NHL Metropolitan

For the second series in a row, the New Jersey Devils have mounted a Game 3 comeback.

After being crushed by the Carolina Hurricanes for two straight games in Raleigh, Jack Hughes' four points helped the Devils rebound with a dominant 8-4 win Prudential Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Canes still lead the second-round series 2-1.

The Devils scored three goals in the first period, and Nico Hischier added a fourth 53 seconds into the next frame to chase Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen.

It was an abrupt change from Games 1 and 2, during which New Jersey struggled to keep up with Carolina as the Canes out-skated, out-hit and outscored the Devils 11-2. It was not a shocking comeback, however. Hockey fans have seen this before.

Back in the first round, the Devils were outscored 10-2 in the first two games against the New York Rangers. Then, New Jersey won Game 3 and turned the series around.

Now, fans are wondering if the Devils can do it again.

The game finished with a messy third period, where the Hurricanes scored twice on a Devils power play. The Devils finished the evening with one short-handed goal, while the Canes struck three times on the man disadvantage, tying the NHL record for most total short-handed goals in a playoff game.

The late eighth New Jersey goal from Ondrej Palat made this the second-highest scoring Devils playoff game in franchise history, per the NHL on TNT broadcast.

Hughes was named first star of the game with two goals, two assists and a takedown of Canes star Sebastian Aho.

With eight goals on the board, almost every Devil got a point. Two of the most notable came from Luke Hughes, Hughes' brother, who registered a pair of assists in his NHL postseason debut.

The Devils will look to complete their second straight comeback from a 2-0 series deficit when the puck drops in Newark for Game 4 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

Gerard Gallant's tenure as head coach of the New York Rangers has ended after two seasons.

The Rangers announced a mutual parting of ways with Gallant on Saturday following the team's first-round playoff loss to the New Jersey Devils.

TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported Gallant still had one more guaranteed year plus a team option remaining on his contract. LeBrun also speculated the 59-year-old wants to continue coaching.

Gallant's move away from the Rangers means all three Jack Adams Award finalists from 2022 (Gallant, Darryl Sutter and Andrew Brunette) are now no longer coaching the clubs they helmed a year ago:

Gallant was hired by the Rangers in June 2021 after David Quinn was fired for missing the playoffs in two of his three seasons.

The addition of Gallant sparked an immediate turnaround for New York. Its 110 points during the 2021-22 season were the third-most in franchise history.

The Rangers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes to reach the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2015, but they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.

With high expectations coming into the 2022-23 campaign, Gallant led the Rangers to 107 points during the regular season and a second consecutive playoff berth. They won the first two games against the Devils by identical 5-1 scores before losing four of the final five games.

The Rangers were shut out 4-0 in their Game 7 loss at the Prudential Center. It was the second time in three games they failed to score a goal against the Devils.

Gallant became the first Rangers coach to have back-to-back seasons with at least 100 points since Alain Vigneault did it in three consecutive years from 2014-15 to 2016-17. His .662 points percentage is the second-best success rate in franchise history.

Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko are the key free agents for New York this offseason. Even if the team has to lose one or both of them for cap reasons, this roster is still good enough to be among the top tier of Eastern Conference teams in 2023-24.

Third-string New Jersey Devils goaltender Akira Schmid is beginning to look like a third-string goaltender.

Schmid was pulled for the second straight game Friday night as the Carolina Hurricanes dominated in a 6-1 Game 2 win. The Canes lead the second-round series 2-0.

Things fell apart for Schmid and the Devils in the second period. Schmid, who completed their first-round series with a 31-save Game 7 shutout of the New York Rangers on Monday, allowed four goals on 25 shots. The final tally came after he whiffed a poke check on Seth Jarvis. Carolina retained the puck, and Martin Necas scored.

Regular-season Devils starter Vitek Vanecek took the net for the start of the third period.

In Round 1 against the Rangers, Vanecek started the first two games but was replaced by Schmid after a pair of losses in which he allowed nine goals. The Devils recovered and played well in front of Schmid to earn three straight wins, allowing just two goals.

Now, Devils fans are wondering if it is time for another goalie swap to spark a similar recovery.

Devils fans could not put all the blame on Schmid. The Hurricanes steamrolled the Devils. New Jersey struggled on everything from zone entries to getting back fast enough to prevent odd-man rushes and was unable to threaten even on a brief two-man advantage in the first period.

It was similar to the kind of frustrating domination Devils fans saw by the Rangers in the first two games of the first round.

After two brutal losses in Raleigh, the Devils need a spark as the series swings back to Newark. Given that Schmid was never expected to be the starting goaltender heading into this postseason, it makes sense that the team would go with Vanecek for Game 3.

He also struggled Friday, however. Vanecek allowed two goals in a span of 54 seconds during the third period as the Canes racked up a five-goal lead.

The Devils will have to make a difficult decision for a critical Game 3 before the puck drops Sunday at 3:30 pm ET.

When the New York Rangers jumped to a 2-0 series lead, it looked like yet another upset was brewing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Fast forward five games, and the Rangers' season has crumbled to an end after losing 4-0 in Game 7 to the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils completed the incredible series comeback with a gritty performance on their home ice at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Goals from Michael McLeod, Tomas Tatar, Erik Haula and Jesper Bratt were enough to get the home team over the line and into the second round of the postseason.

But the true story of the game was New York's offense—or lack thereof.

After scoring a combined 15 goals in their three wins in the series, the Rangers were completely shut out, failing to take advantage of their four power-play opportunities.

Also key was the incredible performance by goalie Akira Schmid, who came up huge in big-time moments with 31 saves.

New York goalie Igor Shesterkin had an impressive performance of his own with 20 saves, but he wasn't given enough goal support.

Rangers fans and hockey Twitter were going off about New York's lack of offense in the biggest game of their season.

After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the Rangers will have plenty of questions to think about this offseason, as they didn't come near the same point in 2023.

And that's despite making win-now moves like trading for stars Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko.

Meanwhile, the Devils advanced out of the first round for the first time since 2012 when they lost in the Stanley Cup Final. They'll play the top-seed remaining in the Eastern Conference in the Carolina Hurricanes.

We have ourselves a Game 7.

The New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Saturday night in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs matchup to force a Game 7 at the Prudential Center on Monday.

After allowing Devils forward Curtis Lazar to open the scoring at the 11:49 mark of the first period, the Blueshirts dominated the rest of Game 6.

Rangers forward Chris Kreider opened the floodgates when he scored his sixth goal of the postseason at the 19:35 mark of the first period to tie the game 1-1.

Mika Zibanejad, Vladimir Tarasenko, Barclay Goodrow and Braden Schneider also scored goals for the Rangers in their big win.

After the game, Rangers fans hailed Kreider and the offense for a dominant outing to force Game 7:

If Kreider, Zibanejad and the forwards continue to play like they did in Game 6, the Rangers will have a good chance of winning this series on the road in Game 7 and clinching a berth in the next round.

The start time for Monday's Game 7 has yet to be determined.

The New York Rangers are one game away from elimination—or one game away from tying the first-round series, depending on your level of optimism.

After the New Jersey Devils shut out the Rangers 4-0 on April 27 in a crushing Game 5, that optimism seemed to be at a season-long low in New York. The Devils lead the series, 3-2.

The Rangers have now been held to two goals in their last three games.

New Jersey's Ondrej Palat opened scoring in the first 39 seconds after the Rangers' structure crumbled around a defensive-zone faceoff.

The Devils goals kept coming. Erik Haula converted on a power play. Dawson Mercer tallied on a shorthanded odd-man rush. Haula scored again, seconds after the Rangers pulled their goaltender in a desperate bid with five minutes left.

In the end, New Jersey nearly doubled New York's shot total, 43 to 23.

The Rangers appeared to get increasingly frustrated throughout the third period, but despite several scraps, New York struggled to get out of its own zone as the minutes ticked down in the final frame.

As the Prudential Center shook with mocking "Igor" chants from Devils fans, Rangers fans defended their goaltender. Igor Shesterkin has made 85 saves on 96 shots for a .924 save percentage throughout the Rangers' last three losses.

The Rangers face the Devils again for Game 6 at Madison Garden on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. New York's historically dangerous scorers like Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane will look to get the Rangers' offense back on track as they fight to regain the dominance Rangers fans saw in Games 1 and 2.

That will not be easy against the Devils, who looked every inch the faster and younger team during Thursday night's shutout loss.

The New York Islanders aren't done yet.

The Isles staved off elimination on Tuesday night with a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs matchup at PNC Arena to force a Game 6 at their home rink.

New York came out hot in the first period on a goal by Pierre Engvall at the 10:27 mark to take a 1-0 lead entering the second period.

Brock Nelson added to the Isles' lead after a shot from Engvall took a weird bounce off of Sebastian Aho's face before Nelson knocked it in at the 3:16 mark of the middle frame.

Hurricanes forward Paul Stastny got Carolina back into it with a goal at the 13:10 mark of the second period, but the Islanders restored their two-goal lead on a beautiful tally by Mathew Barzal just under five minutes later.

The Islanders took a 3-1 lead into the third period, but the Hurricanes continued to chip away at the deficit. Aho tallied Carolina's second goal of the night to put his team back within one at the 10:28 mark of the final frame.

However, that was all the Canes could muster as the Islanders put the clamps on defensively to close out the win.

After the game, fans praised Barzal and the Islanders for forcing a Game 6 and keeping the team's title hopes alive:

If the Islanders are now going to force a Game 7, they will need players like Barzal to continue firing on all cylinders. That said, Ilya Sorokin's impact in goal should not be understated, as the potential Vezina Trophy candidate stopped 27-of-29 shots in the win.

The Islanders and Hurricanes will meet in Game 6 at UBS Arena on Friday.