Kings Succumb to Jet Lag in 5-1 Defeat : Hockey: After back-to-back victories over Calgary, they go down meekly against Winnipeg.

The Kings have proven they can beat the best. If only they could do something about the rest.

Coming off back-to-back victories over the defending Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames, the Kings were brought back to the real world of feeble defense, missed shots and lost power-play opportunities by the Winnipeg Jets, who dominated them, 5-1, Thursday night before a crowd of 15,323 at the Forum.

The Kings led, 1-0, after the first period, but were not heard from again.

“I thought we played our best period of the year,” Wayne Gretzky said of the first 20 minutes. “Then, we seemed out of it emotionally. We thought we were on our way, but we hit a wall in the second and third periods.”

These were not the Kings who twice in a row battled back with tight defense and a patient offense to pull out victories over the Flames.

Instead, these were the Kings who stumbled through January with a 3-8-2 record.

All the bad habits were back Thursday, dropping the Kings below .500 again at 24-25-6, five points behind the third-place Jets in the Smythe Division.

Winnipeg (26-23-7) equaling last season’s victory total, was led by Doug Smail’s two goals and Teppo Numminen’s three assists.

This game had the look of another frustrating night for the Kings from the start.

Late in the first period, they had a 15-2 edge in shots on goal, but had nothing to show for it, thanks, in part, to several diving saves by goalie Bob Essensa.

“You have to look to Bobby Essensa for saving our scalps in the first period,” Smail said.

Dave Taylor finally came up with a shot Essensa couldn’t handle, though he came close.

Taylor skated in from the left side, went around Winnipeg defenseman Fredrik Olausson and came face to face with Essensa as he skated through the crease.

Essensa dove to block Taylor’s shot, but the puck rebounded off Taylor’s foot and squirted under the goalie’s leg as he hit the ice. The goal, at 17:12, was Taylor’s 10th.

The period ended with the Kings holding a 20-5 advantage in shots.

The Jets nearly got that back in the first minute of the second period.

They took four shots on goal with the fourth, from Smail, going in at 1:02.

A block of the previous shot from the right side took Gosselin out of position, leaving the center of the goalmouth open for Smail.

The Jets moved ahead, 2-1, at the 14:14 mark.

On a power play, Dale Hawerchuk took a rebound on the right side, skated around the net and passed to Greg Paslawski on the left side. From there, Paslawski scored his 15th goal and fifth on a power play, putting the puck in on the far side, past Gosselin’s glove.

The Jets extended their lead at 17:57 when Smail scored his second goal of the night and 22nd of the year, smashing a slap shot from the left circle through Gosselin’s pads.

“The momentum changed,” said King assistant coach Rick Wilson, who is running the team with fellow assistant Cap Raeder while Coach Tom Webster recovers from an inner-ear injury. “We weren’t making the short passes, the good shots or finishing the checks. We allowed them to generate their speed.”

The Jets padded their lead in the final period with a short-handed goal.

Numminen beat John Tonelli in a scramble for the puck and passed it to Mark Kumpel, who carried it down the left side, fired from the top of the circle and scored on Gosselin’s stick side.

It came at 8:55 with only three seconds remaining on the power play.

It was Kumpel’s fifth goal, his first short-handed.

Pat Elynuik closed out the scoring at 15:31 with a goal from the left circle on a power play.

The goal was Elynuik’s 23rd, giving him the team lead, and his 10th on a power play.

Winnipeg’s Laurie Boschman was called for high-sticking and given a game misconduct for a vicious hit on Tomas Sandstrom with little over a minute to play.

“We had a letdown,” Taylor said when it was over. “Coming off the two wins, maybe we thought we only had to play 20 minutes to win.”

Not this night.

King Notes

The Kings outshot Winnipeg, 36-25. Bob Essensa saved 35 shots for the Jets. . . . Bothered by a viral infection for the past several weeks, King goalie Kelly Hrudey sat out his second game. He’ll accompany the team on its upcoming four-game trip. Ron Scott, who backed up Mario Gosselin up for the second night in a row, will return to the Kings’ minor league team in New Haven. . . . Tony Granato, the right wing obtained from the New York Rangers in the Bernie Nichols trade, is still a long way from playing. The groin injury that caused him to miss 11 of his final 13 games with the Rangers has also forced him to miss seven of eight with the Kings. It will be at least four more because he is not scheduled to accompany the team on its week-long trip. . . . King defenseman Larry Robinson was given a rest Thursday because of a slight groin pull. . . . The Kings leave today for the trip that figures to be highlighted by Saturday night’s confrontation between Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . The Kings will also play in Toronto (Monday), Detroit (Wednesday) and Minnesota (Thursday).