Greg Wyshynskiapr 30, 2025, 12:02 AM ET
Closegreg Wyshynski is a senior NHL writer at ESPN.
After the New Jersey Devils saw the season end in double overtime on Tuesday night, goaltender Jacob Mark Strom wanted to express his frustration through his stick. He thought about boomering it onto the board. Instead, he swung it hard against the goal post and smashed it in half.
Sebastian Ajo’s goal at 4:17 in the second overtime in Game 5 gave the Carolina Hurricanes a 5-4 victory and a 4-1 series victory over the Visiting Devils. This was Markstrom’s first puck, flying beside him with 37 consecutive shots in goal. Carolina plundered the short-lived, exhausted demonic defense, but failed to resolve the 35-year-old goalkeeper, which included 18 saves he made in overtime.
“It was one of the better goaltending performances I’ve seen,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brindamour said of Markstrom, who finished with 49 saves. “He put in some early that he wanted to come back, but when he gets dialed in, we don’t beat him, so we think we have to avoid someone.”
Markstrom’s complaints were not just his overtime goals. The Devils built a 3-0 lead in their first period. Carolina scored three times in the first 5:40 of the second term and erased it. New Jersey responded with Nico Histier’s goal, but after four moments Aho tied the score together.
“We put four goals on the road,” Markstrom said. “We should have brought it home. That should have been enough.”
However, as his teammates pointed out, Markstrom’s efforts in overtime should have been enough to win Game 5.
“We were under siege. He was outstanding. We were upset,” coach Sheldon Keefe said.
“He played incredible. Markey kept us in that first overtime,” Hisia said. “He fought his ass and I feel bad for him.”
Markstrom was bought in the Devils’ final offseason with the famous contract with Calgary’s Flame, which aimed to correct the goaltending of the team ranked 30th in 2023-24. He won 26 times in 49 games, but had a .900 save percentage and a 2.50 goal (average). He was mostly outstanding in the playoffs: .911 save percentage and averaging 2.78 goals in five games.
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However, Markstrom couldn’t overcome two things in the Devil’s postseason. The first was their injuries. With Star Center Jack Hughes already not around, who underwent a season-ending shoulder surgery, the Devils suffered injuries from defensive men Luke Hughes, Jonathan Kovasevic and Brenden Dillon, and defensive men Jonas Siegenhurler and Dougie Hamilton played under 100%.
“We beat a few guys in the series. Some guys stepped up and fought. We need to get better. We don’t like the outcome,” Forward Timo Meyer said.
Another factor was the Devils’ special teams. Their power play was officially 0-15. Their penalty kill allowed six goals on a 19 Carolina power play.
“So we definitely lost the series. We couldn’t do power plays. It’s people on the ice to those who include me. It definitely gets frustrating,” Hishia said.
However, the Devils spit out the series and despite those flaws, they pushed Carolina to double overtime in the elimination game.
“There’s a lot of will in this room,” Markstrom said. “I’m smoking now.”
