In Los Angeles, the Kings took a 2-0 lead over visiting Winnipeg in the first period on Wednesday night, then sat back and watched the Jets scored five unanswered goals for a 5-2 win.
Nikolaj Ehlers hit for a double in the middle frame to tie the game, 2-2, for the Jets.
Ehlers scored at 6:08 and 13:19 to knot the game.
Gabriel Vilardi hit for a goal and four points, a career high, in the win.
“He was buzzing all over the ice and making some great plays,” Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele said. “It was a good night for everybody.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves in the win.
“We got a lot of major contributions from a lot of guys, and it was great that Mark’s line was the biggest contributor,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “Tonight that line made the difference. It’s a good fit with ‘Gabe’ on the right side, but when you get ‘Nik’ skating like that, he’s tough to defend.”
The Jets moved to 17-9-2.
Anze Kopitar opened the scoring midway through the first to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
Alex Laferriere advanced to the lead to 2-0 less than three minutes later.
“He does a lot of the dirty work for line mates and the team where you got to watch him close to appreciate it,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “To get rewarded, a dirty goal … You know, throw it from that angle, you don’t expect to score, but if you don’t throw it you don’t have a chance.”
LA dropped to 16-6-4.
“It’s been a while since we had a rough patch,” McLellan said. “You could look back to the beginning of the year where we played like this and gave up five goals a night or whatever it was, and we had to figure out ways to fix it. We’re capable of doing that and we expect the group to respond to it.”
Mark Scheifele scored what would be the game-winner, at 15:00 to give the Jets a 3-2 lead in the middle frame.
Vilardi doubled the advantage to 4-2 at 2:30 of the third period
“Obviously you saw it out there,” Vilardi said. “I was once here, and now I’m gone. It’s the same for everyone, everyone who was drafted here. I loved my time here, playing here. It was amazing, but at the end of the day, they didn’t want me, so this doesn’t end anything.”
Scheifele scored his double into an empty net with two seconds remaining on the game clock for the 5-2 final count.
Use CodePHN15 Kings sat back and paid the price in loss to Jets
Cam Talbotmade 24 saves in the loss.
