Blake Laughs Last; Kings Edge Flames : Hockey: Rookie defenseman proves he is not merely a power-play scorer in leading Los Angeles to 4-3 victory over Calgary.

Every time the division-leading Kings looked over their collective shoulders, there were the Calgary Flames, skating ever closer.

Not the Kings’ club-record winning pace, not their best defense in years, not even Wayne Gretzky seemed enough to shake the three-time defending Smythe Division champion Flames from their bid for a fourth title.

It was a chase that spread over two months, across two countries and through 30 games.

And finally, Saturday night, it seemed over.

The two teams met tied for the division lead. But the Kings were in Calgary’s Saddledome, where the Flames were unbeaten in a club-record 18 consecutive games.

Calgary had a 3-2 lead in the third period. And Gretzky was hunched over on the bench, an ice pack on his injured right eye.

Yet the Kings won, 4-3, before a sellout crowd of 20,132.

All the Flames had needed to do was hold on for 10 minutes and sole possession of the division lead was theirs.

Not quite. Not here. Not now.

With Rob Blake turning from defensive force to offensive star, the Kings left town atop the division again by two points.

The chase must begin anew for the Flames, but now each club has seven games to play.

The Kings are 42-22-9, Calgary 42-24-7.

“We are not a flash in the pan,” said Gretzky, who recovered enough to return to action. “We are not a team that is lucky to be where we are. We are for real.”

The Flames hadn’t lost at home since Dec. 22, going 17-0-1 over that span. They have lost only three times in their last 21 games overall, and the Kings have won two of those.

They wouldn’t have won this one without Blake, the rookie who has become a star in the Kings’ defensive unit.

But despite raves about his defensive play, despite boosts from his teammates for rookie of the year honors, he has been taken a lot of kidding lately.

He was tired of it.

Blake began play Saturday with nine goals, eight of which had come on power plays.

That brought a lot of chuckles about whether he could score at even strength.

Nobody’s laughing now.

Not after he scored two even-strength goals, including the winner, and assisted on the two others.

None of that occurred until the Flames had zoomed in front, 2-0, on Theoren Fleury’s team-leading 47th goal and Sergei Makarov’s 28th.

Both goals came against Kelly Hrudey, who had begun play with a streak of two shutouts. He had not been scored upon in 136 minutes 44 seconds.

Hrudey added another nine minutes and 40 seconds to that before Fleury broke through.

Blake, trying to shove the puck out of the slot, handed it to Fleury on the right side. The Flame wing flipped it over Hrudey into the upper left-hand corner of the net.

Steve Duchesne scored his 20th goal on a power play, Blake getting the assist, to make the score 2-1.

Then, with only 20 seconds remaining in the first period, Blake banged in his 10th goal from the right point, ricocheting it in off Calgary defenseman Ric Nattress.

“That gave us a tremendous boost going into the second period,” Gretzky said. “It got us going.”

Neither team scored in the second period, but Joe Nieuwendyk’s 42nd goal 1:31 into the final period put Calgary back in front, 3-2.

It looked bleak for the Kings when Doug Gilmour slashed Gretzky across the right side of his face 6:30 into the period. Gretzky dropped his stick and skated to the bench where he hung over the side, holding a hand over his eye in pain.

But it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

“There was just some stinging in my eye,” he said. “Once it went away, I knew I would come back in.”

While he was out, Steve Kasper, assisted by Blake again, scored the tying goal, his eighth of the season.

Gretzky skated back onto the ice after missing 7 1/2 minutes and made his presence felt soon thereafter.

The deciding sequence began with Blake taking a shot from the right side. Calgary goalie Mike Vernon blocked it, but the puck bounced out to Gretzky, who took it to his favorite spot behind the net.

Spotting Blake, he passed it back to the defenseman on the right side.

Again, Blake shot.

Again, Vernon blocked it.

But Blake controlled the rebound and shot again from the right side, sneaking the puck by Vernon on the short side at 17:03.

Gretzky extended his NHL-record assist streak to 19 games. But the spotlight this night was on Blake.

“He has a tremendous amount of composure,” Gretzky said. “We don’t look at him as a rookie.”

Blake doesn’t feel that way, either.

“When you’re around guys like this,” he said, “you age quickly.

“When I first came up, I was nervous about going into the goalie. I wanted to pass the puck all the time. I didn’t want to be selfish. But you realize that every shot is a chance on goal, no matter who takes it.”

And Saturday night, the Kings couldn’t have been happier that Blake was taking them.