Devils: Series has been tight

The series between the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils has been a grind.

It’s the only series in which no team has won back-to-back games.

The Devils and Hurricanes might be the most evenly matched of any of the other first-round pairings.

“That’s a good hockey team over there,” said New Jersey forward Brian Rolston. “Both goalies have been tremendous in this series. I think that speaks for both teams. They’re both playing good.”

In the regular season, the Hurricanes won the first three games, but ended the regular season in a road loss to the Devils.

“All the games were tight between the two teams,” said star forward Zach Parise. “I don’t know what it is. I think both teams are pretty good defensively and don’t give a lot of chances. And when there is a breakdown, their goalie is usually there to bail them out. Goals have been tough to come by this series.”

Of the back-and-forth nature of the series, Parise said the team that has lost has just been more desperate.

“I wouldn’t say there’s so much of a let down as much as the other team comes back and plays with a little bit more desperation,” he said. “Tonight we know what’s at stake and as do they. It’s going to be another tough game. We’ll just make sure we’re ready to play.”

New Jersey coach Brent Sutter said, as a coach, he’s had to try to keep himself emotionally grounded in order to stay focused on coaching.

“I’m sure Paul [Maurice] would say the same thing. … It’s certainly been an interesting series,” said Sutter. “There’s been some anxious moments. ... You can’t get too caught up into the game as far as becoming too big of a fan in it because you’ve got to make sure you’re focused in on your team and your bench. But it has been an exciting series.”

Parise, whose team scored the first goal in the first three games, said scoring first is nice, but not the be-all, end-all.

“We showed that we’re capable of coming back from 3-0,” said Parise, recalling the Devils’ 4-3 regulation loss in Game 4, which ended on Jussi Jokinen’s tip-in with two tenths of a second remaining. “But let’s hope we don’t get ourselves in that situation.”