DeMelo saves the day for Jets

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This article was published 13/11/2021 (1448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets were holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night — and, naturally, Dylan DeMelo soared in to save the day.

DeMelo, the embodiment of a stay-at-home defenceman, fired a short-handed goal with 6:24 left in the third period to pull the Jets even, and Mark Scheifele finally snapped his goal-scoring drought with the overtime winner as the hosts registered a 3-2 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday in downtown Winnipeg.

Vegas oddsmakers would have projected him as a prohibitive longshot to light the lamp at any time, never mind with the Jets in desperation mode.

Not only was it DeMelo’s first goal in a Jets jersey, it was also his first in 133 games dating back to March 21, 2019 and his days with the Ottawa Senators. DeMelo now has eight goals in 335 career games.

“Yeah, it felt great. Obviously, huge relief, there was definitely some frustration,” he said. “Obviously, you play defence you’re not maybe relied on to score but you want to contribute, and there’s no feeling like scoring, obviously, so it was nice to get that one and the timing was crucial.

“So, to be able to contribute in that sense it feels really good. I don’t do it often so I’m happy to contribute and get a big goal for us.”

The Jets upped their record to 8-3-3 and were tied with the Nashville Predators atop the Central Division, prior to a late game between the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken.

The Kings (8-5-2), meanwhile, had their seven-game winning streak halted.

Scheifele felt his own sense of relief after pumping a one-timer past L.A. goalie Cal Petersen just 32 seconds into the extra session. Nikolaj Ehlers cruised into the offensive zone, attracting the attention of a couple of defenders before sending the puck over to the centre.

“Yeah, it felt good. It was a great pass by Nikky. It felt good to end that one,” Scheifele said. “It was a grind of a game and we started to pick our game up toward the end of that third period… you need to be able to pull those ones off in this league.

Down 2-1 and generating nothing in the way of offence, the Jets seemed cooked when Pierre-Luc Dubois took a cross-checking penalty out of pure frustration at the 11:56 mark of the final frame. But defenceman Logan Stanley made a smart play to grab the puck and advance it to Andrew Copp, who found DeMelo the trailer all alone.

“Stan made a good play, he kind of spun around and made a good pass to Copper,” said DeMelo. “When (the Kings are) coming in on their breakout, they’re kind of all in. So, once we got that turnover all I was thinking was to join that rush right away and started screaming at Copper that I was joining it and he found me and made a great play and I just shot and lucky enough that it went in.”

Feisty ex-Jets forward Brendan Lemieux stung his old team with just over five minutes left in the second period, burying a rebound for his second goal of the season to hand the visitors a 2-1 lead. After a Josh Morrissey pinch, the Kings went down on a two-on-one, puck carrier Blake Lizotte took the initial shot and Lemieux outskated Scheifele to the net.

The Jets went a stretch of 10:48 without a shot on Petersen. Dubois sent a wrist shot on target with 5:12 left in the second period and then recorded his team’s next shot 5:36 into the final frame.

Winnipeg had demonstrated some of its finest work in second periods during the homestand — the squad had shut out their opponents while registering seven goals of its own — but no hint of a northward attack was visible against L.A. The Jets barely got their wheels up, mustering just two shots on Petersen in the period for a measly dozen after 40 minutes.

The Kings outshot the Jets 29-23.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t happy with his team’s inability to created chances.

“We had 2:36 of zone time, possession zone time in the second, which is a big number, puts you on seven (minutes) on average over a game. We had two shots. They had 53 seconds of zone time and had 10, so I didn’t love our game tonight,” he said.

“We were really, really good with it against St. Louis and the back half of that San Jose game. That St. Louis game was as good as we’ve been all year, so you come to the rink and say, ‘Well, there’s our standard. Just do that every night.’ And when you’re not getting it, you get frustrated.

“We did have zone time, put the puck low to high, but we started to get so far away from the net and spent most of our time trying to create a better chance than a puck to the net, like we scored our first goal. Then we tried to get to that in the third a little bit more,” added Maurice.

Kyle Connor, with his 11th goal, opened the scoring for the Jets. Stanley’s point shot was redirected by Connor who then tucked his own rebound behind Petersen with just 1:59 gone in the opening period.

Carl Grundstrom’s laser beam to the short side squeezed through a crack above netminder Connor Hellebuyck’s shoulder and below the crossbar to even it 1-1 at 4:02. Credit the goalscorer or chastise the man in the crease? Maybe a bit of both.

The Jets will take Sunday off and then practise Monday in preparation for the finale of their seven-game homestand, a Tuesday-night tilt with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers. Game time is 7 p.m.

The Kings wrapped up a four-game road trip in Canada and now head home for three days off before hosting the Washington Capitals.

“Any time you go into the third period and you don’t come out with two points, it sucks,” said Lemieux. “It feels like a loss but, in the grand scheme of things, we definitely see this trip as a win. We got back to playing road hockey the way that we should. We made some strides with our team that I think we’re definitely going to remember for the rest of the year and we’ve got good foundation to build a successful, hopefully a playoff team.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell