A little misstep trips Kings

CALGARY, Canada -- Seven more seconds and the Kings might have taken their hard-won and recently acquired momentum along for the ride and into the dressing room at the Saddledome on Thursday night.

Seven more seconds and the Flames might have heard their first, or maybe loudest, of many (expected) tirades from new Coach Mike Keenan, who has been treading the kinder, gentler path so far . . . even after his team crumbled this week in Colorado, blowing a four-goal lead.

And this wasn’t the final seven seconds of the game. This happened to be the opening period. Small steps are seemingly required with a team in transition, and the Kings simply could not get out of the first period without giving the lackluster-looking Flames some life.

That’s all that was required. The Flames, on a five-on-three advantage, broke through when forward Kristian Huselius scored at 19:53 of the opening period, his fifth goal of the season. That seemed to break the Kings as the Flames added three more in the second and hung on for a 4-3 victory. Daymond Langkow had two goals and one assist.

The Kings were coming off a morale-boosting shootout victory over Minnesota on Tuesday. Coach Marc Crawford stuck with the same lineup, keeping out forward Ladislav Nagy for a second straight game, and again went with goalie J.S. Aubin, who won against the Wild.

Looking re-energized, the Kings led, 2-0, midway through the first on a power-play goal by Michael Cammalleri (his seventh of the season) and a goal by Dustin Brown (No. 3). Anze Kopitar, who would later score a power-play goal in the third (No. 4), assisted on both first-period goals.

They could have even added to the lead while playing perhaps their best period of the season . . . until the fateful final seven seconds.

The turnaround came after what Crawford thought was a questionable penalty for too many men on the ice. But the Kings left the middle wide open with the clock winding down and Huselius’ shot went off Aubin’s leg and into the net, cutting the Kings’ lead to 2-1.

Crawford was unhappy with the penalty call.

“It got them back into the game,” he said. “I really didn’t like the call they made. . . . I thought it was a really bad call. It was a cheap call.

“In a game where you had as many penalties as there were, we had a number of opportunities to get ourselves a point here at least. I thought our team played very well at the start of the game, really well in the third period, trying to salvage the game.

“In the second period we took a couple of bad penalties. And we ended up making a couple of mistakes they capitalized on.”

There were flickering signs of fight from the Kings in the third. Crawford pulled Aubin after two periods and replaced him with Jason LaBarbera, who had not played since losing, 5-1, at Dallas on Oct. 10. Aubin faced 18 shots and allowed four goals, and LaBarbera stopped all 11 shots in the third.

“It’s never easy going in like that,” LaBarbera said. “You get a sense of a game, I guess. I’m always stressed out on the bench, trying to make sure I’m ready. It was just good to get out there again.”

--

TONIGHT

at Vancouver, 7, FSN West

Radio -- 1150.

Site -- General Motors Place.

Records -- Kings 2-6; Canucks 3-3.

Record vs. Canucks (2006-07) -- 1-3.

Update -- Vancouver has won once in four games at home. This is the second of a two-game trip for the Kings before they return to Los Angeles for a four-game homestand.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com