Hurricanes dominate Devils again

Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored two goals for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-1 win over the New Jersey Devils in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference second-round series on Friday night in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Hurricanes lead the best-of-7 series 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Sunday in Newark, New Jersey.

Jordan Martinook had a goal and an assist, Jordan Staal, Martin Necas and Stefan Noesen also scored and Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for Carolina, which scored four goals in the second period.

New Jersey goalie Akira Schmid stopped 21 of 25 shots through two periods before he was replaced for the second consecutive game. Vitek Vanecek made eight saves on 10 shots in the third.

Miles Wood scored for the Devils, who have been outscored 11-2 in the series. The Hurricanes scored on a power play to take a 1-0 lead at 1:35 of the second period. Kotkaniemi received a pass from Shayne Gostisbehere above the right circle with room to skate in and fire home a wrist shot.

Kotkaniemi scored his second goal 2:23 later to stretch the lead to 2-0. Martinook and Jesper Fast teamed up to win the puck on the forecheck and Kotkaniemi shot it past

Schmid from in close at 3:58.

The Hurricanes moved ahead 3-0 at 17:25 when Jack Drury chipped the puck ahead to Staal who scored on a breakaway.

Carolina appeared to score during four-on-four play with 55 seconds left in the second period, but the goal was waved off after the officials met and determined there was incidental contact with Schmid.

The Hurricanes scored before the end of the period anyway, as Necas caught Schmid out of position on a rebound and made it 4-0 with 15 seconds left.

Michael McLeod lost the puck driving to the Carolina net, but it went to Wood, who scored with a one-timer to trim the lead to 4-1 at 3:49 of the third period.

The Hurricanes answered with a breakaway goal by Martinook to make it

5-1 at 12:48, and Noesen’s

goal made it 6-1 at 13:42.

ELSEWHERE

Awards: Boston firstyear coach Jim Montgomery, whose Bruins set NHL records for wins and points, is a finalist along with the Seattle Kraken’s Dave Hakstol and the New Jersey Devils’ Lindy Ruff for the 2022-23 Jack Adams Award as the head coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success.”

NHL Broadcasters’ Association members voted for the award at the end of the regular season. The finalists were revealed Friday, with the winner to be announced June 26 during the NHL Awards ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Bruins won the Presidents’ Trophy for the most points in the regular season — a league-record 135 — as they also set the mark for wins in going 65-12-5. They were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the Panthers.

Hakstol led the Kraken (46-28-8, 100 points) to their first playoff berth in their second year of existence. They made improvements of 19 wins and 40 points from their debut season — the largest jumps from an inaugural season in NHL history.

Ruff guided the Devils (52-22-8, 112 points) to franchise marks for wins and points as they finished third in the overall standings.