Hurricanes get back on track, edge Jets

RALEIGH, N.C. --Jesperi Kotkaniemi had two goals and an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 at PNC Arena on Tuesday.

Brady Skjei had a goal and an assist, and Frederik Andersen made 21 saves for the Hurricanes (44-14-8), who were shut out in each of their previous two games.
Carolina moved two points ahead of the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division with one game in hand. New Jersey lost 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
"Of the last three games, that's probably the least amount of scoring chances of any of them," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It was probably our worst game too, of all of them. It wasn't a great game. We didn't play great, but we responded."

Prior to the game, Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell announced that forward Andrei Svechnikov would have reconstructive surgery on his right ACL on Thursday and miss the remainder of the season.
"The games haven't really gone our way the past couple before this one, and then tough news this morning," Kotkaniemi said. "So, it was just good to get a win, and a big win for 'Svechy' too. He's a big piece of this team, and we're going to miss him for sure."
Dylan DeMelo, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Jets (38-27-3), who had won two in a row. David Rittich made 20 saves.
Winnipeg holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, four points ahead of the Nashville Predators, who have three games in hand and won 2-1 against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.
"Overall, it was the best game we played on the (three-game) road trip," Jets coach Rick Bowness said. "We held a high shot volume team to 25 shots. The team was really, really good, so we're really happy with that."

Jaccob Slavin gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 4:37 of the first period. After he intercepted Brenden Dillon's clearing attempt at the blue line, Slavin's initial shot was stopped by Rittich, but as Dillon tried to bat the rebound away, the puck deflected in off the leg of the Hurricanes' defenseman.
DeMelo scored 19 seconds into the second period to tie it 1-1, electing to shoot blocker side from the right face-off circle on a 2-on-1.
Skjei responded at 58 seconds to put Carolina back in front 2-1. He took a drop pass from Martin Necas following a face-off win by Kotkaniemi and scored glove side from the left circle.
Kotkaniemi pushed it to 3-1 at 8:15 when his wraparound deflected in off Rittich's right skate.
Following the goal, Bowness sat Winnipeg's top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Niederreiter, who were on the ice for each of the three goals, for the rest of the period.
"I think he definitely made the right choice," Niederreiter said. "He played the guys who were going and were good enough, and we simply weren't good enough tonight."

Bowness said, "The other three lines were doing really well. They were creating momentum, so you try to get them out there as much as you can. Some nights, it's just not going your way. That's all it was."
Ehlers cut it to 3-2 at 4:27 of the third period, receiving a cross-ice pass from Blake Wheeler as he skated down the left wing before shooting five-hole on Andersen.
Jack Drury, who was recalled from Chicago of the American Hockey League on Monday, scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-2 at 9:34.
"It feels good," said Drury, who was playing his 22nd game. "Hockey is a funny game. It comes in waves sometimes. That was a great pass by [Stefan Noesen] there. It's nice to get one."

Niederreiter cut it to 4-3 at 15:38 with a one-timer off a pass from Morgan Barron, but Kotkaniemi scored an empty-net goal with four seconds left for the 5-3 final.
"There were some things we weren't happy with," Ehlers said. "We did turn over some pucks. Obviously, when you score a goal and get within one, you don't want to let another one in right away. We'll clean it up.
NOTES:Niederreiter has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a seven-game point streak. … Scheifele and Connor were each minus-4. Niederreiter was minus-3. … Noesen has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) this season, an NHL career high.