RALEIGH, N.C. — Jaromir Jagr almost missed out on reaching a milestone Monday night.
The New Jersey Devils are certainly glad he managed to play.
Jagr had a goal and an assist in his 1,500th NHL game to help the Devils defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1.
"I didn’t feel very well," Jagr said, describing tiredness and a lack of energy. "I told (coach Peter DeBoer) at 4 o’clock, ‘Don’t play me. I feel strange.’ One hour to go (before the game), I started feeling better."
Jagr also moved into fifth place on the NHL’s career points list with 1,772, passing Marcel Dionne.
"I play a lot of games," Jagr said. "I try to stay healthy. That’s what it takes."
Devils goalie Cory Schneider made 39 saves, including 17 in the third period.
Adam Henrique scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 13.4 seconds remaining in the second period for the Devils, who won for only the second time in eight games.
Jagr’s fifth of the season tied the score with 5:15 left in the second when he took a pass from Scott Gomez, who finished with two assists in his fourth game of the season.
"The guy knows how to get open and he can dominate a hockey game," Gomez said. "It’s kind of easy when you try to find that guy and he knows what to do with it."
The 42-year-old Jagr set up Henrique’s goal, moving the puck around the back of the net and hitting his teammate with a pass.
Jagr has 710 career goals and 1,062 assists.
"I remind myself daily being around him that this is all special," DeBoer said. "We might never see this again. I don’t think I’ll see it in my lifetime, a guy playing this long at the level he’s playing at."
Carolina defenceman Justin Faulk opened the scoring with a second-period goal. Cam Ward made 14 saves for the Hurricanes.
Carolina registered the first 13 shots on goal in the third and ended up with a 17-1 edge in the period.
"Hanging on, but I don’t care at this point," DeBoer said. "We’re not looking for pretty. We just need points."
New Jersey killed off a Carolina power play in the third period when former Hurricanes forward Tuomo Ruutu was in the penalty box for boarding. That contributed to a busy stretch for Schneider.
"They were coming at all different angles," he said. "I had to be sharp at all times."
Faulk’s goal came on the 13th shot of the game for the Hurricanes, who failed to score more than twice in any of the five games on their homestand. The defenceman took a pass in the slot from Andrej Nestrasil before firing a shot past Schneider.
That’s all they managed.
"I don’t even know if it was a hot goaltender," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "I think it’s just self-inflicted wounds."
On a total of 75 shots across the last two games, Carolina has two goals.
"It wasn’t good enough, obviously," forward Jeff Skinner said. "I don’t think we worked hard enough to be rewarded tonight. We had a fair amount of shots, but I don’t think we have enough drive."
NOTES: RW Martin Havlat was in the New Jersey lineup after missing three games with an injury, but LW Mike Cammalleri, the team’s top goal scorer, was out with a muscle pull. … Hurricanes RW Alexander Semin, a healthy scratch for a few games last month, sat out again. … Carolina finished a 1-4 homestand. "We’re going to look back and regret it, for sure," Peters said. … Gomez moved into fifth place in team history with 336 assists.
