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The Hurricanes lead the best-of-seven series
3-1 and will get their first chance to advance to the next round
on Thursday night, when they will host Game 5. Carolina is
trying to reach the conference finals for the first time since
2019.
Necas tied the game with 2:20 left in the first before he scored
the game-winning goal 7:26 into the middle period. Brett Pesce,
Jesper Fast, Brent Burns and Jordan Martinook scored later in
the second for the Hurricanes, with the goals by Necas, Pesce,
Fast and Burns coming within a span of just 5:20.
Goalie Frederik Andersen made 21 saves for the Hurricanes.
Jack Hughes scored 1:55 into the first for the Devils, who
haven't overcome a 3-1 deficit since outlasting the Philadelphia
Flyers in the 2000 Eastern Conference finals.
Goalie Vitek Vanecek gave up five goals on just 17 shots before
being pulled for Akira Schmid, who stopped 11 of 12 shots the
rest of the way.
Pesce's pass deep in the Hurricanes zone was picked off by Nico
Hischier to set up Hughes' goal, a redirection of a shot by Timo
Meier. Carolina tied the game following a New Jersey turnover
when Jaccob Slavin stole the puck from Michael McLeod in the
neutral zone to begin a sequence that ended with Necas getting a
piece of a bouncing puck and beating Vanecek from point-blank
range.
Necas and Pesce exchanged the puck before Necas put the
Hurricanes ahead by firing a shot over Vanecek's stick shoulder.
Pesce doubled the lead 2:25 later, when he rang a shot off the
far post.
Fast picked up the rebound of a shot by Jalen Chatfield and
tucked a shot around Vanecek at the 11:07 mark. Burns chased
Vanecek 99 seconds later with a sizzling slapshot from the top
of the right faceoff circle.
Martinook closed the scoring with 23.4 seconds left in the
second when he took a pass from Burns and beat Schmid on the
breakaway.
--Field Level Media
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