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RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Rod Brind'Amour scored on a deflection 46 seconds into overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes avoided a sweep in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Brind'Amour took control of the puck at his own blue line and made a quick outlet pass to Sami Kapanen, who carried into the Devils' zone and pulled up at the top of the right faceoff circle. After holding for a moment, Kapanen snapped a shot that Brind'Amour tipped past goaltender Martin Brodeur for his 34th career playoff goal and first since 1999. "It was just a great, great pass," Brind'Amour said. "You never know, this could have been one of those games that lasts forever. So it was good to end it." "I had to take my shot back," said Kapanen. "I had a little time to see Roddy. He made a great reach for it." The victory avoided Carolina's first sweep since the 1989 Adams Division semifinals and forced a fifth game Friday night in New Jersey. "We really feel that in the first three games we really shot ourselves in the foot with some strange defense. We played a much more patient game tonight than we had," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "That gave us a chance to be a better team defensively and offensively." The Devils, who never trailed in winning the first three games, forced overtime on Petr Sykora's shorthanded goal with 10:29 to go in the third period. With 49 seconds left on teammate Colin White's interference penalty, Sykora drifted into the Hurricanes' zone and veered to the top of the left circle before surprising Arturs Irbe with a wrister that beat the goalie to the stick side. But the defending Stanley Cup champions were the less disciplined team, yielding seven power plays -- including a pair of two-man advantages -- that led to Carolina's first two goals. "The team that deserved it won it," Devils coach Larry Robinson said. "We were very undisciplined and we took way too many penalties and we didn't have enough guys going. You're not going to win hockey games with eight or nine guys going. That's basically what we had tonight. "I don't know if it was overconfidence. I think the guys just thought, 'Here's a team down 3-0. We're just going to go through the motions and we're not going to hit anybody.' I'm hoping that this is a good wakeup call." Playing without injured forwards Ron Francis and Shane Willis, the Hurricanes gave up just two power plays and got 32 saves from Irbe. "There were a lot of different faces from the last game," Irbe said. "It was a learning experience for quite a few guys and it was great to see guys step up." In Game Three on Tuesday, Carolina tried to get even with Devils captain Scott Stevens for his late hit in Game Two that left Willis with a mild concussion. As a result, the Devils ended up with nine power plays. But New Jersey's parade to the penalty box in Game Four began 59 seconds into the first period, when John Madden was whistled for holding. That followed excellent scoring chances by Madden and Randy McKay that were stopped by Irbe. Just 61 seconds into the ensuing power play, Kapanen swept in a rebound of Brind'Amour's shot to give Carolina first lead of the series and first goal before the third period. "Same team, they just played smarter and better hockey than we did," New Jersey center Bobby Holik said. The Devils tied it at 13:10 on a two-man advantage. After Brind'Amour charged out to pressure Brian Rafalski at the top of the left circle, Rafalski passed down to Patrik Elias. He pushed the puck over to Jason Arnott, who deked Irbe and slid in a backhander for his first goal of the series. It also was New Jersey's first power-play goal in 19 chances in the series after leading the league during the regular season. The Hurricanes had a 4-on-3 advantage at 8:23 of the second period when defenseman David Tanabe took a pass from Kapanen and one-timed a blast from the top of the slot that beat Brodeur to the glove side. "I don't think we were mentally prepared tonight as we should have been. You don't know why, but it happens," said New Jersey defenseman Ken Daneyko. "When you play undisciplined, maybe that causes a lack of focus. We just took a few silly penalties, but you know, nobody's to blame." |
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