided a crucial first goal late in the first period when he took advantage of a defensive lapse by Carolina, holding off Sean Walker and beating Frederik Andersen to send the Prudential Center crowd into a frenzy.
It was the culmination of a dominant first period by the home team, one in which New Jersey had an answer for everything Carolina tried to get going in the offensive zone while the Hurricanes relied on Andersen to keep the Devils off the board.
New Jersey took a 1-0 lead into the intermission like Tuesday, and just like that night, their play relented in the second stanza.
It didn’t matter this time, as Jacob Markstrom was up to the task of holding the Hurricanes off the board when they did manage to muster a chance of consequence.
The Devils weren’t completely shut down in the second, though, as they strung together a couple threatening shifts, one that featured a legitimate save of the year candidate when Andersen robbed Timo Meier with the glove on a play where all 10 skaters on the ice crowded the crease and the Hurricanes couldn’t freeze it.
New Jersey took its 1-0 edge into the third and built upon it when Dawson Mercer scored his first of the series by tucking one in after Andersen’s momentum from a prior tough save left the net briefly vacant.
Seth Jarvis cut the deficit in half with a power play goal with a well-placed shot on a give-and-go with Sebastian Aho.
The Devils immediately got their own chance on the power play, but Carolina killed it off.
The line of Taylor Hall, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Andrei Svechnikov then hemmed Brett Pesce and the Devils in their own end for a shift of over two minutes, and a gassed Pesce eventually flipped the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty.
Markstrom made a big save on Svechnikov on a one-timer, but he slid out of position, and the puck found Aho who deposited it into a wide-open net to tie the score.
The game went to overtime, where the Hurricanes killed off tripping penalties to Brent Burns and Jordan Staal without receiving a power play of their own.
Andersen made multiple big stops to push the game to a second extra frame, as Carolina registered just a pair of shots on goal.
The Hurricanes didn’t fare any better in the second overtime, as they continued to try to hang on until eventually Andersen let one through.
Embattled Devils defenseman Simon Nemec broke through Shayne Gostisbehere and Jack Roslovic to get a wrister off on Andersen, and it sneaked through under his right arm to trickle in to end the game.
With that, the Devils got right back into the series and gave themselves the chance to send it back to Raleigh tied at two games apiece.
Game 4 from Newark is set for 3:30 PM EST on Sunday.