Patrik Laine struggling to score as Jets give up lead and lose to Leafs

Winnipeg (7-4-1) was well on its way out of Toronto (8-3-0) with the two points and it wouldn’t have mattered if Laine didn’t score. However, the loss ended up magnifying the fact he has only found the back of the net three times in 12 games this season, all on the power play. He has just one point at even strength, an assist.

He finished Saturday’s game with 16:06 of ice time and one shot on net. He entered the night with five career goals in four games against Toronto.

“Got to work hard and play at the level I’m used to playing and try and earn those minutes back,” he said.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice says that moving Laine down the lineup two nights in a row, the first being Friday’s 2-1 road win against the Detroit Red Wings, was more to do with Mathieu Perreault playing well, and not Laine’s inability to produce.

“He’s not scoring goals on the shots he gets,” said Maurice. “His 5-on-5 is better than it was last year, that’s just a fact. He scored 43 or whatever (44) his final number was. I have full faith and confidence he’ll score and until he does we’ll keep working on his game.

Maurice added that slumps are part of the growing process as a player.

“He’s 20,” Maurice said. “He’s going to keep getting better. We need him to continue. He’s 20 and just learning the game.”

Kyle Connor opened the scoring for Winnipeg and Mark Scheifele made it a 2-0 lead in the second.

The Jets appeared to have the win in the bag, even when Nazem Kadri scored at 6:33 of the third to cut Toronto’s deficit in half, but momentum eventually swung the home team’s way.

Jake Gardiner tied the game with 3:11 to go in regulation and Kasperi Kapanen produced the eventual winner only 26 seconds later, sneaking one over the shoulder of Connor Hellebuyck.

“I think always you should be able to keep a two-goal lead,” said Laine. “They have a really good team, that’s something we can’t take away from them, they played a hell of a third period,”

Laine’s coach agreed with him.

“I liked our game the first two period for sure and chunks of the third,” said Maurice. “I thought we played a real hard game, looked like we were supposed to look so that’s a real encouraging sign. We made two or three mistakes in our end of the ice and that was the difference.”

The Jets now fly overseas to Laine’s home country of Finland, where they will face the Florida Panthers in two games in Helsinki as part of the NHL’s Global Series on Nov. 1-2.

Laine isn’t putting much thought into going back home right now.

“We just got to play the full 60 next game and learn to play when we are leading.”

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Kyle Cicerella, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Patrik Laine struggling to score as Jets give up lead and lose to Leafs

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