Parise: Special teams key tonight

As little success as the Hurricanes have had on the power play in the playoffs (1-for-10), the New Jersey Devils have been statistically worse (1-for-14).

“We’ve got to get our power play going,” said Devils’ forward Zach Parise. “There have been plenty of times in the last game where we had a chance to put them out of it, and we weren’t able to convert.”

Both teams missed on big opportunities Sunday night.

“I think both teams are working on it right now,” said Parise.

First, the Devils weren’t able to convert on a 4-minute power play in the first period.

Then, the Hurricanes squandered a 5-on-3 later in the game.

“All series our penalty kill has been good,” said Parise. “Our power play has to produce.”

Devils’ defenseman Paul Martin said the aggressive mode, while risky, has been most important to his squad’s penalty kill. They’ve tried, successfully, to disrupt the Hurricanes ability to even set up.

“We’ve struggled with them at times this year,” said Martin. “We mostly found if we sit back and let them set up, they have some pretty talented players that can do some damage. … We can’t give them time in space. We found that we had to make it difficult for them just to skate in the zone.”