Hurricanes become first team to advance to second round of 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs

It took double overtime, but the Carolina Hurricanes won’t mind.

The Hurricanes are off to the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs after beating the New Jersey Devils 5-4 on Tuesday evening.

Carolina managed to close the series out in five games. It marks the fifth year the Hurricanes have won their first-round playoff matchups, with the team losing to the Boston Bruins in 2019-20.

The Hurricanes didn’t have it easy on Tuesday night. They found themselves trailing 3-0 less than 10 minutes into the opening frame after watching Dawson Mercer, Timo Meier and Stefan Noesen score early. Taylor Hall would then get the team back into it early in the second, with Jackson Blake and Andrei Svechnikov making it a 3-3 game just after the fifth minute of the second.

Nico Hischier and Sebastian Aho would each score goals before the middle stanza was over to make it a 4-4 game. The battle remained close from there, but nobody would score again until the 4:17 mark of the fifth period. There, Aho scored his second goal of the game and Carolina’s 53rd shot of the night to close things out.

This marks the first time the Hurricanes have beaten the Devils in the playoffs since 2009, which also happened in the first round. Carolina also beat New Jersey in 2006 en route to an eventual Stanley Cup final win.

The Hurricanes will await the winner of the series between the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens, with Game 5 set for Wednesday night. The Capitals hold a 3-1 series lead.

The Devils were without both Jack and Luke Hughes, as well as defensemen Brenden Dillon and Johnathan Kovacevic. Despite that, it was a big bounce-back season for the club after missing the playoffs entirely in 2024. The 2024-25 season is also just the second time they’ve made the playoffs over the past seven years.