Kings Retain Second : Hockey: They beat the Canucks, 6-1, and stay ahead of the Oilers. Hrudey has 39 saves.

So who says the strike was a bad thing?

Not the Kings.

Not after Sunday night.

Rested, refreshed and re-inspired, they came back from a two-week layoff to beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-1, behind the brilliant goaltending of Kelly Hrudey, four assists from Wayne Gretzky and two goals by Luc Robitaille.

The pre-strike Kings were 0-5-1 in their previous six road games, hadn’t won a game anywhere since a March 21 victory at the Forum and were 2-6-1 in their previous nine.

By winning Sunday, however, the Kings improved to 35-30-14 and kept themselves in control of their bid to finish second in the Smythe Division, meaning home-ice advantage over the Edmonton Oilers in the opening round of the playoffs. Should the Oilers win their regular-season finale Tuesday, the Kings, playing their final game the same night in the Forum against Vancouver, will need a victory or a tie to finish ahead of Edmonton.

It might have been different if Hrudey had played the way it was feared he would play after sitting out two weeks, the way it was feared all goalies might play because of rusty timing.

Hrudey himself feared he wouldn’t play very well after stepping back on the ice for the first time Saturday for practice.

“It was a horrendous practice,” he said. “The puck looked smaller than it has in years. We were off a long time. It’s tough to stay focused when the season is in doubt.”

Even Sunday night, Hrudey still had his doubts at first.

“I was scared,” he acknowledged. “No matter what you do for training, it doesn’t compare to games.”

Hrudey, who ended up with 39 saves, blanked Vancouver on nine shots in the first period, but said he didn’t feel comfortable until the start of the second period.

By then, he had a 3-0 lead on goals by Mike Donnelly (29th), Charlie Huddy (fourth and first in 28 games) and Robitaille’s first of the night.

King defenseman Rob Blake added his seventh before Pavel Bure got his team-high 32nd goal for Vancouver during the third period.

Bob Kudelski (22nd goal) and Robitaille again (team-high 44th) closed out the scoring.

Vancouver outshot the Kings, 40-24, but failed on all seven power-play chances. The Kings were two-for-five on the power play.

The loss dropped the Canucks to 41-26-11, but they have already clinched the Smythe title.

“I wouldn’t put much stock in it,” Gretzky said of the Canucks’ loss. “I’ve been in games like this where it didn’t matter. They are a good team.”

As for his own play after the long layoff, Gretzky said: “I told Coff (defenseman Paul Coffey) in the pregame warm-up, ‘I’ve never felt so good.’ ”

Maybe they ought to strike every year.

King Notes

King defenseman Paul Coffey left the game during the second period because of a mild concussion, the result of being slammed into the boards by Sergio Momesso. . . . The Kings have signed right wing Jim Hiller, their 10th-round pick in the 1989 draft. Hiller, who had one more season of eligibility left at Northern Michigan, signed a three-year deal. King General Manager Rogie Vachon compared Hiller’s situation to that of defenseman Rob Blake, who came out of college two years ago and played an important role in the postseason. “It worked well for Blakey,” Vachon said. “So who knows? He (Hiller) just dominated in college. He is good in the corners, has good hands and is a good, big guy. Now we’ll see if he can make the big step.” . . . If there was any fan resentment from the strike it wasn’t evident Sunday night at Pacific Coliseum, where there was a sellout crowd of 16,123. . . . Because of the switch of the regular-season Forum finale to Tuesday night because of the strike, 500 seats are available.