Carolina Holds Off Devils 4-2

Settling a score with an old nemesis moved the Carolina Hurricanes one step closer to the franchise's first playoff berth in seven years.

"The New Jersey Devils had abused us all season, and it was nice to give a little back," Gary Roberts said after the Hurricanes, losers in their previous four games against the Devils this season, defeated New Jersey 4-2 on Tuesday night.

Keith Primeau scored his 30th goal and Ray Sheppard got his 25th and added an assist as the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes broke a four-game winless drought. Roberts and Jeff O'Neill also scored for Carolina, which can wrap up the division title with five points in its last five games even if second-place Florida wins all of its remaining contests.

"We are getting there," said Carolina goaltender Arturs Irbe, who had 30 saves. "One game does not make us contenders, obviously, but we want to build on it."

Scott Niedermayer and Sergei Nemchinov scored in the final six minutes as New Jersey rallied from a 4-0 deficit, but it wasn't enough to extend the Devils' unbeaten streak to eight games.

"We kept at it through the whole course of the game," New Jersey coach Robbie Ftorek said. "We had some chances but we just didn't put it away."

The Atlantic Division-leading Devils came in with an NHL-best 25 road victories, including seven in their previous 10 games away from New Jersey.

The Devils had outscored the Hurricanes 18-9 this season. But this time the Hurricanes were aggressive on both ends of the ice and even got one of their scores from what has been the NHL's weakest power play for most of the season. A second power-play goal was disallowed because Primeau was in the crease.

"God forbid we should ever score two power-play goals in the same game," Carolina coach Paul Maurice joked. "They wanted to make sure that didn't happen."

The Hurricanes got a early sign that luck might be in their favor when Sean Hill dumped the puck into the Devils' zone less than nine minutes into the game. The puck skidded along the boards down the left side of the zone, so New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur skated behind the net to stop it. But the puck hit a bump along the boards just before it got to Brodeur, and it kicked out directly into the empty crease, where Roberts tapped it in for a 1-0 lead.

"It was a break," Maurice said. "Maybe it was a sign that we were going to put some pucks in the net."

After Primeau scored on a 25-foot wrist shot early in the second period, O'Neill slapped in a rebound of Sami Kapanen's miss while the Hurricanes had a one-man advantage later in the period.

Sheppard made it 4-0 with 14:33 left in the game when his shot from behind the net caromed off New Jersey's Brad Bombardir.

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