Devils 5, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes lost their third straight game, this time with a disappointing effort against the New Jersey Devils in front of an announced crowd of 9,000 plus fans on Thursday night at the PNC Arena.

The Canes started out slowly and were outshot 8-2 early, but were kept in the game by some solid goaltending by Eddie Lack.

But Lack had no chance on a bam-bam passing play between Tyler Kennedy and Mike Cammalleri late in the period as the visitors took a 1-0 lead.

About midway through the second, Jeff Skinner would have to sit in the box for four minutes for a high-sticking infraction which drew blood and once again, Carolina's special team unit let them down.

Somehow, the Devils broke into the Carolina zone with a 2-on none break and Adam Henrique made a beautiful move for his 12th goal of the season.  Then just after the powerplay expired, the Devils would strike again to make it 3-0.

Brad Malone made a pretty shot of his own to make the score 3-1, but just a minute and change later, Jacob Josefson scored his first goal of the season on another odd man rush to put the Devils back up by three before the break.

Things got a bit chippy in the third period after Eric Staal delivered his best hit of the season on Eric Gelinas, for retaliation on a Gelinas hit earlier in the second period against Andrej Nestrasil.  One might like to see more of that hitting when it matters in a game from the Captain, but still it sent a message in this game and Justin Faulk and a couple of other players responded with some physicality as well.

Malone dropped the gloves and took on Jordin Tootoo but got knocked down for his troubles.  Still, the Canes did show some fight which is unusual for them, before giving up yet another goal to make the final, 5-1.

Next up they will take on the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Game Notes:

• The Canes outshot their opponents 31-27 and were led by Elias Lindholm with five.
• The team was credited with 37 hits in the game and were led by Ryan Murphy with five.  They also won 67% of their faceoffs but as Tripp Tracy pointed out, they lost some key ones during the penalty kill.
• The powerplay remains last in the league and went 0-2 in this game.  The Hurricanes remain with 20 points, keeping them in a tie for last place in the league.
• For a more detailed review of the game, check out All About the Jersey.
• post game audio and notes