The Carolina Hurricanes pushed the New Jersey Devils around during Tuesday night's 6-1 Game 4 victory and are now one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2019.
The Hurricanes did most of their damage in an electric second period by scoring five goals, including four in a 5:20 span. Martin Necas kicked off the middle frame with his second tally of the contest, while Brett Pesce and Jesper Fast struck 1:16 apart as the Devils started to unravel.
Just under two minutes later, veteran defenseman Brent Burns made his presence known with a booming shot for his first goal of the playoffs to chase New Jersey netminder Vitek Vanecek. Jordan Martinook scored with 24 seconds remaining in the stanza for his third point of the game and ninth of the series.
"We just let our heads hang," Devils captain Nico Hischier said postgame, according to team beat reporter Amanda Stein. "It's definitely not the recipe. We had a game going on there, and that five minutes, we just got away from our game right there and (they) made us pay."
Devils star Jack Hughes opened the scoring within the first two minutes of the contest, but Carolina ran the show for the remainder of Game 4 with six unanswered tallies.
New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff was critical of his team's performance, calling it "a hard one to explain," per ESPN's Greg Wyshynski.
"We had guys that just went rogue," he said. "You can call that lack of experience. Even the power play turned into one man trying to something and the next time trying to do something. There was no team effort."
The Jack Adams Trophy finalist added, "I look at the way we played after Game 7 (against the New York Rangers). It resembled some of this. Are we having a tough time dealing with a little bit of success? Play a really good game and then you bounce back with a game like that?
"We didn't make it to a high enough level to win a tonight."
Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen made 21 saves in the victory, rebounding from a shaky performance in Game 3 when he got pulled after allowing four goals on 12 shots.
Carolina has outscored the Devils 21-11 in the series so far.
The Hurricanes will get their first chance to put the Devils away during Thursday's Game 5 at 7 p.m. ET in Raleigh.
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