Kings Lose in Exhibition to Canucks

Rich Sutter scored a hat trick and Patrik Sundstrom had a pair of goals to lead the Vancouver Canucks past the Kings, 6-5, in an exhibition game Tuesday night at Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Rookie Luc Robitaille scored a pair of goals for the Kings, as did Sean McKenna. Defenseman Mark Hardy scored for the Kings in the third period when they pulled their goaltender in favor of an extra attacker.

Also scoring for Vancouver was Tony Tanti, whose goal came on a power play.

King Notes The Kings did some shuffling of players, reassigning seven and releasing five. That reduced the number of players in camp to 43. Returned to their junior teams were defensemen Brian Hayton and Denis Larocque, centers Sylvain Couturier and Sean Krakiwsky, and right wingers Trent Ciprick, Paul Kelly and Time Flanagan. Free agents released were goaltenders Greg Hubert and Michel Valliere, defensemen Matt Hervey and Jeff Triano and center Grant Delcourt. More cuts are expected today.