Flames’ Bullard Vows He’ll Even Score

Mike Bullard of the Calgary Flames told Calgary reporters this week that Bernie Nicholls of the Kings deliberately kneed him last Friday night and that he would “even the score.”

He’s not expected to get that chance tonight, though.

The first-period collision with Nicholls in a 6-3 King victory resulted in a charley horse in Bullard’s left leg that is expected to keep the Flames’ No. 2 scorer out of the lineup when the Kings meet the Flames in Game 1 of a best-of-seven Smythe Division semifinal playoff series at the Olympic Saddledome.

Bullard, whose 103 points in the regular season was a career high and ranked second only to Hakan Loob’s 106 among the high-scoring Flames, was hospitalized for two nights last weekend.

On Monday, he told Calgary reporters that he and Nicholls have had a running feud for several years. Of the play last Friday night, he said: “I think the knee was deliberate. Only one person can say if it was and he says it wasn’t . . . but I’ve got a score to even. I know when I get back, I’m going to even the score.”

On Tuesday, Los Angeles reporters were told by a Flame spokesman that Bullard was off-limits.

Said Nicholls: “If he wants to get even, tell him, ‘Don’t be all day coming,’ because I’ll be waiting for him.”

Nicholls denied having a feud with Bullard, who was acquired by the Flames last season in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“I’ve hit him pretty good a couple of times, but I’m the type of guy who takes the body,” Nicholls said. “He doesn’t. He’s not a body-checker. So maybe he thinks I’m picking on him.

“I wouldn’t deliberately try to hurt anybody, unless they did something dirty to me.”