The Carolina Hurricanes put on a defensive clinic, holding the New Jersey Devils to just 18 shots, including one in the first period in a 5-1 victory in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series at RBC Arena.

Jesper Fast had a goal and an assist and Eric Staal picked up two assists for Carolina. Frederik Andersen made 17 saves.

"That was obviously the way you want to do it", said Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour. "I was a little bit concerned that maybe [after] gthe layoff, I didn't know how we were going to respond.

"But you could see we had a little bit more legs. Credit to the guys, we came ready to go."

Nathan Bastian scored New Jersey's only goal and Vitek Vanacek stopped 10 of 11 shots in relief of Akira Schmid, who allowed thre goals on 11 shots.

The Devils were playing just two days after shutting out the New York Rangers 4-0 in Game 7 of their first-round series.

"In my eyes, coming off a huge emotional win, quick turnaround, you look at the energy [Carolina] came out with", said New Jersey head coach Lindy Ruff.

"They backed us into a corner right away. We didn't execute. You've got to give them a lot of credit. 

"I can only imagine the amount of people telling you what an unbelievable game the previous one was. We all felt the same way. You start thinking this is pretty good, and then you egt an eye-opener tonight. You're right back in the playoffs again."

Game 2 is Friday night.

Hurricanes rout Devils in series opener behind Fast, smothering defense

Carolina opened the scoring with 10:19 left in the first period. Staal won a faceoff to Brett Pesce, his wrist shot beating Schmid blocker-side through traffic from above the left faceoff circle.

"I saw a lane, just tried to get it through", Pesce said. "Our start was just how we wanted it. [We] played fast, physical and got some pucks to the net."

Seth Jarvis intercepted Ryan Graves' pass inside the New Jersey offensive zone, chipped the puck into the neutral zone and beat Schmid glove side with a wrist shot.

"I was like 'I've got to get going, i've got to move, I've got to move", Jarvis said. "But finally I was kind of able to cut in and knew [Schmid] was going to probably play the pass, so shot was my only option."

The Hurricanes outshot the Devils 10-1 in the first period.

"They created a lot of pressure", Ruff said. "Their [defenseman] were heavily involved in their forecheck, and we just didn't win enough of those 50-50 battles in the first period."

Jesperi Kotkaniemi made it a 3-0 game less than two minutes into the second period, taking a pass from Fast and after blowing a chance at the right post, he got the puck back from Jordan Martinook and tapped home, chasing Schmid.

"I thought we did a good job of being above it for the most part and trying to grind it out down low", Martinook said. "We were kind of sitting here licking our chops. We haven't played in four or five days, so we were fresh and ready to rock."

Bastian got New Jersey on the board, taking a pass from Michael McLeod, eluding the Carolina defense and beating Andersen over his right shoulder with a wrist shot.

"We're a confident group, and the first period was not good enough", Bastian said. "To come back and maybe start feeling our game a little bit in the second, obviously it's positive. 

"We have no doubt in this group that we'll come out better next time."

The Devils outshot the Hurricanes 9-6 in the second period and Nico Hischer had a point-blank chance to make it a one-goal game.

"Every game there's different ebbs and flows in who kind of has control of it", Andersen said. "They'll put some pressure on. There's a lot of good skilled players on that team. I'm glad we were able to regroup for the third (period)."

Brady Skjei took a pass from Sebastian Aho and one-timed pass Vanacek before Fast scored into an empty net with 3:16 left in the game for the 5-1 final.