Dubois scores 1st goal for Kings in win against Jets

WINNIPEG -- Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his first goal with the Los Angeles Kings against his former team in a 5-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

Dubois was traded to Los Angeles by Winnipeg on June 27 for forwards Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. He had 143 points (60 goals, 83 assists) in 195 games over three seasons for the Jets (2020-23).

“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 twice and had an assist, and Phillip Danault had a goal and two assists for the Kings in their first win of the season (1-1-1). Cam Talbot made 26 saves, and Arthur Kaliyev had a goal and an assist in his season debut.

“[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.”

Mark Scheifele scored in his third straight game for the Jets (1-2-0). Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves.

“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.”

Vilardi left the game at 5:55 of the first period after appearing to injure his right knee in a collision with Kings forward Blake Lizotte, who was penalized for tripping.

Bowness did not have an update, saying Vilardi will be reevaluated Wednesday.

“It’s awful,” Winnipeg forward Cole Perfetti said. “He looked like he was in a little bit of pain. Just praying for the best and hope it’s nothing serious, and whatever it is he has a speedy recovery. We need him back in our lineup because he is such an elite player.”

Dubois scored in his first game in Winnipeg since the trade at 11:01 of the second period when he buried a rebound in the slot five seconds after a Los Angeles power play expired to make it 1-0.

“I thought he played a real solid game,” McLellan said of Dubois. “Right from the circle on out, [he] created for others and protected pucks for himself. Strong, powerful, yet calm. There wasn’t a lot of panic in his game at all, so it’s nice to see.”

Moore gave the Kings a 2-0 lead at 16:19 after a backhand pass from Danault.

Kaliyev extended it to 3-0 at 2:51 of the third period, lifting the puck over Hellebuyck’s blocker from the top of the crease.

“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.”

Moore’s second goal of the game made it 4-0 at 14:31 with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle, and Danault scored on the power play at 16:32 to push it to 5-0.

Scheifele scored at 18:44 for the 5-1 final.

“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.”

NOTES: Anze Kopitar had an assist on Dubois’ goal, making the center the second player in Kings history to have 750 assists, joining Marcel Dionne (757). Kopitar is one of four active players to have 750 assists, joining Sidney Crosby (953), Evgeni Malkin (762) and Nicklas Backstrom (761). … Kopitar also played his 646th career road game, tying Dustin Brown for the most in Kings history. He is one game away from tying Brown (1,296) for most played in their history. … Scheifele has four points (three goals, one assist) during a three-game point streak.