Ducks, Kings Study Roster Moves, Injuries : Hockey: Hrudey is unlikely to play in regular-season opener. Carnback tops the list of Ducks unprotected for the waiver draft.

The Kings are preparing to begin the season without No. 1 goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who continues to be bothered by a sprained left ankle.

Hrudey suffered the injury just before training camp opened in September and won’t be traveling with the Kings to their final two exhibitions at Dallas on Monday and Sacramento on Tuesday. He had wanted to play in at least one exhibition game before the regular season.

What are the chances of him starting?

“I would say suspect,” King General Manager Sam McMaster said. “If he can’t play we can put him on injured reserve, but he has to stay there a minimum of seven days.”

Which means either Byron Dafoe or rookie Jamie Storr would start the opener Saturday against Colorado. Storr weighed in with his bid in a 5-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks on Saturday night before an announced crowd of 11,413 at the Forum.

Storr, who opposed a team of mostly front-line Ducks, faced 35 shots and made 33 saves. Friday night, Dafoe looked impressive as the Kings defeated Calgary, 6-3, in San Diego.

Forward Tony Granato had two goals for the Kings on Saturday. Also scoring was right wing John Druce, rookie Vitali Yachmenev and center Yanic Perreault, who has four goals in his last two games.

Defenseman Jason York and right wing Todd Krygier scored for the Ducks, both on the power play.

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The Ducks fell to 3-3-2 in exhibition play.

“We didn’t seem to compete the first two periods the way I expected us to, especially against the Kings,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “I don’t know if it’s fatigue--God help us if we just took the Kings lightly because of the way we’d been playing against other teams.

“We didn’t play well defensively tonight. We did not finish our checks. We just were not sharp.”

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Patrik Carnback, the Ducks’ sixth-leading scorer last season, learned after the game he was left unprotected for Monday’s waiver draft.

“I knew I was on the bubble so I had to fight for a spot,” said Carnback, who scored 21 points last season. “I can’t do anything about it but wait and see what happens.”

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Notes

The Ducks close their exhibition season today in Portland against the Vancouver Canucks. They will have a full week to prepare for their season-opener Oct. 9 at Winnipeg.. . . Duck rookie Chad Kilger had an assist, his 10th point in seven exhibition games, and said afterward that agent Larry Kelly and the Ducks are “getting closer” to a deal. . . . King center Kevin Todd has missed the past two games after bruising his thigh in a loss to Calgary at Phoenix.

The Ducks and Kings--because they missed the playoffs--will pick in the top seven of Monday’s NHL waiver draft, which starts at 8 a.m.

The Ducks have the third pick and the Kings will select seventh. A team may protect 18 skaters and two goaltenders. The unprotected Ducks are right wingers Patrik Carnback and Steven King, defensemen Jason Marshall, Don McSween and Alain Deeks, center Jarrod Skalde and goaltender Mike O’Neill.

The unprotected Kings are defensemen Arto Blomsten, Rob Cowie, Chris Snell and Justin Hocking and forwards Ken McRae and Gary Shuchuk.