Ducks-Kings Rivalry Drawing Bad Blood : Hockey: Unfriendly foes, battling for the final Western Conference playoff berth, play tonight at Anaheim Arena.

Whether Wayne Gretzky was really bleeding--on the gum? on the tip of his nose?--after the controversial high-sticking call against the Mighty Ducks the last time these teams met, one thing is certain:

There’s bad blood now.

A rivalry has come to life, and tonight’s game between two teams fighting for the final Western Conference playoff spot might cause more sparks in Anaheim Arena than anything since opening night.

The Ducks played one of their most brutishly physical games of the season Jan. 29 in their 5-1 loss to the Kings at the Forum, but the game turned on a call by referee Kerry Fraser.

Or actually, linesman Shane Heyer.

Or, according to the Ducks, the Great One himself.

With the game scoreless, Gretzky skated over to Heyer, and Heyer made a late call against Duck defenseman Don McSween, assessing him a high-sticking major--usually assessed when blood is drawn--and an automatic game misconduct.

The Kings scored twice during the five-minute power play, and that was the game.

No matter that the NHL later rescinded the penalty to McSween, meaning he won’t be fined and it won’t count toward an automatic suspension after two stick-related majors.

“You feel a little vindicated,” McSween said. “It doesn’t change the fact that we lost the game, probably because of that incident.”

The Ducks weren’t the only ones who were huffy after the game. The Kings sent a videotape to the league complaining about Duck enforcer Stu Grimson’s rough play against Tim Watters but got no results.

Then the Ducks--namely Terry Yake and Todd Ewen--claimed their team is better than the Stanley Cup finalists “five-on-five”--in other words, only the Kings’ potent power play has beaten them.

The Kings have been baited, but they aren’t biting.

“They’ve got great players on a great team,” Coach Barry Melrose said in a deadpan so careful it was comical. “We won the first three games, we’ve got to beat this team out for a playoff spot, we’ve got three games left with them. They’re very big games.”

Said Gretzky: “Every game’s become so important. We can’t have off nights. Every game means the world.”

The last game is past, but the Ducks haven’t dropped it. They’re still miffed over Gretzky’s gamesmanship--he has been accused of using his standing as the greatest ever to play the game to advantage with officials before.

“He cries all the time,” said club president Tony Tavares. “He has influenced more calls than any other player probably in the history of sports. It’s to his credit and his team’s benefit. I wish I had somebody who could get away with what he gets away with.”

Still, they have a grudging regard for Gretzky’s ability to blow a whistle from afar.

“I think if you’re out there, you want to do anything you can to win, bend the rules as much as you can,” McSween said. “The position he’s in, he’s respected by everybody. If he can use that to help his team win, I have no problem with that. I’d do the same thing.

“It did make him look kind of bad. People back home who were watching, not too many of them like Gretzky now, not in my family.”

It is an unusual position for Gretzky, one of the most widely admired people in sports and the three-time winner of the Lady Byng trophy, given to the NHL player who best combines sportsmanship and playing ability.

“Whiner Byng, that’s about all he’s going for now,” Ewen said.