The Devils have already come back from one 2-0 deficit to win a playoff series, so why not another?

That was the prevailing question on Sunday afternoon in Newark, as the Devils announced themselves in Game 3 against the Hurricanes, playing a relentless 60 minutes of hockey on their way to an 8-4 demolition that pulled their deficit in the series back to 2-1 and delivered a message: New Jersey will be no easy out.

“You guys throw around inexperience, you throw that around. Now we’ve been in this situation before where we’ve been down 2-0,” Jack Hughes said following a four-point performance that included a Gordie Howe hat trick. “You don’t want to say you’re comfortable there, but you know it’s still a long series to go. We’re back in this thing.”

With Vitek Vanecek replacing Akira Schmid in net and Luke Hughes making his playoff debut to Damon Severson’s left, the Devils delivered a blindingly tenacious performance.

Their forecheck was dominant, the puck was constantly below the hashes, the superstars showed up and drove play — with Timo Meier and Nico Hischier both scoring their first goals of the playoffs while Hughes the elder was the best player on the ice, scoring twice and getting into a rare fight with Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, whaling on the Hurricanes’ star.

“I think that kills his chance for the Lady Byng,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff deadpanned.

“That’s not a fight,” Hughes said, which is true if you believe fights must be competitive to count as such.

This was the polar opposite of the first two games in Raleigh, which, like the first two games against the Rangers, saw the Devils get blown to smithereens by an opponent that looked more experienced and superior.

Maybe it just takes the Devils 120 minutes to find their moorings in a playoff series.

Because from the start on Sunday, the ice was tilted their way.

After going scoreless through the first nine games of the postseason, Meier opened the scoring 5:58 into the match, poking a feed from Jack Hughes past Frederik Andersen at the right post.

Jack Hughes got on the board himself five minutes later, rocketing a give-and-go feed from Brendan Smith in on a right-circle one-timer.

Less than two minutes after that, when the first seeds of momentum were planted for Carolina in the form of Tomas Tatar taking an offensive-zone high-sticking penalty, Michael McLeod charged past five Hurricanes off a center-ice faceoff and scored shorthanded.

That made it 3-0 at the first intermission, rendering the rest of the game a different kind of test for the Devils, one they passed with ease.

It took just 53 seconds of play in the second period for Hischier to finish a feed to the crease from Jesper Bratt, prompting Rod Brind’Amour to remove Andersen for Pyotr Kochetkov, Anderson having allowed four goals on 12 shots.

“This group totally understands where we’re at,” Ruff said. “When we were down 0-2 before, we knew that — tough defensive series against the Rangers — we knew this was gonna be tough. I think to get the start we did and get those guys on the board, the game Nico had, Timo the way he played physically — the goal he got, the other opportunities. Really felt that our top guys, from [Ondrej] Palat to Nico, gave us what we needed.”

The rest of the game counted as strange, albeit not particularly competitive, with the Hurricanes scoring three times shorthanded while Severson, Wood and Jack Hughes all scored highlight-reel goals for the Devils.

When Carolina pulled within three in the third period, Palat quickly added a power-play goal to quell any nerves.

There is still a long way to go towards completing a second straight comeback from 2-0 down, and after Antti Raanta did not dress on Sunday due to illness, the question for Brind’Amour now is who will man the net in Game 4.

If this version of the Devils continues to show up, though, there is no ceiling.

Jack Hughes looked every bit on Sunday like a playoff superstar, driving play on nearly every shift and getting some punches in on Aho for good measure.

Every line held the offensive zone.

The Hurricanes — a team that wins via speed and suffocation — looked dazed, confused and two steps behind.

“Scoring eight goals is a statement,” Hischier said. “Still a couple things to clean up. But hey, we’ll take a win.”