Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce’s ability to rebound essential in team’s playoff success

Brett Pesce had a long, 45-hour wait between the debacle of Game 3 and his chance for redemption. It didn’t come quickly. It even got worse before it got better.

But it did get better.

The way the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman bounced back from not only Sunday’s disaster but a ghastly early turnover Tuesday was both emblematic of his team’s recovery and essential to the Hurricanes’ ability to do that.

Pesce gifted the New Jersey Devils their first goal in Game 4, then helped turn a close game into a blowout by setting up one goal and scoring another, bringing the Hurricanes to the brink of advancement with a 6-1 win.

In the end, it was worth the wait.

“That’s the one thing. You’re anxious,” Pesce said. “You want to play a little more, right? Because you didn’t have your best that night. You’ve got to be dialed in once game time hits. Obviously it’s my fault on the first goal, but you keep going. That’s all it is.”

Among all the players who were trying to put Game 3 behind them, no one needed to get off to a better start Tuesday night than Pesce and Brady Skjei, who were on the ice for five of the Devils’ eight goals Sunday.

More than Frederik Andersen. More than anyone else. It was an imperative. The depth of the Hurricanes’ defense is the core strength of their team, and the Pesce-Skjei pairing is right behind Jaccob Slavin and Brett Burns in terms of importance and assignments. The team is not built in a way that can absorb an off night from either pairing, and this was an off-off-off-off night.

It took all of 115 seconds of this must-win Game 4 for Pesce to flip an ill-advised pass up the middle of the ice. He could have gotten the second assist as Jack Hughes tipped Timo Meier’s shot past Andersen.

Disaster.

For Pesce. For Andersen. For the Hurricanes.

The team that scored first had won the first three games of the series, and big. The Hurricanes were up against it now.

But Andersen never wavered, and Martin Necas evened things up late in the first. Pesce settled down. He nearly found Paul Stastny in the slot for a power-play goal in the second, then did find Necas there at even strength, who flipped it top shelf for a lead the Hurricanes would not relinquish.

Two minutes later, Jack Drury set up Pesce in the slot and now the defenseman had a goal of his own and the Hurricanes had not only a two-goal lead but were on the way to a 3-1 lead in the series with a chance to close it out at home in Game 5 on Thursday.

“Roddy (Brind’Amour) always talks about just the next shift,” Pesce said. “I’ve been around long enough and I’ve learned everyone’s going to make mistakes and you’re not going to have good nights and stuff happens, but you’ve got to put it behind you and not lose your confidence, because once you lose your confidence it’s not good. So you just focus on the present and not dwell on the past.”

It was an impressive enough performance from Pesce at the blue line in a vacuum, but all the more so given where he was coming from — to rise that high after falling so low, the mental strength to leave not only Game 3 but a potential series-changing error behind.

While former Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton continues to sink deeper into the mire — he’s minus-8 in the series, was on the ice for three goals against Tuesday and has no points in the four games — Pesce was able to move past his nightmare afternoon, to put his worst-case scenario turnover behind him, and play a critical role helping the Hurricanes escape from the deficit he helped create.

“He’s been around a long time now,” Hurricanes coach Brind’Amour said. “He’s not new to this. I think that has a lot to do with it. He’s able to park it and move on. You have to. Pro sports. The playoffs. It’s important to worry about the next shift. He was able to do that.”

That’s not only the kind of resilience the Hurricanes showed as a team Tuesday but a veteran player who knows his next shift is the most important, no matter what happened on the last. The Hurricanes needed Pesce to make up for his error. He wiped it away completely.

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