Jesperi Kotkaniemi scores 2, leads Hurricanes over Jets 5-3

Jesperi Kotkaniemi had two goals and an assist, Jack Drury scored his first goal of the season and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 on Tuesday night.

Jaccob Slavin and Brady Skjei, also scored for the Hurricanes, who’ve endured sudden offensive woes and the loss of a star player during the past week. Kotkaniemi’s second goal of the game was an empty-netter with four seconds left. Frederik Andersen made 21 saves.

Dylan DeMelo, Nikolaj Ehlers and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Jets. David Rittich made 20 saves.

Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves and Tampa Bay won the opener of a two-game set in New Jersey.

Anthony Cirelli, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov also scored for Tampa Bay. The teams will meet again in New Jersey on Thursday night.

Damon Severson opened the scoring for the Devils at 5:55 of the first period. Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves for New Jersey.

Mika Zibanejad scored twice in the first period and the New York Rangers beat the short-handed Washington.

Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, Jacob Trouba and Jimmy Vesey also scored and Vincent Trocheck had two assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin made 28 saves to help New York win the opener of a five-game homestand, its longest of the season.

Matt Irwin had a goal and an assist, and Nicolas

Aube-Kubel and Nic Dowd also scored for a Capitals team minus star left wing Alex Ovechkin (lowerbody injury). Darcy Kuemper finished with 31 saves as Washington lost for the third time in four games.

Anthony Richard scored the winning goal in the third period and Montreal snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Josh Anderson scored an empty-net goal while the Penguins pressed for the tie. Mike Hoffman scored his 11th while Denis Gurianov, Jesse Ylonen and Joel Edmundson also scored for the Canadiens. Sam Montembeault made 39 saves.

Jake Guentzel scored twice and Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins, who play significant back-to-back division games at the New

York Rangers on Thursday and Saturday. Pittsburgh, which currently holds a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, has points in eight of its last 10 games.

Tristan Jarry started, but allowed four goals on seven shots. It was the fourth time in five games Jarry allowed four goals and the second time he was pulled. DeSmith stopped 13 shots in relief.

Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist, Juuse Saros made 28 saves and Nashville won its third straight.

Tommy Novak also scored for Nashville. The Predators were coming off a 4-1-1 trip.

Nashville trails Winnipeg by four points in the rush for the Western Conference’s second wild-card berth, with Nashville having played three fewer games.