Fourth Line's a Charm | FEATURE

The Devils are one of the deepest teams at the forward position in the NHL. On most night's they will happily roll through all four lines without hesitation.

But when the team is trailing on the scoreboard, especially by a wide margin, the Devils will often keep the fourth line on the bench and roll their more "offensive" lines in order to get back into a game.

So, one would expect to see that happen again during Game 1 of the Second Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night at PNC Arena.

The Devils trailed 3-0 just two minutes into the second period. A 3-1 lead carried into the third. The usual situation where the Devils start to roll with three lines to try and score a goal.

However, the opposite was the case in Game 1, and for good reason. After all, the Devils' fourth line - Miles Wood, Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian - not only scored the club's lone goal in the 5-1 loss, it was also the team's most effective line.

"Our fourth line was probably our best line last game," defenseman Damon Severson said. "They scored our goal. They were skating. They were on the body. They were on the forecheck."

In fact, the Devils' fourth line Wood, McLeod and Bastian (sometimes referred to as the BMW Line) were built for a series like this. The trios blend of speed, physicality, tenaciousness and battle level is the perfect formula for success against a team like Carolina, which tries to use all those same qualities against.

In order to compete with the Hurricanes, a team has to be ready to skate hard to loose pucks and win battles on contested pucks. The Hurricanes' strength is their speed and battle level. The Devils' fourth line matched it best during Game 1.

Hence, all three skaters were amongst the highest on the team in terms of ice time during the contest: Bastian (17:53), McLeod (17:59) and Wood (13:30) - Bastian and McLeod's ice time on the penalty kill explains the discrepancy to Wood, who doesn't kill penalties. McLeod picked up the assist on Bastian's tally and they combined for a plus-2 night.

What's more, Bastian scored the only goal after barreling through the neutral zone for a puck, taking advantage of a rare wide gap for the Hurricanes and getting on goal alone. Bastian made a nifty play to pull the puck to his backhand before flipping it over the arm of goalie Frederik Andersen.

In perhaps the biggest goal of the entire season, it was McLeod (while on a PK) who scored the opening goal and eventual game-winning goal in the win-or-go-home contest against the Rangers in Game 7.

"You have to play fearless and he does," head coach Lindy Ruff said of McLeod. "You have to be ready to put your body in harm's way a lot of times, which he does. He's the type of player that will get inside and be a top guy in all those categories."

And the third component is Wood, who returned to the lineup in Game 7 after being scratched in the previous four straight contests. Wood took penalties in Games 1 and 2 of the First Round series (the Rangers converted on both) which led to his scratching.

"I've learned a lot throughout this process. I've never been scratched in my career," he said. "It was a wake-up call. I had two penalties in the first two games that were big. They scored on both of their power plays. I learned from it, talked to the coaching staff about it. It's time to move on and get back to my game."

The Devils, looking to add more speed for Game 7 to overwhelm the Rangers, reinserted Wood into the lineup. And the results speak for themselves.

"For a guy like him, he's going to come back in and play the same way," Severson said of Wood. "We know what he brings. He brings that speed, that tenacity. He's fun to watch when he's skating. You look at some of the fastest players in the league, he's right up there with anyone in a straight line. When he gets to his game, he's an effective player. We're going to need that, especially from that line."

"I thought Miles was skating and moving inside the offensive zone," Ruff said.

The fourth line certainly did its job and provided a blueprint for success against Carolina.

"(Bastian) scored the goal. They were in on a couple other, but overall that line gave us a real good night," Ruff said. "They spend a lot of time in (Carolina's) zone."