Kings’ Early Lead Shattered by Flames : Hockey: L.A. scores first. Then Calgary takes charge and comes away with a 7-2 victory.

It could have been worse for King goalie Kelly Hrudey.

It was bad enough that:

--He was knocked temporarily senseless in the first period of Thursday’s game at the Olympic Saddledome by the Calgary Flames’ Ronnie Stern.

--He suffered through the Kings’ 7-2 loss before a sellout Saddledome crowd of 20,133.

--He watched his team get outshot, 23-0, over a span of 19 minutes bridging the second and third periods.

--He saw Gary Roberts score a hat trick to give him 49 goals.

--He was forced to face 11 power plays by the opposition.

What could be worse than all that?

Al MacInnis could have shot a little lower at the end of the second period.

MacInnis, the veteran Flame defenseman, is known for his blistering shot. At each of the last two All-Star games, MacInnis has won the hardest-shot competition, clocked both times at almost 95 m.p.h.

But MacInnis outdid all of that Thursday night when he fired a shot from the left point that sailed over Hrudey, over the net and shattered a glass panel on the end boards, sending fragments flying in all directions.

It was Darryl Dawkins on skates.

No one on either team could remember seeing that before in an NHL game.

MacInnis said he had never done it except in practice.

“I don’t usually shoot that hard,” he said, “because there are players in front of the net, especially ours.”

With 48 seconds remaining in the period, the officials stopped play and sent both teams to their dressing rooms until the damage could be repaired.

But nothing could repair a bleak effort by the Kings that saw them drop to 34-29-13, leaving them four points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers in the battle for second place in the Smythe Division and home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

The victory was even more crucial for the Flames, who improved to 28-36-11, pulling them within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for the final Smythe playoff spot.

After being flattened by Stern, Hrudey sat out only 1:31, backup Steve Weeks filling in for one shot, before Hrudey returned.

“At least he came back and put up a battle,” King Coach Tom Webster said, making little effort to hide his anger. “When you come into a game like this where the other team is desperate for a playoff spot, the challenge has to be met with emotion. Emotion under control. We took a lot of stupid penalties tonight. We stood around and watched.”

The Kings scored first in the penalty-marred game (the Kings had 21 penalties for 72 minutes, the Flames 15 for 53) when Jim Thomson got his first goal of the season.

They also got a first-period goal from Wayne Gretzky, his 31st.

The Flames scored twice in the first period, twice more in the second and three times in the third. They scored three power-play goals and outshot the Kings, 48-25.

Sergei Makarov scored his 17th goal and added four assists. The Flames’ other goals were scored by Paul Ranheim (21st), Michel Petit (fourth) and Robert Reichel (19th).