Dubois scores 25th of the season, but Jets fall to Kings

Rick Bowness spoke about the skill the Los Angeles Kings have in the face-off dot on Friday, and that prowess was a big reason why the Winnipeg Jets came up on the short end of a 4-1 score on Saturday.

Two of the four goals scored by the Kings (one being an empty netter) came directly off face-off wins in the Winnipeg zone, and overall, the Jets were only credited with winning 33 percent of the draws in the loss.

The fact the first of those two goals off face-offs put the defensively stingy team in front early in the game, didn’t help.

“By losing that face-off, that play happens so fast, it’s tough for anyone to react. We lost it that clean,” said the Jets head coach. 

“The worst thing you can do is give them the lead, and we did.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the lone goal for the Jets in the loss, which drops Winnipeg to 41-30-3, while the Kings improve to 9-0-2 in their last 11 games.

A set play off an offensive zone face-off set up the game’s opening goal for Viktor Arvidsson just 1:22 into the contest. Trevor Moore won the draw to the right of Connor Hellebuyck, and Arvidsson jumped into the circle and snapped home his 21st of the season to put the home side up 1-0.

Los Angeles, who hadn’t played since Monday, had the first 10 shots of the game. 

“They hadn’t played since Monday so we knew they were going to come out and have good legs,” said Dubois. “I understand you can’t win them all, but at this point of the year we have to try. We have to bring our A game every night.”

One of the main challenges the Jets faced on Saturday was the 1-3-1 system the Kings use in the neutral zone. There were times the Jets cracked through and earned some offensive zone time, but it was tough sledding all night.

With Los Angeles getting the first goal, the job of breaking through it got even more challenging.

“You can get some o-zone time on the outside and feel good about it, but they don’t give you much on the inside,” said Dubois. “That’s where goals get scored, where most goals get scored. Going behind allows them to sit back a bit more. We saw that tonight.”

Winnipeg turned some momentum back in their favour in the back half of the first, but weren’t able to find the equalizer despite having eight shots on goal.

In the second, Los Angeles took advantage of their second power play of the game, as Phillip Danault slipped a cross-crease pass to Alex Iafallo, who flipped it past Hellebuyck to make it 2-0 Kings 5:28 into the second. 

With just under six minutes to go in the second, Kings forward Blake Lizotte cross-checked Josh Morrissey in the fact, resulting in a match penalty, a five-minute major, and a game misconduct.

“We were kind of going at it up the ice, he hooked me, I slashed him for sure and then he turned around and looked at me and skated in my direction,” said Morrissey. “I said ‘Let’s go,’ and dropped by gloves and got his stick up in my face.” 

Morrissey needed “seven or eight” stitches on the inside of his mouth, and another 10 on the outside – just above his chin. He wasn’t available for the five-minute power play as a result.

“It’s something the league is certainly going to take a look at,” said Bowness. “It’s an uncalled for cross-check into a guy’s face. The league will take a really good look at that one.” 

Winnipeg’s power play was 0-for-23 to that point in the last six-plus games, but this was the moment that drought would end. 

Video: WPG@LAK: Dubois puts the Jets on the board with a PPG

Dubois took a seam pass from Kyle Connor – the puck moving from the right circle to the left, and snapped it past Joonas Korpisalo to cut the Los Angeles lead to 2-1. It was Dubois’ 25th goal of the season, and Connor’s 47th assist – a new career high for the Michigan product. Neal Pionk also picked up the secondary assist and now has helpers in three straight.

Even if the goal ended a skid on the man advantage, it didn’t mean much to Dubois at the end of the night.

“We have to find some consistency. We can do a better job,” said Dubois. “The goal feels, I don’t know how many games it was without a goal, but we need wins. At the end of the day, we need wins and we need the power play the power play to get going here.”

Unfortunately for the Jets, the Kings made it 3-1 just 27 seconds into the third on a Drew Doughty wrist shot from the right side boards. The defenceman’s seventh of the season got through a couple bodies on the way to the Jets’ net, and also came off an offensive zone face-off win by the Kings.

“We didn’t give them a scoring chance, five on five, in the second period. So it’s 2-1 going in,” said Bowness. “To give up that faceoff goal, that’s painful.”

Despite their efforts, the Jets weren’t able to get another past Korpisalo. They had another power play opportunity with 4:31 to go, but they couldn’t recreate the success from earlier in the game.

At five-on-five, the Kings made it difficult for the Jets to get to the high-danger areas, with Natural Stat Trick crediting both teams with just one high-danger chance in the final period.

“That’s their bread and butter and they’re good at it,” said Morrissey. “I thought we played a little bit into, at times, but I thought the compete level was there.”

Arvidsson’s second of the game, an empty-netter with 1:36 remaining in regulation, rounded out the scoring.

Now the Jets prepare for the road trip finale, which comes on Tuesday in San Jose.

Their lead over Calgary sits at four points, and five over Nashville.

“This time of year, we can’t drop too many points,” said Dubois. “I understand you can’t win them all, but at this point of the year we have to try. We have to bring our A game every night. We did some good things tonight but we can do a lot better these next couple games.”