Duchesne’s Second Goal a Winner for Kings at Calgary

Defenseman Steve Duchesne’s second goal of the game, a power-play goal with 1 minute 15 seconds to play, gave the Kings a 5-4 victory in an exhibition game Sunday night over the Flames, the team that bounced the Kings from the playoffs last season and went on to win the Stanley Cup.

The Olympic Saddledome was not quite packed for the exhibition, although all 20,002 seats were sold.

For the Kings, it was the third game in three nights in three cities. They had dropped the other two to Smythe Division opponents, losing at Edmonton Friday and at Winnipeg Saturday.

Rookie Robb Stauber was in goal for the Kings for the third time, getting his first victory. Stauber faced 33 shots.

The Kings had led, 4-1, after Bernie Nicholls scored his first goal of the preseason in the second period. But the Flames came back, taking advantage of a string of power plays, to trim the lead to 4-3. Joel Otto’s power play goal at 9:19 of the third period tied it.

John Tonelli set up Duchesne for his winning backhander.

King Notes

The Kings’ next exhibition game will be Tuesday at Milwaukee against Vancouver. The game will be televised, live, on Prime Ticket at 5 p.m. and broadcast, delayed until 4:35 p.m., on KLAC (570). . .The Kings’ exhibition record is 2-3-2 with four games left . . . There are still 32 players traveling, but more cuts were expected after the game Tuesday.