Kings Lose, but Get Good News : Pro hockey: Calgary wins, 8-5, after Gretzky returns to ice and practices for 20 minutes. He might play in Game 3 Sunday.

The heat was on the Flames. Disenchantment rumbled through Calgary.

Directed at goalie Mike Vernon.

At Coach Terry Crisp.

And at anybody skating in a red uniform.

That the Flames might lose their Stanley Cup in the first round to the Kings was hard enough to believe.

Lose to the Kings without Gretzky? That was too much.

But Friday, down 1-0 in the best-of-seven series, the Flames turned that heat on the Kings, blasting away early and often en route to an 8-5 triumph before a sellout crowd of 20,166 at the Olympic Saddledome to tie the series at a game apiece.

“You saw the real Calgary tonight,” King Coach Tom Webster said. “We kind of accepted that they would show up to play. We have to rise to that level.”

The return of Wayne Gretzky might provide the shot of adrenaline that could move the Kings to a higher level.

He skated for 20 minutes Friday, the first time he has been on the ice since injuring his back March 22. Gretzky is expected to practice today with his teammates for the first time and might see limited action Sunday in Game 3.

King goalie Kelly Hrudey saw plenty of action Friday, more than he could handle.

He had predicted before the game that the Flames would come early and hard, bent on revenge.

Like a soldier in the trenches, he waited.

Not long.

Doug Gilmour scored 1:41 into the game, sweeping in the puck from the right side after Hrudey had blocked a shot by Brian MacLellan.

Before he left after a little more than 32 minutes, Hrudey had faced 26 shots and given up five goals.

It seemed like everything was going against Hrudey and his replacement, Mario Gosselin. Hrudey was facing the top scoring team in the NHL two nights after going all the way in a tough 5-3 victory.

He was playing on legs getting to full strength after a four-month battle with mononucleosis.

Even his own teammates and the clock seemed against him and Gosselin at times.

After Joe Mullen scored a short-handed goal to give Calgary a 2-0 lead, Marty McSorley cut the margin in half with a 20-foot shot from the slot off a pass from Luc Robitaille.

But then, in the second period, with Gary Roberts in position and unchecked near the left crease and the puck on his stick, McSorley tried to skate into the path of Roberts’ shot.

Instead, he skated right into Hrudey, knocking the goalie to the ice.

That left Roberts the opening he needed to push his club ahead, 3-1.

Goals by Joel Otto and Jim Korn moved Calgary into what appeared to be a commanding 5-1 lead and moved Hrudey to the bench.

“I tried to check the momentum,” Webster said, “and slow it down. You could see he (Hrudey) was tiring.”

No argument from Hrudey.

“I felt great at the beginning,” he said. “But they came out storming and bombarded me early.

“In the second period, they kept up the pressure with another wave of momentum. I thought putting in Mario slowed them down a little.”

That’s when the clock turned against the Kings.

The stat sheet shows the Flames zero for six on the power play. But they actually had an advantage on their next two goals after Robitaille and Larry Robinson each scored to make the score 5-3.

Gilmour deflected a Brad McCrimmon shot to give the Flames a 6-3 lead one second after a power play had expired, leaving the Kings no time to return to full strength.

After Robitaille scored his second goal of the game, the Flames answered with a goal by Joe Nieuwendyk two seconds after another power play had ended.

“They’ve got to be excited,” Roberts said. “They got their split. We played very well at some points, but, then again, we fell asleep like we did the other night.”

King Notes

Game 3 will be played Sunday at the Forum, Game 4 Tuesday. Faceoff both nights is at 7:30. . . . Should there be a Game 6, it would be played at the Forum April 14. . . . Wayne Gretzky is not the only one feeling better, Defenseman Tom Laidlaw, also out several weeks because of a lower back injury, is improving, too. He has skated the past two days. Don’t look for him Sunday, but he might return for Game 4. . . . When Rick Sadowski of the L.A. Daily News returned to his room in Banff Thursday, his message light was on. “There was a call from a Wayne and I can’t pronounce the last name,” the operator told him. Gretzky unknown in Canada? When he was told the story, Gretzky replied, “How fast they forget.”