Happy Haunting for Nicholls, 3-1 : Hockey: Forum fans love it as center returns and gets the final goal in Rangers’ victory over slumping Kings.

He’s baaaaaack.

Just when they hoped it was safe to go back on the ice, the Kings got burned by Bernie once again.

After enduring a week of criticism for trading Bernie Nicholls to the New York Rangers for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato, the Kings returned to the Forum for the first time Saturday.

Who should be waiting but the Rangers and their new center. It couldn’t have gone any worse for the Kings. The final score was 3-1 Rangers and the final New York goal was scored by . . . you guessed it.

The sellout crowd of 16,005 let the Kings know what they thought of the trade the instant Nicholls scored.

Up went the cheers and out came the signs for the man who played in Los Angeles for almost nine full seasons.

“Trade Rogie,” read one sign, referring to King General Manager Rogie Vachon. “I want Bernie Back,” read another.

Nicholls responded with a pumped fist a la Kirk Gibson and a smile that could be seen all the way to King owner Bruce McNall’s seat.

“I was pretty impressed,” Nicholls said. “It felt real good to get that kind of response.

“I was real nervous in the warmup. I had no feeling at all. Once I scored the goal, I really relaxed. Coming back here, I love those guys to death. It was real tough tonight.”

King Coach Tom Webster knows just how he felt.

“I’m glad it’s out of the way,” Webster said, “so we can regroup ourselves.”

Nicholls scored his 30th goal and third in as many games with New York off a pass from Darren Turcotte in a five-on-three power play. Nicholls fired from just inside the base of the left circle, the puck flying in over the left shoulder of King goalie Kelly Hrudey.

“I wasn’t looking forward to tonight,” Hrudey said. “If you give as many chances to him (Nicholls) in practice as I did and then you give him quality chances in a game, he’s going to score. I was watching two of the three places he likes to score. I was just hoping he didn’t go to the third, but he did.”

With Nicholls across the ice from them, it’s understandable the Kings wanted to put on a big offensive show.

It was just the opposite. For much of the first period, they were largely no-shows.

Through the first 11 minutes, the Kings had only two shots on goal.

New York took advantage to move into a 1-0 lead, the goal coming at the 6:19 mark. The Rangers’ Brian Mullen passed from the left side to Kris King, who fired from the extreme right side of the slot, his rising shot sailing past the glove of Hrudey into the upper right-hand corner of the net. It was King’s fourth goal.

Then, at 14:43, the Kings found themselves in the same nightmare position they were involved in Thursday.

But this time, it was someone else’s nightmare.

New York’s Mark Hardy hit Wayne Gretzky from behind and slashed him across the nose, opening a cut.

Gretzky was able to continue playing, but not Hardy. Because he drew blood, Hardy was automatically slapped with a five-minute major for high sticking and a game misconduct, resulting in his ejection.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Gretzky later said about his injury. He had a bandage across the bridge of his nose, but required no stitches. “It stung my eye a little, but it was accidental.”

Given a five-minute major against the Kings Thursday, the Oilers took advantage to score three goals.

The Kings had it even better, since the Rangers were already a skater short after being whistled for having too many men on the ice.

However, the Kings failed to take advantage of the five-on-three edge they enjoyed for 54 seconds. They finally broke through at 18:35 after struggling for nearly four minutes in the power-play situation.

Wayne Gretzky, after going pointless for two games, ignited the scoring play and then finished it.

Standing behind the net, he flipped the puck out in front. Sandstrom got a stick on it, but couldn’t control it. John Tonelli took a shot from the left side that hit the left post and bounced back. But Gretzky was in position to shove the puck in for his 28th goal and eighth on the power play.

The Rangers went back in front 1 1/2 minutes into the second period on a power play, when James Patrick fired from the point and Ulf Dahlen tipped it in. Dahlen has scored a dozen goals and eight have come on power play.

When it was over, Nicholls talked about the hours leading up to his homecoming night.

“I was sick last night,” he said. “My stomach was tied up in knots. But once I faced off against a couple of guys and they rammed me and I rammed them, I knew I was a Ranger and proud to be.”

Now that Nicholls is finally gone, Gretzky is willing to shine the spotlight on himself.

“People like myself have to take the responsibility off Tom and Rogie and Bruce,” he said. “They are trying to build a championship team. If anyone deserves the heat, it should be me. They don’t put their sticks on the ice.”

King Notes

It was a tough week for King Coach Tom Webster. After going through the tension of the controversial Bernie Nicholls trade and watching his team blow a three-goal lead in a 7-6 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night, Webster fell in the shower in his Edmonton hotel room Friday morning, momentarily blacking out when he cracked his head. He suffered a mild concussion, but there was nothing wrong with his memory. His players hoped he might have at least forgotten their play Thursday night. . . . The Kings’ Tony Granato missed an opportunity to play against his former teammates when he reinjured a groin muscle against Edmonton. Granato missed 11 of his last 13 games with the Rangers because of the injury, and two of three since joining the Kings. Defenseman Larry Robinson also sat out Saturday with the flu.