King Win Streak Comes to a Halt : Hockey: Duchesne assists on three goals in Nordiques’ 5-4 victory. L.A. loses for first time in last 13 games at the Forum.

Barry Melrose was disgusted after watching the Quebec Nordiques end the Kings’ 12-game Forum winning streak with a 5-4 victory Thursday night before 15,221.

“We were awful,” the King coach said. “A-w-f-u-l.

“I thought we had a terrible warm-up, too. We took shortcuts tonight and we weren’t ready to play. We did stupid things and we weren’t sharp mentally.

“We’re usually a very intense group and (assistant coach) Cap Raeder and I have to take the blame for that. Things have been going too good for us and the men can’t handle success.”

King defenseman Marty McSorley agreed.

“(Melrose) tells is like it is,” McSorley said. “And we’re not about to argue with him tonight because we didn’t execute. We didn’t play like we wanted to play. We’re not happy with the way we played. We know we have to have 20 good hockey players, and we didn’t have 20 good hockey players tonight.”

The Nordiques, who finished last in the Adams Division the last five seasons, were so awful that Eric Lindros wanted no part of them after they made him the No. 1 pick in the 1991 draft. He sat out last season to force a trade.

But this season they are one of the most improved teams in the NHL. Winners of only two road games last season, the Nordiques have already won six games this season.

“Well, if you get the first pick 10 years in a row you’re going to be really good,” Melrose said.

Former King defenseman Steve Duchesne assisted on three goals as the Nordiques overcame a 4-3 third-period deficit.

Trailing 3-2 going into the third period, the Kings scored twice in the first 3:28 of the final period to take a 4-3 lead.

They tied the score 21 seconds into the period when Luc Robitaille got his 24th goal. Defenseman Paul Coffey set up Robitaille with a pass from the left point. Center Corey Millen scored an unassisted shorthanded goal at 3:28 of the period when he checked Nordique center Joe Sakic off the puck at the left point and raced in to beat goalie Ron Hextall to give the Kings their first lead of the game.

But the Kings, who wasted a three-goal lead in Tuesday night’s 5-5 tie against Montreal, quickly squandered the advantage, giving up two goals in a little more than a minute.

“They attacked the net like we hadn’t seen them do in the past,” King goalie Kelly Hrudey said. “Give them credit.”

Nordique right wing Owen Nolan tied the score, 4-4, when he scored a power-play goal on a backhand that went into the net off Coffey’s skate at 4:39. Quebec got the game-winner at 5:43 when left wing Martin Rucinsky scored on a rebound of a shot by Nolan that Hrudey failed to cover. The puck slid out to Rucinsky and he flipped it over Hrudey and into the upper left corner of the net.

Trailing 2-1 after the first period, the Kings tied the score at 3:03 of the second period when rookie right wing Jim Hiller scored his sixth goal off a pass from center Jari Kurri on a shot from the right circle that beat Hextall to the glove side.

The Nordiques took a 3-2 lead into the third period when right wing Andrei Kovalenko scored his 12th goal of the season with 24 seconds remaining in the second period. Sakic set up Kovalenko in the left slot with a pass from the left corner and Kovalenko stopped the puck with his right skate and beat Hrudey from point-blank range.

King Notes

Nordique right wing Mats Sundin, who has at least one point in every game this season, extended his scoring streak to 30 games with an assist on a third-period power play goal by Owen Nolan. . . . Defenseman Paul Coffey, who assisted on Luc Robitaille’s third period goal, moved into an eighth-place tie with Alex Delvecchio on the all-time NHL list with 801 assists.

King center Wayne Gretzky, sidelined indefinitely because of a herniated disk, skated for 30 minutes at the Forum on Thursday morning with teammate Dave Taylor, who has missed 13 games because of a concussion. It was the second time that Gretzky has skated since the injury. He skated for 40 minutes without pain on Monday. . . . King center Jari Kurri, who assisted on Jim Hiller’s second-period goal, extended his point-scoring streak to 10 games.