LOS ANGELES — If there were top-25 polls in the NHL, the Kings would have had quite the quality win on Wednesday night, when they upended the NHL’s best team by nearly every quantitative measure this season, the Winnipeg Jets, in a 4-1 game they led wire to wire at Crypto.com Arena.
The Jets tied for the longest and second-longest win streaks in the league this season while also possessing its best points total, points percentage, goal-differential, power-play efficiency rate, save percentage, goal total and goals-against average.
None of that mattered to the Kings, who took a lead in the first two minutes of the game and never looked back, maintaining an aggressive posture even with a third-period lead and stifling the Jets for the full 60 minutes.
“The important thing about tonight was not just the fact that they were at the top of the league, but it was how we did it, how we played and what’s possible when we all play together like that,” Coach Jim Hiller said.
Anże Kopitar, Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe each scored for the Kings, who improved to 7-2-1 at home. Kempe and Kopitar both tacked on an assist, while Alex Laferriere chipped in two. David Rittich bounced back from his worst game of the season with a dandy, repelling 13 of Winnipeg’s season-low 14 shots for his 100th career win.
The Kings lost to the struggling San Jose Sharks, 7-2, on Monday night. As they did when they followed an earlier 4-2 loss to the Sharks by trouncing Vegas, they again rebounded with a resounding win against a Stanley Cup contender.
“We dropped that one in San Jose and we weren’t happy,” Danault said. “It was the perfect opportunity for us tonight, and we all stepped up to play a good 60 minutes.”
Three former Kings acquired in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade suited up for Winnipeg: Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari and the Jets’ lone goal-scorer, Gabriel Vilardi. Connor Hellebuyck, whose 15 wins are four more than any other NHL goalie, was saddled with his third loss of 2024-25, making 30 saves as Winnipeg lost for the fourth time in seven games since its 15-1-0 start to the season.
Where the third period brought calamity in San Jose, it seemed to elicit confidence and intrepidness against Winnipeg. The Kings kept their foot on the gas in all three zones and were rewarded with an insurance goal with 14:39 left.
Fiala reversed the puck to Brandt Clarke during a breakout, sending the defender into open space. As he hit a traffic jam in the offensive zone, he dished to the trailing Fiala, whose shot caromed in off Winnipeg defenseman Hadyn Fleury’s skate. Fiala scored his seventh goal of the season but his first since Nov. 5.
The hosts cemented their triumph with an empty-netter with 2:56 remaining, which Kempe lobbed in from distance for his team-leading 11th goal of the season. He has 15 points in his past 13 games, and with his assist Kopitar moved his total to 18 points over the same span.
All three shots that beat Hellebuyck were from point-blank range: a pair of deflections and Danault’s drive to the net.
“You’re not going to score from outside the dots on a goalie like Hellebuyck,” Laferriere said. “He’s an unbelievable goalie and you’re not going to beat him cleanly every time, so any time you can [create] chaos and send bodies to the net, it disrupts things.”
In the second period, one former King was stoned on a penalty shot and another made good on his second of two close-range chances, though in between the Kings got a goal to preserve their one-goal margin at the second intermission.
Though they killed their third penalty of the period – thanks in part to Josh Morrissey pinging the post – and stopped Kupari on a penalty shot just 2:58 into it, the Kings’ PK faltered at the 9:12 mark.
Much like their own power-play goal, Winnipeg’s started with an offensive-zone faceoff win by the eventual goal-scorer, Vilardi, who received Nikolaj Ehlers’ pass at the goalmouth, making one effort and scoring on a second to slice the Jets’ deficit in half. Vilardi’s goal was his ninth of the year and his fourth with the man advantage.
The Kings had extended their lead 7:10 into the second period on a give-and-go play. Danault sent the puck ahead to Turcotte below the goal line, springing off the wall and cutting inside of Cole Perfetti with his stick banging on the ice to call for the return pass he received from Turcotte. Danault’s backhand bid was stopped by Hellebuyck but Danault stuffed in the rebound for his second goal of the season and first since Nov. 2.
Danault dropped down to the fourth line on Wednesday as part of a sweeping reconfiguration of the forward lines that he said was “part of the process” and something that should happen when a team stagnates offensively.
Already having reshaped their power-play units earlier in November, the Kings earned the game’s first man advantage and its first goal just four seconds later as they struck 1:52 after puck drop.
Kopitar controlled the faceoff to Laferriere, who chipped the puck to Kempe for a shot as Kopitar drifted toward the net while facing the shooter. His deflection beat Hellebuyck for the captain’s seventh tally of the season.
That was the only goal of a period the Kings carried in terms of scoring chances and possession as well. A knuckling puck that redirected off Danault’s skate at the last instant tested Hellebuyck, who had to be sharp in a frame when he faced 13 shots.
“We wanted to come out pretty hard. We didn’t like the way the last game went, so we showed how resilient our group is and how we’re able to bounce back,” Laferriere said. “Right from the start, we were taking it to them.”