Devils Win Series
Randy McKay scored two goals as the defending champions New Jersey Devils beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 to win the first round series 4-2.
"You don't make the playoffs in this league without having a good hockey team, so they showed a lot of courage in the way they played," McKay said of the Hurricanes. "They showed us a good series."
New Jersey advances to the Eastern Conference semifinals where they will face the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"This wasn't easy for us," said Scott Stevens. "We had a gut check here and we got through it."
Patrik Elias, Sergei Brylin and Alexander Mogilny also scored for the Devils, who took an early 3-0 lead in the series before losing Games 4 and 5.
"Momentum played a key part in this series," Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said. "We had it and they took it away."
Hurricanes goalie Arturs Irbe made 34 saves, but couldn't quite repeat the heroics that helped Carolina to win two games.
"These people were crazy," Irbe said of the crowd. "If anybody now says there is no future for hockey here or that hockey doesn't belong here then they are wrong. They opened their hearts to us and we felt that way to them."
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