Hurricanes-Devils Game 4: The four factors that will determine the winner
The New Jersey Devils won Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes in an 8-4 rout, as their offensive stars found their speed and room to operate in ways they simply weren’t allowed to during two losses in Raleigh.
Will that continue? Or can the Hurricanes take Game 4 in Newark on Tuesday night (7 ET, ESPN) to bring a 3-1 series lead back home, where they’ve been the best defensive team in the playoffs (1.80 goals-against average)?
Here are four keys to Game 4 between the Hurricanes and Devils, the latter of whom are trying to rally from a 2-0 deficit for the second straight series.
Which goalies will show up?
We mean this literally and figuratively.
Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta returned to practice on Monday after missing two games because of illness. Coach Rod Brind’Amour wasn’t sure whether he would play in Game 4. “Hopefully. It would be nice to have some options,” he said.
That’s because Frederik Andersen was pulled in Game 3 after giving up four goals on 12 shots in 20:53. According to Evolving Hockey, he had a minus-2.24 goals saved above expected. After Andersen gave up only one goal in each of his previous three playoff games, he wasn’t good in Game 3.
But that doesn’t mean Raanta gets the call if he’s healthy. Keep in mind that Raanta is a different goalie at home than on the road. Away from Raleigh, Raanta is 1-6 in his past seven games, with an .884 save percentage. At home, he’s 8-1 in his past 11 games with a .943 save percentage.
“We know he’s a good goalie who’s got great experience,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said of Raanta. “We’re going to have to work hard and find holes if he plays.”
Ruff has his own goaltending questions to answer.
Vitek Vanecek started Games 1 and 2 against the New York Rangers, and was lit up. Ruff switched to rookie Akira Schmid, who confidently backstopped their rally to win the series in seven games. Schmid gave up seven goals on 36 shots in two games in Raleigh and Ruff flipped back to Vanecek for the Game 3 win.
All signs point to Vanecek getting the start again in Game 4, but he also posted a negative goals-saved above expected (minus-1.14) for the game. Granted, the Devils hung him out to dry on a couple of short-handed chances, and he didn’t stop a Jordan Martinook penalty shot. But outside of a few saves, Vanecek didn’t look incredibly sharp, which was something he acknowledged.
“Akira took care of the first round. He was really good. There wasn’t a thing he did bad,” Vanecek said. “He had two tough games [against Carolina] and they gave me an opportunity. I wasn’t great [in Game 3], but the win counts and that’s what we need.”
Both the Devils and Hurricanes will seek better goaltending in Game 4.
Manage energy
The Devils and Hurricanes are playing the only second-round series without a multiday break.
While Carolina bought some time to recuperate after eliminating the New York Islanders in six games, that was a physical and grinding series. The Devils, meanwhile, went seven games with the Rangers and then immediately hopped into their series with the Hurricanes. New Jersey has played every other day since April 27, a trend that will continue until this series ends.
Of course, having to worry about energy expenditure means you’re still playing in the postseason, which suits Ruff just fine.
“It’s a great difficulty to have,” he said. “Going through a playoff run and finding out how much is going to be enough.”
For Carolina, flush the loss
Brind’Amour labeled Game 3 as a “weird” one, and he’s not wrong. Lots of goals. Lots of penalties. An uncharacteristically bad start for the Hurricanes, who fell behind 3-0 just 13 minutes in, despite usually playing tight defensive first periods.
“It’s never fun to come off of a game like that,” Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “But all you can do at this point in the year is flush it. To spot them like we did in the first period like that is never a good thing.”
Brind’Amour said it was a combination of things that allowed the Devils to find their speed game in a way they couldn’t in Raleigh.
“In Games 1 and 2, everything went our way. Maybe it went their way [in Game 3],” he said. “But like I said, they were on it. They were better than we were.”
Brind’Amour, who celebrates his five-year anniversary as Carolina coach on Tuesday, likes to preach about “the stress game” to his players: Putting their opponents in a state of panic with the tenacity of their play. It’s what the Hurricanes did so well at home in Games 1 and 2, using their forecheck and a puck-hounding defense to frustrate the Devils. It’s what was missing in Game 3.
“They got more pucks in deep,” Slavin said. “We didn’t and we couldn’t establish our forecheck.”
That’ll be paramount for the Canes in Game 4.
For New Jersey, the stars must shine
The Devils’ offensive breakout in Game 3 was a story of determination and deployment.
No one was more upset than captain Nico Hischier after the first two losses on the road. “We should be really pissed off right now,” he said after Game 2.
Hischier played like he was trying to prove something in Game 3. He had eight shot attempts, four shots on goal and a goal scored at 5-on-5. That included four rebound attempts and two rebounds created. He was an absolute force in Game 3, and the Devils took their cue from their leader.
For Jack Hughes, who had two goals and two assists in Game 3, the story was deployment. Carolina has one of the best defensive centers in the NHL in Jordan Staal. Postseason after postseason, he has smothered the other team’s best offensive players when Brind’Amour gets his matchups in Raleigh. On the road, opposing coaches make it a point to get their stars as far away from Staal as possible.
In Game 1, Staal shared the ice with Hughes for 9:25. In Game 2, it was 10:40. But in Game 3, Ruff got his young star away from Staal, who shared the ice with Hughes for only 3:40.
The Devils saw many of their star players hit the score sheet in Game 3 — heck, even Timo Meier registered his first point of the playoffs with a first-period goal. Ruff said it’s possible some weight will be lifted off his players.
“You get automatic relief. You can talk about not feeling the pressure, but you do. Every game is such a big game and you want to be a difference maker,” he said. “Every guy has a tough stretch. It just gets magnified in the playoffs.”
Not many are expecting another 12-goal game between the Devils and Hurricanes. Game 4 should return back to a more tightly played battle. Regardless of whether the Hurricanes get their matchups or play better defense in Game 4, Ruff said the Devils can’t play as tentatively as they did in their first two losses.
“You might make some mistakes. You’re going to have to make plays under duress. Some of those decisions might not be the best,” he said. “But in order to create, you’re going to have to put some risk in your game.”
The Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets began their second-round showdown a bit behind the other series, which is why they’re the last teams to play their respective Game 3. That matchup is set to transpire Sunday afternoon (4:30 p.m. ET, TBS), followed by a game no less important between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers at a more traditional time (7:30 p.m. ET, TBS).
Which of the two Central teams will go up 2-1? And can the Panthers tie things up with the Leafs after Brad Marchand‘s OT heroics in Game 3?
Read on for game previews with statistical insights from ESPN Research, a recap of what went down in Saturday’s games and the Three Stars of Saturday from Arda Öcal.
Matchup notes
Winnipeg Jets at Dallas Stars
Game 3 | 4:30 p.m. ET | TBS
With each team taking one game of the series in Winnipeg, ESPN BET has updated the series odds heading into Game 3 in Dallas; the Stars are currently favored (-170) to win the series, with the Jets at +140 to advance. The Stars have the second-shortest odds to win the Stanley Cup (+400), while the Jets’ are third-longest (+900).
With his 22-save shutout in Game 2, Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck earned postseason blanking No. 4 of his career. He became the sixth goaltender in NHL history to account for the first four playoff shutouts in a franchise’s history.
Nikolaj Ehlers has run hot and cold as a playoff goal scorer for the Jets; he scored two in Game 2, which was his second career multigoal postseason game. In between this one and the one prior, he went 14 playoff games with zero goals.
Mikko Rantanen‘s streak of five straight multipoint playoff games ended in Game 2, as he registered one shot on goal for Dallas and a minus-1 rating in 21:42 of ice time. He’s currently tied with Toronto’s William Nylander for the playoff scoring lead, with 15 points, and is first among goal scorers, with eight.
Game 2 was the second time the Stars have been shut out this postseason. The first was Game 4 in the first round, at Colorado. The next game? A home win, in which they scored six goals.
Toronto Maple Leafs at Florida Panthers
Game 4 | 7:30 p.m. ET | TBS
After the Panthers won a thriller in Game 3, ESPN BET has the Leafs at -125 to win the series, with the Panthers at +105. Both teams are right in the middle of the Cup futures mix, with the Panthers slightly ahead; Florida is +550 and Toronto is +600.
With his overtime game winner in Game 3, the Panthers’ Brad Marchand extended his own NHL record for consecutive postseasons with a game-winning goal, a streak that goes back to 2017. Marchand’s four career playoff OT goals is seventh all time.
Have we seen the real version of “Playoff Bob” yet? Sergei Bobrovsky is sixth among eight regular goaltenders that made Round 2 with a 2.94 goals-against average, and sixth in the same cohort with a .875 save percentage. Those rates were 2.33 and .906, respectively, during the Panthers’ Stanley Cup run last year.
Maple Leafs center John Tavares scored two goals in Game 3, which was his fourth career multigoal playoff game and second in his career against the Panthers; the previous multigoal game against Florida was in 2016 while Tavares was with the New York Islanders.
With each goal that Morgan Rielly scores, he extends his franchise lead for playoff goals by a defenseman. Rielly now has 15 for his career, ahead of second-place Ian Turnbull with 13.
Öcal’s Three Stars from Saturday
1. The final seconds
We saw it again on Saturday night. You never know what’s going to happen in a Stanley Cup playoff game — even a Leon Draisaitl own goal with one second left in a game that was headed for overtime.
Smith scored two goals — one of which was the game winner that deflected off Draisaitl’s stick — in Vegas’ 4-3 win. He and Nicolas Roy scored 54 seconds apart in the first period to even the score at 2-2, which marked the fastest Vegas has overcome a multigoal deficit in franchise playoff history.
Roslovic finished with two points, including his third career postseason goal as the Canes dismantled the Caps 4-0 to take a 2-1 series lead.
Saturday’s recaps
Carolina Hurricanes 4, Washington Capitals 0
CAR leads 2-1 | Game 4 Monday
Following a scoreless first period with a few superb scoring chances for both teams, the Hurricanes got on the board twice in the second, courtesy of Andrei Svechnikov and Jack Roslovic. That was all the Canes needed, as their relentless defensive pressure in all three zones prevented the Caps from mounting much of an attack in the third. Eric Robinson added a shot that somehow found its way over Logan Thompson‘s left shoulder and Jackson Blake closed things out with a power-play tally. But this night was all about Frederik Andersen earning his fourth career shutout (and first with the Canes). Full recap.
0:38
Eric Robinson gives the Canes a 3-0 lead
Hurricanes fans erupt as Eric Robinson gives Carolina a 3-0 lead with a sweet goal in the third period vs. Washington.
Golden Knights 4, Oilers 3
EDM leads 2-1 | Game 4 Monday
Finally, the Golden Knights are on the board — and it took until the very last moment for them to pull off the stunning win in Edmonton. Savvy Oilers veteran Corey Perry scored two to put the hosts ahead 2-0 in the first. Undeterred, the Knights scored two before the period ended to tie the contest. William Karlsson‘s second-period score put Vegas ahead 3-2, a lead that held until 16:58 of the third, when Connor McDavid tied it at 3. Then, in the very final second of regulation, Reilly Smith slid a sharp-angle shot into the Edmonton crease, where it was tipped in by Oilers center Leon Draisaitl. Game, Vegas. Full recap.
1:07
Golden Knights stun Oilers with Reilly Smith’s buzzer-beating goal
Reilly Smith scores a miraculous goal for the Golden Knights with 0.4 remaining to give them the win.
History was made in Vatican City on Thursday, when Pope Leo XIV was introduced as the first American to be elected pontiff.
Leo XIV (birth name Robert Francis Prevost) was born and raised in southern Chicagoland, where he served as an altar boy in the St. Mary of the Assumption parish. Now, as he ascends to the papacy, an unlikely Second City staple is celebrating the moment: the Chicago Cubs.
Congratulations to Pope Leo XIV! pic.twitter.com/s02yDDegQd
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 8, 2025
After his election, ABC reported that Leo XIV was a fan of the Cubs.
But John Prevost — Leo XIV’s brother — had a different view. Prevost spoke to WGN News in Chicago after Leo XIV’s election and rebuked the idea that the Pope was a Cubs fan.
“He was never, ever a Cubs fan,” Prevost said. “So I don’t know where that came from. He was always a [Chicago White] Sox fan.”
Later on Thursday, Chicago’s ABC7 affiliate also reported on Leo XIV’s White Sox fandom. The White Sox themselves got in on the action, posting their own video board celebration and a clip of Prevost’s interview with WGN.
Well, would you look at that… Congratulations to Chicago’s own Pope Leo XIV pic.twitter.com/U5DJ7TOyDr
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 8, 2025
Prevost’s theory for the possible confusion? Their mother, whose family was from the north side of the city, was a Cubs fan.
The lone team that can conclusively claim to hold the rights to the new Pope’s fandom until further clarification is the Villanova Wildcats. Leo XIV graduated from the university as part of the Class of 1977.
“Roommates Show,” a podcast hosted by Wildcats-turned-New York Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, joked that they’d be having their fellow Villanova alumnus on the show in the near future.
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