Jets win ugly with 6-4 victory over Kings

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This article was published 27/10/2022 (743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES – The Winnipeg Jets were far from their best, but still managed to open their three-game road trip with a 6-4 win over the L.A. Kings at Crypto.com Arena Thursday night.

The Jets were sloppy for a majority of the evening, trailing 3-2 after a shoddy first period before outscoring the Kings 4-1 over the next 40 minutes to steal the victory. Axelrod Jonsson-Fjallby broke open a 4-4 game at the 14:23 mark of the third period, after the Kings Trevor Moore tied the score earlier in the frame, and Blake Wheeler sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 41 seconds remaining.

“An ugly win,” is how Jets associate coach Scott Arniel described the night. “It certainly wasn’t a Picasso.”

With the victory, the Jets improved to 4-3-0. The Kings fell to 4-5-0 with the loss.

Let’s break down the game with some news, notes and analysis from the game.

1) After playing their best game of the season in a 4-0 win over the St. Louis Blues on Monday, the Jets laid an egg to start this one, and it was a near miracle they left the opening 20 minutes trailing just 3-2. The Kings dominated for much of the frame, including four trips to the power play, scoring once — a nice tally from Arthur Kaliyev. That started a three-goal run for the home side, with the Kings also getting goals from Blake Lizotte and Gabriel Vilardi. The Jets got their run support from Mark Scheifele, who opened the scoring with his team-leading fifth of the season, and Adam Lowry, who stopped the bleeding with a shorthanded goal with fewer than two minutes remaining. What’s even more wild is that defenceman Dylan DeMelo whiffed on a wide-open net, and centre Pierre-Luc Dubois couldn’t finish on a breakaway in the final seconds. But don’t be fooled, L.A. was the better club in the first by a large margin, outnumbering Winnipeg in shots (17-6) and shot attempts (33-9).

“Obviously, we don’t like our start. We were getting outshot 15-1 at one point. It’s tough,” said Lowry. “You take some penalties and give them some momentum. We know they’re a great team at home. It’s nice to have a world class goalie. (Connor Hellebuyck) played amazing tonight. To escape the first down 3-2 was huge. It gave us some confidence that we can find our game in the intermission and come out with a much better effort in the second.”

2) It took the Jets just a shade over five minutes to register their first shot of the game (Scheifele’s goal) and then in the second, the period was nearly eight minutes old before Winnipeg got a puck on net. Not exactly the answer the Jets were looking for after a dismal first, but they would improve as the frame went on. Dubois tied the game on the power play with his third of the season, beating Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on an open chance in front, and then defenceman Nate Schmidt put the visitors up with a shot from a few feet inside the blue line that found its way through traffic and into the top-right corner. The Jets were outshot 12-8 in the frame, and 29-14 through two periods.

3) Winnipeg wasn’t stellar in the third but they found a way to win. To call Jonsson-Fjallby’s first goal as a Jet a big one would be a massive understatement; the 24-year-old scored by tipping a Brenden Dillon point shot. Winnipeg got contributions from throughout the lineup, with a power-play and shorthanded tally, as well as goals from their top line and fourth trio. It was the first time in franchise history the Jets scored six goals in less than 20 shots.

3) It’s a question we’ve been asking for years and will likely ponder until he no longer wears Jets colours: where would Winnipeg be without Connor Hellebuyck? The Jets netminder allowed four goals on 44 shots, and while I’m sure there are a couple he’d like back, he did everything he could to give his team a chance to win. Hellebuyck was particularly good in the opening period, and shut the door in the third, including a couple of quality chances late in the game.

“The amount of saves that (Hellebuyck) had to make. Honestly, at some point you’re like ‘okay, enough is enough,’” said Schmidt. “Your goalie had been playing so well for you that you didn’t want to waste an effort like that with the way it had been going. That’s how I feel about it anyway. You don’t really want to waste this with how well he was playing the whole game, but especially in the first period.”

4) The Kings were one of the feel-good stories in the NHL last season, finishing way above expectations by claiming third in the Pacific Division with a record of 44-27-11. But this year’s version has been anything but special. L.A. entered the game 4-4-0, tied with the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets for allowing the most goals in the NHL at 33. The goaltending has been atrocious, with Quick now allowing three goals or more in four of his five starts (he surrendered five goals on 18 shots against Winnipeg) and has a sub .900 save percentage. L.A. had been averaging 33 shots against per game prior to puck drop.

5) The Jets will be happy with the two points but won’t be satisfied with how they played. They won’t have much time to go over the tape as they continue their three-game road trip against the Arizona Coyotes Friday night, before wrapping things up against the Vegas Golden Knights Sunday night. If they look anything like they did against the Kings, they’ll be hard pressed to walk away with another win.

“I know it’s not VHS tape but it’s in the garbage and we’ll just put that one aside,” said Arniel. “We’ve got to get going here, we’ve got three in four, we’ve got to worry about Arizona, a young team going into opening night in their building. There were a lot of mistakes that happened, but there was a lot of good things also. We found a way and you can never criticize a win, no matter how you get them. We’ll file that one away and move on to Arizona.”

6) Defenceman Dylan Samberg returned to the lineup after missing three games with an injury. He replaced Logan Stanley, whose status is day-to-day after taking a shot in the St. Louis game. Forward Nikolaj Ehlers is on the trip but won’t play as he continues to deal with an undisclosed injury.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton