INSIDE HOCKEY

Why Carolina won: The Hurricanes played their best in this series when they’re the desperate team and that was the case for game six. Carolina flat out dominated the devils in all aspects to send this series back to New Jersey. Carolina was the faster more aggressive team at least for tonight as their aggressive forecheck constantly frustrated New Jersey. Eric Staal and Ray Whitney had huge games for the Canes to lead the way. Staal had two goals and an assist while Whitney added a goal and three assists. Carolina also continued to do a great job on the penalty kill as NJ was unable to score on their two power plays.

Why New Jersey lost: The Devils were never in this game, they never were able to establish their forecheck and they let Carolina play far too much in their end of the ice. The Devils were only able to get four shots on goal in the first period compared to the 15 Carolina threw at Martin Brodeur. The Devils were only on the power play twice but neither time did they really put that much pressure on Cam Ward. Zach Parise was very quite in this game which didn’t help either.

Key Moment: Within the span of four minutes in the second period the combination of Staal and Whitney took over the game for the Hurricanes. Staal’s first goal came from a beautiful play that was orchestrated by Whitney and Chad laRose. Whitney dropped the puck off for Staal who went down low to beat Brodeur and make it a 2-0 lead. Minutes later Staal and Whitney worked themselves into a 2-1 man advantage skating into Devils ice. Whitney patiently waited for the perfect time to pass to Staal who then put the puck in the back of the net.

What’s Next: For the most part this series has been extremely evenly matched and entertaining. Both teams have over time victories and both teams have won in dominating fashion. The Hurricanes will try and do in game seven what they did in game six, which is to take the Devils out of their game early. New Jersey will try and forget about game six and focus on forcing Carolina into mistakes and taking bad penalties, which is how they won game three.