Jets start West Coast swing with 4-1 loss to lowly Kings

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This article was published 19/12/2018 (2454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES – The Winnipeg Jets followed up a big victory over the best team in the NHL with a baffling defeat to the worst team.

Austin Wagner led the way with two goals as the Los Angeles Kings skated to a 4-1 win Tuesday night at the Staples Center. Mathieu Perreault scored the lone goal for the Jets, who began the night having won five straight games and nine of their past 10 – including Sunday’s thrilling 5-4 overtime triumph over the first-place Tampa Bay Lightning.

None of that mattered to the lowly Kings, who showed they still have plenty of pride despite occupying the basement of the league standings and winning just once in their previous seven games. They improve to 12-20-3, while Winnipeg drops to 22-10-2. 

“Oh I thought they played a hell of a game. I thought that had everything to do with it,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said of what the biggest difference was in his mind.

Winnipeg has been skating like the wind in recent games, but seemed a step behind the play through most of the night as they kicked off a three-game western road trip heading into the Christmas break. They couldn’t generate any sustained offensive zone time, passes regularly missed their mark and they had no answers for a pretty stifling defensive effort from their opponent.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of easy ice, we had 18 shots blocked and they worked hard to get in front of those pucks. So they played a real strong game. It was tight, not a lot of offence, certainly easy offence to be had for either team,” said Maurice.

“(Los Angeles) earned it. They competed on every puck, battled hard, back checked, their back pressure was outstanding. We weren’t crossing through the neutral zone at all, it was straight lines. They did a real effective job of breaking the puck off. We got off our forecheck, we didn’t get nearly as much as we normally do. They were good. They played a hell of a game.”

Goalie Jonathan Quick, limited to just a dozen previous starts due to injuries, showed he can still be a big-game player in stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced. He got plenty of help from his defenceman, including Drew Doughty preventing a sure goal from Winnipeg’s Mason Appleton that would have given the Jets a second-period lead.

“It was a bouncing puck, so I really didn’t get much on it. I don’t know, I guess he made a good play on it. But if I get all of that puck, there’s no question that’s in the back of the net. It’s just a tough bounce,” Appleton said of being robbed of his first-career NHL goal. 

“We didn’t fill the back of the net like we do on most nights. It was a tough, pack-it-in game and that’s how they like to play. We’ve got to find a way to produce when they’re such a defensive-minded team. I thought they did a really good job. They played hard and they competed really hard. And they scored when they needed to. Hats off to them.”

Up front, the Kings had plenty of pluck as they’ve inserted a number of skilled young players in the lineup who are hardly household hockey names. One of those would certainly be Wagner, who opened the scoring with nifty first-period deflection off Daniel Brickley’s point shot, scoring just the second goal of his NHL career which is now 23 games-old.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck got a piece of the puck with his blocker, but it went straight up in the air, fell down into the crease and trickled over the goal line.

“That’s crazy. I’m kind of sick of that happening. But I guess I have to put myself in a better position,” said Hellebuyck.

Perreault tied it up early in the second when he got a stick on Bryan Little’s shot. The veteran winger has now scored a goal in five straight games and has eight on the season. Josh Morrissey had the other helper.

“It’s going to happen. All season you’re going to run into a hot goalie every now and then. It’s kind of (Tuesday’s) story. He played well for them. We’ve been playing so well but it’s going to happen, we’re going to lose games,” said Perreault.

His goal only seemed to inspire the Kings, who took over the period. Defenceman Jake Muzzin scored a few minutes later on the power play, but the Jets successfully challenged that Los Angeles had gone offside on the zone entry a few seconds earlier.

The tie was restored, but not for long. Alex Iafallo re-directed a shot from Doughty that appeared to be heading in the net anyways, after a great pass from Anze Kopitar who patiently waited out Connor Hellebuyck and got the Jets goaltender out of position.

Then the speedy Wagner struck again, sneaking in behind the Jets defence, receiving a feed from teammate Matt Luff and beating Hellebuyck on a breakaway with just under two minutes left in the period. 

The Kings shut it down perfectly in the final period, giving the Jets very little time and space. Nate Thompson sealed with an empty-netter in the final seconds.

This one had a similar feel to their only previous loss in the past 10 games, a 1-0 defeat at Bell MTS Place to St. Louis on Dec. 7 in which the Blues threw up a brick wall.

“Very similar to be honest. In the St Louis game we did have our chances and we just couldn’t score. Some nights they’re not going in for you. You’ve just got to deal with it. We’ve been in a good stretch here, just lost one here,” said Perreault.

Hellebuyck finished with 27 saves. Winnipeg went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Los Angeles was 0-for-3.

A few notable point streaks came to an end. Mark Scheifele (14 points in his past five), Dustin Byfuglien (nine points in his past five), Blake Wheeler (eight points in his past five) and Patrik Laine (six points in his last five) were all kept off the scoresheet.

“We worked hard. They played a good game so we’ve got to give credit to them. They played a pretty good defensive game. We had our chances and they had theirs. Unfortunately this is just one of those we have to chalk up as they played well,” said Hellebuyck. “I think we’ve got to learn from it. We played well, but there’s more to give. Myself included. We all want more, we want better. We’ve had a good run of games. Things have been well. But we gotta continue getting better.”

The road trip continues Thursday in San Jose and Saturday in Vancouver.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg