Most away teams in the playoffs look for a split in the first two road games, negating home ice and taking a tied series back to their arena.
The New Jersey Devils don't want to settle for that split. They want two wins at the Bank Atlantic Center.
"The pressure shifts to them and we've got to get greedy now and come out and try to get two," Devils coach Pete DeBoer told Tom Gulitti of The Bergen Record.
New Jersey will look to open up a 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers tonight at the Bank Atlantic Center. Gametime is 7:30 p.m., and can be seen on either the NBC Sports Network or MSG Plus.
The Devils won the first game of the series, 3-2, Friday night. New Jersey fired 26 shots on net in the first period, and the trio of Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus and Ryan Carter helped open a 3-0 advantage for the Devils. Florida would answer back in the second period, with Sean Bergenheim and Kris Versteeg cutting the lead to one.
New Jersey would hold on in the third period, skating away with the victory. They're 14-5 all-time in series where they win the first game.
Florida, in the playoffs for the first time since 2000, hasn't had much postseason success. They've lost nine straight postseason games, with their last win coming in a first round series against the New York Rangers in 1997.
Ilya Kovalchuk expects a different Panthers team for tonight's game.
"We've just got to take one game at a time and it's pressure on them now," he told Gulitti after yesterday's morning skate. "We won the first game and tomorrow it's a big test for us. They're going to bring their A game for sure. They were a little slow from the start, maybe a little nervous for the first game, but tomorrow they'll be ready."
Devils captain Zach Parise expects New Jersey to match that intensity.
"I don't think the attitude in here is going home happy with a split," he told Gulitti. "We want to win that second one really badly. I'm sure they're preaching the same thing that it's one game. We're saying the same thing. It's only one game. We've got a long ways to go."
"We have to be prepared to match whatever they're going to raise as far as their intensity goes," DeBoer told Gulitti. "No one wants to be in a 0-2 hole heading onto the road for two games, so I think we're going to see their best game and we've got to be ready for that."