GAME 1

Hurricanes 6

Devils 0

RALEIGH – Hurricanes build in thin air, where that aura of Devils invincibility vanished.

So much was lost by the Devils yesterday – their record-tying 15-game winning streak, their eight-game road winning streak, their perfect playoff. They lost their discipline, their power play dominance, their penalty-killing aplomb, and their poise. In losing the opener of their series with Carolina, they were reminded that the last three times they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs, they’ve been the road team.

As such, they’ll need a response to yesterday’s 6-0 massacre by the Hurricanes here, or Lou Lamoriello’s Miracle in the Making will end just like Kevin Constantine’s in 2002.

“This is going to happen. It’s how you respond that matters,” Scott Gomez said.

“We got hit hard and we have to get it back. The next game, we have no choice, said birthday boy Martin Brodeur, yanked on his 34th birthday after allowing all six. “We can’t hope it just happens by itself by just playing a game.”

His afternoon included four clinkers on shots from along the goal line, as the Hurricanes discovered his weak spot.

“It happened so often, you questioned what was going on,” Brodeur said.

“It wasn’t any huge strategy on our part,” Carolina’s Doug Weight said. “In the playoffs, you get the puck toward the net. I actually think he’s pretty strong with pucks at his feet.”

The Devils gave up a team record five power play goals and Carolina connected four times along the goal line before Brodeur was pulled, handing the Devils their second-worst ever playoff loss.

“It’s not going to take anything from us, like the past 15 games. We just didn’t play a good game, especially the special teams,” Patrik Elias said. “Nothing’s going to be easy, we knew that.

“But this is nothing. It’s one hurdle.”

Their confidence took a shellacking, though. Ray Whitney scored the first two goals of this series, as the Devils yielded the opener for their second straight game – after never trailing in their first three agianst the Rangers.

Ken Klee inexplicably flipped the puck into the stands, giving Carolina its first power play, and it cost New Jersey, with the Devils’ other deadline defense acquisition another culprit. Whitney was stationed along the left goal line and relayed Matt Cullen’s left point feed into the crease. Brodeur steered the puck in front, but it went off the skate of Brad Lukowich, right back under Brodeur and in at 11:37 of the first.

Whitney did it again from the other side, this time without any help from Devils defensemen, 2:58 into the second as the Devils fell behind by two for the first time in this postseason. From the right corner, Whitney threw a feed into the crease, towards Weight at the back door. Before it could reach Weight, however, Brodeur reached out with his stick, and it went off the inside of the blade, between his legs for Whitney’s third of the playoffs.

New Jersey was on the power play some seven minutes later when ex-Devil Mike Commodore slammed Scott Gomez into the boards. Gomez limped to the bench, favoring his left leg. He returned to the ice quickly, but seemed unable to put full weight or push off strongly on that leg.

Eric Staal and Cory Stillman put the game away by converting both ends of a 5-on-3 after Jamie Langenbrunner compounded Sergei Brylin’s penalty. Staal grabbed Brind’Amour’s faceoff victory and broke down the right slot, shooting stick side. Brodeur got a piece of it, but the puck trickled in at 17:32.

Brodeur, replaced by Scott Clemmensen after allowing six on 35 shots in 53:07, said this was completely different from facing the Rangers, whom they outscored 17-4 in their sweep.

“Night and day,” Brodeur said.

That’s how this series looks now, too.