It wasn’t pretty, but the Winnipeg Jets have notched their first win of the season.
The Jets picked up a 3-2 victory over the L.A. Kings Saturday afternoon, evening their record at 1-1.
The Jets opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game. With the Kings shorthanded, Kyle Connor found Alex Iafallo wide open in front of the net and Iafallo roofed it past Darcy Kuemper.
Winnipeg had two more power play looks as they dominated the opening 15 minutes of the game but were unable to get another goal before L.A. started to wake up.
The Jets carried the 1-0 advantage into the second along with a 14-9 edge in shots on goal, though at one point the shots were 14-2.
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The Kings drew level just 50 seconds into the middle frame when a Mikey Anderson point shot found its way past Connor Hellebuyck.
L.A. took their first lead of the game at the 9:12 mark of the second when Adrian Kempe finished off a nice passing play with a front-door tap-in as he escaped the coverage of Dylan DeMelo.
It appeared that the Kings were in control, keeping the puck in Winnipeg’s end for long stretches but after a late-period penalty kill, Mark Scheifele brought the Jets back level.
Morgan Barron got the play started in the Jets’ end, breaking up a play and sending the puck over to Scheifele. He carried the puck through the neutral zone and into the Kings’ end before falling and attempting to get a shot on goal that was partially deflected by Anderson and through Kuemper to tie the game with 63 seconds remaining in the period.
L.A. outshot the Jets 12-8 in the second and were the better team in the period but the game was tied heading to the third, though the Jets would have to finish the game without Haydn Fleury, who was injured blocking a shot.
After a back-and-forth stretch of play, Scheifele got his second of the game at the 11:47 mark when he deftly deflected a Josh Morrissey shot that was deliberately going wide.
The Jets held on from there with several players blocking shots in a late Kings flurry.
Hellebuyck turned aside 30 shots to earn his first win of the season.
Winnipeg now heads on the road to face the Islanders Monday at 12:30 p.m.
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