Jets downed in Hurricanes win, 5-3 Jets have two-game streak ended

In Raleigh, Jesperi Kotkaniemi hit for a double on Tuesday night, and the Hurricanes downed the Winnipeg Jets, 5-3.Frederik Andersen made 21 saves in the Carolina win.

“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.”

The Hurricanes improved to 44-14-8.

“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 were the Jets strikers.

“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.”

Winnipeg dropped to 38-27-3 after having won two straight.

The Canes took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a strike by Jaccob Slavin, but DeMelo tied it, 1-1, with 19 seconds of fresh ice used in the middle frame.

Brady Skjei replied 39 seconds later for a 2-1 lad to the Hurricanes, and Kotkaniemi scored his first of the game for a 3-1 lead.

Ehlers trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the third period, but Carolina responded with a marker form Jack Drury for a 4-2 advantage.

“It feels good,” said Drury. “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 got got that one back for the Jets to make it 4-3, but Kotkaniemi hit an empty net for the 5-3 final with his double.

“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.

David Rittich made 20 saves in the Jets loss.