Quick Scores Give the Kings Quite a Start : Stanley Cup playoffs: With Gretzky and Blake hurting, they dominate the Flames in the series opener, 6-3.

What ordinarily would have been a nightmare for the Kings--starting a playoff game without Rob Blake and losing Wayne Gretzky for more than half of it--ended up having virtually no impact on the outcome of Game 1 against the Calgary Flames.

The Kings scored twice within 24 seconds of the second period in a significant switch of momentum on their way to a 6-3 victory over the Flames in the opener of their Smythe Division semifinal series Sunday afternoon at the Olympic Saddledome before 18,605.

King goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who faced only 13 shots in the first two periods, made 21 saves, and center Jimmy Carson scored twice to secure the victory. The Flames, who failed on all eight of their power-play opportunities, didn’t even get a shot on goal until 9:45 of the first.

By then, the Kings were ahead, 1-0, having taken the lead 16 seconds into the game when Gretzky, from behind the net, fed the puck to defenseman Darryl Sydor, who was in the middle of the left circle. Sydor, appearing in his first playoff game, beat goaltender Mike Vernon with a slap shot between the pads.

By the end of the first, concern on the Kings’ bench mounted when Gretzky limped off, suffering a charley horse to his right leg when he was hit along the boards late in the period. Gretzky, who had injuries in the playoffs the last three seasons, tried to play a couple of shifts during the second, including a turn on the power play with a two-man advantage. He felt his efforts were futile and left for treatment midway through the second period and didn’t return.

“It’s frustrating because at the start I thought I was playing as well as I have all season,” said Gretzky, who sat out the Kings’ first 39 games of the season because of a career-threatening back injury. “Our line had great jump. I don’t know what happened when I got hurt. When it was 4-1, I tried a couple of shifts, but I felt a little ineffective.

“It’s a different situation than when I hurt my back. We have two days off now and the only way I wouldn’t play is if I was a detriment to the team.”

Two days off might also help Blake, the Kings’ top defenseman who hasn’t played since he suffered a bruised lower back against Minnesota on April 3. Both Gretzky and Blake are listed as day to day. Left wing Luc Robitaille, who assisted on Carson’s second goal at 10:32 of the third, nearly joined them on the injury list when he was slammed into the right-corner boards by defenseman Trent Yawney and then hit by right wing Greg Paslawski with 4:08 remaining.

No penalties were assessed, and Robitaille was angry afterward. Especially after he read the Calgary newspapers Sunday with Flame Coach Dave King saying the Kings “embellish hits,” implying they were taking dives.

Robitaille spent a couple of minutes down on the ice after the Yawney hit, having King trainer Pete Demers attend to him. He sported a large welt on his right cheekbone.

“I went in face first. Yeah, I dived into the boards,” Robitaille said, sarcastically. “I couldn’t believe that (King’s comments). Aren’t these the guys who have no control?

“He (Yawney) tries to hurt a guy. It’s kind of stupid. Isn’t there a penalty for hitting from behind?”

The Flames didn’t help themselves with needless penalties, giving the Kings 10 power plays. Although the Kings converted only two, they easily could have had more as they hit three goal posts during the second period alone.

King was upset with his team’s lack of discipline.

“We did a great job today taking a lot of penalties and playing with little poise,” he said. “That sometimes happens when you’re very intense. It’s difficult sometimes to see the big picture. You get to worrying about a personal vendetta instead of winning the hockey game. I think we self-destructed at times, and it hurt us.”

The Kings’ two biggest goals of the game came from Carson on power plays. During the second period, Flame defenseman Gary Suter scored a short-handed goal at 2:48 to make the score 1-1, which seemed to signal a change of momentum. But on the next shift, Carson picked up a loose puck in the slot, which had bounced off King forward Gary Shuchuk, and put it between Vernon’s pads. Sydor started the play with a hard slap shot from the blue line.

Defenseman Charlie Huddy scored 24 seconds later to give the Kings a 3-1 lead.

“We responded quickly,” Carson said. “All of a sudden, boom, and we’re in control of the game. We played a good game except for maybe five, six minutes in the third.”

But he helped deflate the Flames again after they chipped away at the Kings’ 5-1 lead, pulling within two goals when defenseman Chris Dahlquist scored at 4:23 and Yawney at 8:47 of the third. With the Kings holding a five-on-three advantage, Carson beat Vernon on the stick side to close the scoring.

The Kings erased Calgary’s home-ice advantage with the victory, but Gretzky sounded a cautionary note about Game 2 here on Wednesday.

“I’ve played enough playoff hockey to know that one game doesn’t win anything,” he said. “And the second game is always that much harder to win.”

King Notes

King Coach Barry Melrose on the demotion of Robb Stauber to No. 3 goaltender: “There’s some things I wanted to do with it,” Melrose said. “No. 1, Rick (Knickle) has been practicing very hard and he deserves to back up. I think Robb maybe needed to watch the game from the stands. Maybe he needed to look at the bigger picture a little bit.”

Kings vs. Flames

SMYTHE DIVISION SEMIFINAL

Best-of-seven series

Game 1: Kings 6, Calgary 3

Game 2: Wednesday at Calgary, 6:30 p.m. (PDT).

NHL playoff glance: C17