In Winnipeg, Cam Talbot made 26 saves, and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his first goal for the Los Angeles Kings against his former club, the Jets, in a 5-1 win for the Kings on Tuesday night.
“[Talbot] was essential,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “We weren’t ready, or else we didn’t react properly in the first five, 10 minutes. I thought it started with the power play, getting one before we even had most of our guys on the ice, put us in a bad mindset. We weren’t ready and [Talbot] did what we needed him to do, and that was to make some real big saves.”
Dubois scored just past the midway point of the middle frame to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
“It was an honor to play in front of these passionate fans for the two years,” Dubois said. “A passionate fan base. I knew before I came to Winnipeg how crazy these fans were for their team, the Jets, and the moment I got traded (from the Columbus Blue Jackets), that’s what I was looking forward to the most. It was an honor to play here. They were passionate tonight even when they were booing me, so it was great to see.
“Obviously it’s weird to be back. It’s fun to be back. It’s great to get a win, but we want to make the playoffs and it’s going to take wins, whether it’s the Jets or anyone else. A win’s a win. It’s not a different game. I try to treat it like that.”
Trevor Moore scored at 16:09 for a 2-0 advantage.
“I don’t blame [Hellebuyck], we just … we’ve got to give him some run support early,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “We didn’t. The last game we won (6-4 against the Florida Panthers on Saturday), we did. We should have had a couple of goals. We should have come out of that first period up like 2-1 or something. Not to score, it kind of hurt us.”
LA stretched the lead to 3-0 early in the third on a strike by Arthur Kaliyev.
The lead ballooned to 4-0 on Moore’s double.
“The way we played in the first, we didn’t play the same way in the second,” Jets forwards Nikolaj Ehlers said. “They came out better than we did. That’s why we lost the game.”
“We needed to get back to how we played in the first and we weren’t really able to do that.”
Phillip Danault made it 5-0 to LA with a marker at 16:32 of the third.
Mark Scheifele ruined the shutout bid with 1:16 om left on the game clock.
“It’s a team win and everybody played well,” Dubois said. “I thought the power play did a good job. PK killed some huge penalties at big points in the game. [Talbot] was great.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves in the loss.
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