Nemec scores double overtime winner to earn first win of series for Devils
NEWARK, N.J. – “Win one game and it’s a series.”
That’s what Nico Hischier said on Thursday afternoon as his team prepared for the Game 3 matchup at Prudential Center, the Round One series shifting to New Jersey from Carolina.
And the Devils played with an intensity that met the moment in the series.
Playing shorthanded, with just five defensemen after the opening period when Johnny Kovacevic left with an injury, it was only fitting that, in double-overtime, having played over 80 minutes of hockey, it was the youngest player on both rosters – and a defenseman – who called game.
Simon Nemec scored the double overtime winner at 2:36 for the 3-2 victory and cut the Hurricanes’ lead in the Round One series to 2-1.
“I’m just so impressed with our team tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The defense in particular, obviously. So fitting that Nemec gets the game winner for us. Our whole team, just the way that we dug in here tonight, stayed with it. I thought the forwards did their part to help take care of the D, but those guys digging in.”
“It was an amazing feeling,” Nemec said. “Especially in this tough season for me. But really big win for us. An important win.”
Nico Hischier started the work on Friday night, opening the scoring in Game 3 in the first period.
After a goalless second period, Dawson Mercer quickly doubled the Devils lead at 1:20 of the third period.
Seth Jarvis scored a power-play goal with a snapshot at 6:11 of the third to bring Carolina within one. Sebastian Aho scored a second power-play goal to tie the game and send it to sudden-death overtime.
“We really digged in deep tonight,” Hischier said. “Big win for us, but now it’s all about recovery and do it again.”
But one game does not a series make. And as proud as Keefe was of his team the way they dug in during this game, he knows they’ve only just begun.
“We’ll wake up tomorrow, we’re still in a deficit in this series and we’ll have to regroup quickly and have our best game of the series on Sunday,” he said. “Right now, all we’ve earn is another trip back to Carolina. We need to build on this.”
But at least, as Nico said:
It’s a series.
Simon Nemec scores the 3-2 game winner in double OT.
Here are some observations from the game:
• Simon Nemec became the second-youngest defenseman (21 years, 69 days) in NHL history to score an overtime goal in the playoffs, behind only Andrei Zyuzin (20 years, 97 days in 1998), per NHL Stats.
• This series was setting up to be a special team’s irresistible force paradox. The Hurricanes had the top-ranked penalty kill in the NHL during the regular season, while the Devils had the third-ranked power play. The unstoppable force meets the immovable object. Unfortunately for the Devils – so far, anyway – it’s the power play that has struggled. Against the Canes in Game 3, the Devils’ first power play came at 8:31 in the second period when Dmitry Orlov tripped Brian Dumoulin. New Jersey was held off the board for both of their second-period power plays, and another in the third. The Devils power play is now 0-for-10 in the series after the Devils failed to convert on two overtime opportunities.
“We’ve got to get better on special teams,” Keefe said. “If we want to extend this series and have a chance to really compete and win it, we’ve got to find a way to get on the other side of special teams, there’s no doubt about that.”
• Dawson Mercer had one of the more unique goals you’ll see, in fact many thought it was a missed opportunity at first because the shot came out the other side of the net. But the ref did indeed signal a goal.
As Mercer’s wraparound shot went into the net, with Freddie Andersen sprawled out on his stomach, the net was lifted and the puck went in and out the other side of the net, under the bar and out the other side. But that puck was in and it gave the Devils an early 2-0 lead in the third period.
POST-GAME COLUMN
Big dawg gotta eat. pic.twitter.com/Q6rwXiBt3H
• Johnny Kovacevic played 6:00 of the first period but did not emerge from the locker room to start the second period. Dealing with injuries to defensemen is not new for this Devils club, unfortunately. In this series alone, they’ve faced the absences of Brenden Dillon, Luke Hughes, and Jonas Siegenthaler at one point or another.
Keefe had no update on Kovacevic after the game.
• One out, one in. Siegenthaler made his return to the Devils lineup for the first time since suffering an undisclosed injury on Feb. 4. The injury limited Siegenthaler to just 55 games this season, during which he was a plus-9 and the Devils’ top shutdown defenseman. He returned to play alongside second-year defenseman Simon Nemec. Before the game, Keefe indicated that Siegenthaler would have reduced minutes due to his lack of practice time and not having an opportunity for his conditioning to catch up.
But the loss of Kovacevic likely put a bit of a dent in those plans as the team went down to five defensemen after the first period. In the first period, Siegenthaler played 5:36, and because of the two power plays in the second period, Keefe was able to manage Siegenthaler’s minutes during the second period, simply by virtue of Siegenthaler not being a player who plays on the power play. But the game went to double overtime, so Keefe had to rely on Siegenthaler more than he would have wanted to, but it all turned out fine.
“Siegenthaler, comes in and trying to keep his minutes down and all of a sudden you’re down five D and then you’re asking him to get into double overtime and he was incredible tonight,” Keefe said. “I was so impressed with him. A, to just jump in the lineup tonight, but then to play the way that he did in this environment and under those circumstances is so impressive.”
“I’m pretty gassed right now,” Siegenthaler said. “But it’s kind of good too, I’m right in the game. It wasn’t easy but we all battled through it and it just feels nice to get a win out of it.”
• Here’s how the Devils defensemen time-on-ice broke down after the final buzzer:
Brian Dumoulin: 36:29
Brett Pesce: 32:25
Dougie Hamilton: 31:16
Jonas Siegenthaler: 27:09
Simon Nemec: 22:39
• Carolina had a second-period surge, as they did in Game 2, with the Devils leading heading into the middle stanza. This time, New Jersey handled the pushes, with the long change, without conceding a goal. The Hurricanes had a 14-shot second period with Markstrom stopping them all.
“He’s a rock back there,” Brian Dumoulin said of Markstrom on the MSG broadcast after the second period.
Markstrom made 25 saves on 27 shots, three of which came in the overtime periods.
• New Jersey dominated the overtime periods, outshotting the Hurricanes 9-2 in the first overtime and adding another three in 2OT.
• Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon were both held out of Game 3. The two defensemen also missed Game 2 in Carolina with their respective undisclosed injuries.
