Simon Nemec was the hero of the night of Game 3 as he scored in double overtime for the New Jersey Devils to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2. This post breaks down the playoff game winning goal, which was a bit more than an individual effort.
On April 25, 2025, the New Jersey Devils won their first playoff game since May 7, 2023. That was when the Devils prevailed 8-4 over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the second round of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. It gave the Devils some brief hope as they made it a 1-2 series. The game on April 25 was also Game 3 against the Carolina Hurricanes and that also made it a 1-2 series. The big difference was while May 7’s game was a goal fest, this one was as tight as could be. The game required not one but two overtime periods. The game also required a hero of the night. His name would be Simon Nemec as he scored the sudden death golden goal to deny a Carolina a potential sweep and keep the Devils in the playoffs for at least five games this year.
That is more than a good enough reason to breakdown his game winning goal.
The Game Situation
- It was 5-on-5 hockey.
- The score was 2-2.
- The goal was scored 2:36 into double overtime (the fifth period), or with 17:24 left in double overtime.
- The goal was scored by Simon Nemec.
- No assists were awarded on the play.
- The New Jersey Devils on the ice: #25 Jacob Markstrom, #22 Brett Pesce, #17 Simon Nemec, #14 Nathan Bastian, #13 Nico Hischier, #18 Ondrej Palat
- The Carolina Hurricanes on the ice: #31 Frederik Andersen, #7 Dmitry Orlov, #4 Shayne Gostisbehere, #71 Taylor Hall, #50 Eric Robinson, #96 Jack Roslovic
If you want a recap of the game as a whole, then please check out Jackson’s recap of the double overtime victory.
The Video of the Goal
Sportsnet has a full clip from where the play really started up until the final goal. I will be using that video, which uses the TNT feed. Between the two, you and I will best understand what happened that led to Nemec’s Game 3 winner. The video is owned by the linked personnel. All poorly drawn arrows, shapes, crop, and text are by me in Microsoft Paint.
The Breakdown
We begin at 2:20 with the Devils dumping the puck in. Tomas Tatar is giving chase as is Nathan Bastian on the left (near-side) wall. Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker are backchecking. Justin Dowling is trailing in on the right (far-side) wall. The goaltender, Frederik Andersen, is coming out to play the puck.
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Now, you may be wondering why is Tatar and Walker here when they were not on the ice for the goal? The teams were in the process of changing players. Jack Roslovic has come on for Jesperi Kotkaneimi. The Dowling line was near the end of its own shift. Brian Dumoulin, way behind the play, was going to switch out for Brian Pesce. It is double overtime so any opportunity to change is one to take.
Anyway, the dump-in takes place. I am not sure who on New Jersey did it but they sent it around fast enough for Frederik Andersen to come out to play the puck. Nathan Bastian is behind Shayne Gostisbehere and Tatar is streaking toward the puck. He will not beat the goalie to the puck but he will cause a problem.
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Tatar went for the steal. He more or less denied Andersen of the play he thought he would make. My guess would be to continue the puck around the rim of the far corner. Which would have been an error as Justin Dowling – now in frame – was on that side. Dowling sees Tatar’s pressure and he will make a bee-line to behind the net. Andrei Svechnikov has dropped deeper for support. Gostisbehere is watching but he is going to stick to Bastian. The Canes play man-on-man defense in their own end. Bastian is his man, he will stay with him until he does not have to. Walker, on the other hand, has Tatar as his man. He will go behind the net to help his goalie and get this puck out of the zone before Tatar could do something with it.
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Walker recovered the puck and took a touch. Perhaps to settle it or to get his own body right from the endboards to actually move the puck. This allowed Andersen to get back to tending his goal. This also puts him in a spot. Tatar is coming from behind. Worse, Dowling has him lined up for a big check. Svechnikov, now between the right circle and the crease, can only watch the pain about to be handed out. Gostisbehere is still on his man Bastian. I want to think Walker see Dowling coming right at him. I know Walker has one goal in mind: move this puck around the corner before the check interrupts him.
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Dowling made his check. It was big, it was loud, it got a pop, and Ken Daneyko was effusive about it into the postgame show. Walker did his job. He moved the puck out to get it away. With Dowling laying the check, the space behind him was open. The puck will head there. Svechnikov, who read this situation, makes another good decision. He will hustle to the space to get this puck out of the zone.
Meanwhile, Gostisbehere lays off his coverage of Bastian. He saw his defensive partner make a play. He is by the net. Bastian is nowhere near this puck. He does not need to cover him. Keep that in mind for the next few pictures.
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Svechnikov has won the race to the space where the puck was heading. He does the smart thing and shuttle the puck up the boards. As it turned out, Roslovic stayed close to the bench after coming on knowing there were three skaters deep in his own end. He is an outlet for Svechnikov to make this zone exit.
As for the Devils, the fourth line (or third line part two) certainly hustled on this play. Tatar made up a lot of ground to be somewhat close to where the puck was being moved. He stretched his stick but he was too late. Bastian is already above the right circle and closing in on Roslovic, who is standing by his own blueline. Nemec is reading the play and started to drop back into the neutral zone. Gostisbehere is on an island in his own slot.
This positioning will matter in a few seconds.
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Roslovic one-touches the puck away into the neutral zone for the zone exit. Bastian came in hot enough to provide pressure on Roslovic. I like to think he forced it to be a one-touch exit and, more importantly, an pass to no one across the neutral zone instead of another Hurricane.
Ideally, Roslovic would have fed Jordan Martinook or played the puck towards Gostisbehere across his own blueline. That would have kept the puck in Carolina possession. Maybe for a dump-in of their own. Maybe for a 2-on-2 rush to force some offense. Yes, the puck was played out but it is now up for grabs. Believe it or not, this is the first actual mistake by Carolina on this play. And it is about to snowball real fast.
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The puck was played away by Roslovic and both sides treated it like it was a dump-and-change. Again, it is double overtime. There is no guarantee that a break will come. However, it will not be a full change for both sides. As Nemec dropped back prior to the Roslovic exit, he is in a position to retrieve this puck with nobody around him. The closest player to him is Bastian, who will stay on as Tatar and Dowling head off. For Carolina, they Martinook curled for a change and Svechnikov headed off too. Walker also made a change. What about Gostisbehere?
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Well, remember that Gostisbehere was last seen in Carolina’s zone in the slot? He was far away enough from the bench that making a change would expose that side of the ice. With Nemec retrieving the puck there, that would have given him and Bastian a massive area to work with on a rush. Instead, he is effectively defending two Devils by himself. Better than zero Hurricanes defending two Devils, I suppose.
The problem for Carolina and Gostisbehere is that Nemec is coming in fast. Bastian correctly waits at the blueline to allow Nemec, who has the puck, to get on side first. Gostisbehere had his stick out ready for Nemec, so he identifies the actual threat. Should he want to, Nemec could lay a little drop pass for Bastian. After all, there are no other Devils to support him on this play.
Nemec decided on being bold. Notice that there are four Hurricanes from the middle of the zone and higher. Roslovic is in front of them and he will make an attempt to support Gostisbehere. I want to think Nemec saw this and figured he could take Gostisbehere one-on-one. Something that may favor the defenseman since that is typically how the Canes play defense in their own end. However, Gostisbehere has been sheltered more than the other defensemen and we are about to see why. The gap he is giving Nemec is generous and will allow the young Devil to push up further.
To think, what will happen next would not have happened if Roslovic did not just one-touch a puck into nowhere in the neutral zone.
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Nemec bursted past Gostisbehere. Even more, he did it to Gostisbehere’s right. This could have been an issue if Roslovic was a touch faster in support. It looks like in this picture that he could stick check Nemec or get the puck away. But he is further away and all he can do is watch his teammate get torched. It was not like Nemec made an ankle-breaking move. He really just got by his stick check and moved fast enough that a body check was not going to get him. A great play by Nemec to beat the defender. A bold decision paid off! It is now up to him to finish the drill. Again, there is no other Devil to support him. Bastian is the only one remotely near him and he is behind him and further away from the goal.
As indicated by the big red arrow, Nemec will fly freely to the left circle. Specifically, the dot. Andersen knows this is about to be a one-on-one situation and starts to get into position as he is at the top of his crease. The other Canes, they are just too far away. They need their goalie to come up big.
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Andersen did set his stance from the top of his crease line. Nemec knew enough to aim for the far post. He did not quite get it right – but he erred on the right side of the post. Normally when a player shoots for the far post from his perspective, the puck tends to miss wide by angling the puck too obtusely. Nemec will do the opposite: he will fire this puck towards Andersen’s shoulder. The read is that Andersen will go down and the puck will go towards a spot that is awkward to intentionally make a save. It is not glove side. Getting the blocker up would hard and maybe take too long to make. It would have to be the shoulder. The Hurricanes can only watch (sorry Dmitry Orlov, your stick stretch is only getting air) and hope Andersen’s shoulder will be enough to stop this shot.
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It was not. The puck hit off of it and dropped into the inside of the far post, rolling into the corner of the net. Andersen turned his head and knew it was over. Simon Nemec became a hero! Game 3 was won by New Jersey!
The Lessons to Learn
Playoff hockey is tense enough. Overtime in the playoffs is beyond tense. This goal was a great example as to why. A seemingly harmless zone exit by Jack Roslovic was punished in a seconds by Simon Nemec. Carolina survived one major mishap behind the net. Despite the big hit, Walker did his job as did Svechnikov. The hit by Dowling or Tatar’s pressure was not the cause of the goal. Bastian hustling like he knew he was not going to get another shift for five minutes provided the pressure that led to Roslovic hurrying the puck away. I would say that was the first error, albeit not massive at first, that led to the goal. While it gave the Canes an exit and a chance to change, again, it was punished.
It was punished because Nemec made the right move to drop back and stayed on to collect the puck. Knowing that Carolina was changing and Gostisbehere could not do so due to his positioning, he went off on his own effort. That was another little error that became a big one very quickly. Gostisbehere was left alone to defend what was coming and everyone else, Roslovic included, could not come in to help in time. It is the kind of thing meant when you hear or see the cliche “You gotta get the puck in deep!” The exit combined with the change led to a quasi-two-on-one situation that led to the goal. Quasi because, again, Bastian was not really an option on the play. His presence kept Gostisbehere back if anything.
Nemec going ahead was the key decision and it worked out wonderfully. Did he have any other signs? Bastian staying on may have been another sign to go ahead since a dump-and-change would not be necessary given the other changes. Gostisbehere being the only one in preparation to defend was another possible sign. And of all of the defensemen to lean on in a one-on-one, the Devils got the right one to take on. Nemec beat him clean.
Nemec continued the play by making the right decision for his shot. He knew to shoot it from a good distance, which is from the dot and further inside. He knew to aim for the far post given Andersen’s angle. He knew to aim high to make it a potentially harder shot for Andersen to stop. And he got some puck luck as the puck hit off Andersen’s shoulder and arced into the net.
Aside: Funnily enough, if Orlov did not stretch out and stayed upright, he could have been in a position to clear the puck before going into the net. Oh, well, that’s tough, Orlov. Try not to take out any more knees in Game 4.
But the main lesson to take away is that even a little mistake or two (Roslovic’s zone exit, Carolina changing players) can become a big problem real fast. That is true on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in December. That is true on a warmer Friday night in April. That is true in this sport. It is what makes playoff hockey both exhilarating and agonizing. It is also what can lead to someone stepping up to become a hero for even just one night. Well done, Simon Nemec.
Your Take
That is the goal breakdown of the first New Jersey Devils goal to win a playoff game in nearly two years. A goal that extends their series with Carolina to five games. A goal that is easily the highlight of Nemec’s season and one of the most important goals for the team in 2024-25. You have now read what I saw in the play that led to Simon Nemec’s goal. Now I want to know what you think about it. What did you learn from this breakdown? Please leave your answers and other thoughts on this breakdown of the team’s first playoff game winning goal of 2025 in the comments. Thank you for reading.