Brouwer, Flames beat Canucks
CALGARY — Troy Brouwer had a goal and an assist and Brian Elliott was solid in net as the two former Blues led the Calgary Flames to 2-1 pre-season victory on Friday night over the Vancouver Canucks.
After helping St. Louis to the Western Conference final last year, both changed addresses over the summer – Brouwer as a free agent and Elliott via trade.
After Brouwer scored the only goal of the first period, Matthew Tkachuk knocked a rebound of a Brouwer deflection past Richard Bachman to put Calgary ahead 2-1 at 14:34 of the second.
It was the first pre-season goal for the Flames’ sixth-overall pick from June’s NHL draft. Sam Bennett, the third member of the line, added two assists for Calgary (2-2-0).
Guillaume Brisebois scored for Vancouver (1-1-1).
Earlier in the second, Calgary got a scare when Tkachuk left the ice and went straight to the Flames dressing room, appearing to have been injured when he got rocked hard into the boards by Canucks defenceman Joseph Labate, who got penalized for interference.
However, he returned after missing only a few shifts and scored shortly after.
The Canucks goal came at 10:42 of the second when a slick pass from former Flame Markus Granlund sprung Brisebois and he made no mistake, snapping a shot top corner on Elliott.
It was the only blemish in another impressive 40 minutes of work for the Flames new starting goaltender. In his second pre- season appearance, he stopped 17-of-18 shots.
Tyler Parsons stopped all seven shots in relief of Elliott. Bachman, who had 15 saves in his 40 minutes of work, gave way to Thatcher Demko, with the former Boston College star perfect on 11 shots faced.
Calgary is back in action on Sunday when it hosts Winnipeg. Vancouver hosts San Jose on Sunday... Vancouver played Tuomo Ruutu and Jack Skille, both in camp on pro try-outs... The Flames had one PTO in their line-up in former Canuck Chris Higgins.