Hurricanes follow blueprint, win Game 1 of Eastern 2nd Round

RALEIGH, N.C. --The Carolina Hurricanes know that the rest of this Eastern Conference Second Round against the New Jersey Devils isn't going to be as easy as it looked in the first period of their 5-1 win in Game 1 at PNC Arena on Wednesday.

But for those opening 20 minutes, the Hurricanes followed their blueprint for how they want to play against these young, fast Devils to near perfection and, they hope, set the tone for the rest of the best-of-7 series.

"That was, obviously, the way you want to do it," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

The Hurricanes jumped on the Devils with their hard forecheck from the drop of the puck and pressured their defensemen shift after shift on their way to building a 2-0 lead. They outshot the Devils 10-1 in the first period, with the lone shot on goal against being a 70-foot dump-in from the neutral zone.

Carolina's 29-7 advantage in shot attempts also demonstrated how much of the first period was spent in New Jersey's end.

"That's what we're going to have to do," Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said. "That's a super-skilled team that's fast and comes in waves, and if you can stay on top of them and kind of limit their space, that's what we're going to have to do."

It will likely be much harder to do in Game 2 here Friday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS). No one had to tell the Hurricanes that they caught the Devils in a tough situation.

New Jersey was coming off an emotional 4-0 win over the rival New York Rangers in Game 7 of the first round on Monday. Carolina was well rested, having been off since advancing with a 2-1 overtime victory against the New York Islanders in Game 6 on Friday.

But the Hurricanes also had to take advantage of it. They did with constant pressure on the Devils defensemen in their end.

"They backed us into a corner right away," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't execute. You've got to give them a lot of credit. They created a lot of pressure. Their [defensemen] were heavily involved in their forecheck. We just didn't win enough of those 50-50 puck battles in that first period."

RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs Devils series coverage]

The Hurricanes seemed to win all of them.

"They're a highly skilled team, so when you give them time they're going to make you pay," Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis said. "So, I think we just did a good job kind of staying in their face and making it tough on them getting out of their zone."

Defenseman Brett Pesce opened the scoring on a shot from the top of the left face-off circle that beat a screened Akira Schmid to the short side at 9:41. Jarvis capitalized on a turnover by Devils defenseman Ryan Graves at the left point in the Hurricanes zone to score on a 2-on-1 at 14:43 to make it 2-0.

New Jersey regrouped during the first intermission, but things got worse for the visitors before they got better, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi scoring from the right edge of the crease at 1:55 of the second period to make it 3-0. That ended the night for Schmid after the 22-year-old rookie allowed three goals on 11 shots.

"They've got a lot of young guys," Kotkaniemi said. "They've got a lot of speed too, but we want to be in charge in the game, so we try to just match that and be even better with that."

The Devils pushed back after that, pulling within 3-1 on Nathan Bastian's breakaway goal at 5:02. But with Frederik Andersen sharp in net (17 saves) when called upon, the Hurricanes rode their early onslaught to victory.

Defenseman Brady Skjei scored from the left circle to make it 4-1 at 10:17 of third period and end the Devils' hopes of a comeback.

"We know that in the games coming up here, they're going to be really flying, but our start was just how we wanted it," Skjei said. "We played fast, physical. We got some pucks to the net, so that was just what we wanted to start that first period."

Jack Hughes, who set a Devils record with 99 points (43 goals, 56 assists) in the regular season and had five points in the first round (three goals, two assists), had an off night with the Hurricanes matching their line centered by Jordan Staal against him for much of it.

Staal had two assists and was plus-3. Hughes was limited to two shots on goal and was minus-3.

Hughes and the rest of the Devils will undoubtedly be much better in Game 2. But the Hurricanes saw their path to victory.

"They're coming off an emotional series, seven games against the Rangers, all the hype, and then they have to turn around and come right back at it," Brind'Amour said. "We're sitting here resting, so I was a little bit concerned. … I didn't know how we were going to respond, but you could see we had a little more legs.

"They got going as the game went on, but that's probably what happened there. So, credit to the guys. They came in ready to go."