Hughes sparks offence as Devils cut into Hurricanes' series lead with Game 3 win

Jack Hughes scored two goals, set up two more and had a near fight as the New Jersey Devils began the task of digging out of another hole with an 8-4 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Sunday.

The eight goals were the most for the Devils in a playoff game since they beat Washington 10-4 on April 22, 1988.

Michael McLeod capped a three-goal opening period with a short-handed goal and 19-year-old defenceman Luke Hughes — Jack's brother — made his playoff debut and picked up two assists. Dawson Mercer had three assists.

Carolina set an NHL record, scoring three short-handed goal in the game. Jordan Martinook scored on a penalty shot in the second period with the Canes down a man and Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis scored 50 seconds apart on the same penalty kill in the third.

Sebastian Aho had other goal for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen, who allowed two goals on 48 shots in the first two games of the series, gave up four on 12 shots before being replaced by Pyotr Kochetkov early in the second period.

TOP-SHELF JACK HUGHES &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; <a href="https://t.co/uSIAmzql6d">pic.twitter.com/uSIAmzql6d</a>

This was a totally different game than the first two in Raleigh, North Carolina, which the Canes won by a combined 11-2 score. They dominated from start to finish in both games, with their forecheck bottling up the Devils' up-tempo offence.

Meier opened the scoring at 5:58, stuffing a puck past Andersen from in close. Hughes scored from the right circle five minutes later after taking a pass from Brendan Smith and McLeod started the rout with his shorthanded goal in close at 12:31.

It was never close after that.