Hurricanes Not Quite Finished

It’s time for the New Jersey Devils to start worrying about the Carolina Hurricanes and Arturs Irbe. Really worry.

Irbe stopped 37 shots and the Hurricanes refused to call it a season for the second consecutive game, defeating the defending Stanley Cup champions, 3-2, Friday night.

The victory cut the Devils’ lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series to 3-2 with Game 6 set for Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.

“They have the momentum, there is no doubt about that,” said Devil goaltender Martin Brodeur, who faced 14 shots. “It’s important for us to go out there and play well. If we match the effort, we’ll be fine. But these guys are playing desperate and it’s paying off for them.”

Irbe agreed after the Hurricanes earned their second consecutive one-goal victory after being dominated in the first three games of the series.

“These two games we’ve been fortunate, we were able to play our best hockey,” Irbe said. “We just figured out a way to scratch and claw and get hard-fought wins.”

Josef Vasicek, Sami Kapanen and Jeff O’Neill scored for the Hurricanes, who are trying to become only the third team in NHL playoff history to come back from a 3-0 deficit. The Toronto Maple Leafs did it in 1942 against Detroit and the New York Islanders did it in 1975 against Pittsburgh.

Scott Gomez and Bobby Holik scored for the Devils, who lost consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 22-23.