Flames 3 Coyotes 1
CALGARY — Niklas Hagman scored the eventual winner and added an assist to lead the Calgary Flames to 3-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in pre-season action on Tuesday night.
Calgary captain Jarome Iginla also scored for the Flames (4-0), while rookie defenceman T.J. Brodie notched his third goal in the past two contests.
Goalie Henrik Karlsson, who the Flames acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the off-season, made 19 saves to pick up his second win of the pre-season.
Shane Doan counted the only goal for the Coyotes (4-2), while netminder Jason LaBarbera stopped 24 of 27 shots he faced in a losing cause.
It didn’t take the Flames long to strike first as Iginla notched his second of the pre-season just 17 seconds into the first period. Olli Jokinen’s initial shot was stopped easily by LaBarbera, but Iginla swatted the rebound across the goal line before the Phoenix goalie could cover the puck.
The Coyotes tied it up five minutes later when Doan counted his team-leading third goal of the pre-season.
Linemate Wojtek Wolski intercepted Jay Bouwmeester’s failed clearing attempt and sent a pass to the slot where Doan wristed it into the top corner.
At the other end of the ice, LaBarbera made a pair of blocker saves on shots by Jokinen and Mikael Backlund before standing his ground to turn aside another scoring chance by Iginla.
Hagman put the Flames up 2-1 early in the second period when he wired a heavy shot into the top corner over LaBarbera’s outstretched glove hand.
Jokinen left the Calgary bench part way through the second period after playing just three shifts and didn’t return.
Brodie then gave the Flames an insurance marker at 5:36 of the third when he took a pass from Hagman and blasted a low point shot past LaBarbera.
Notes: The Flames assigned defenceman Gord Baldwin to the Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League and now have three goalies, 10 defencemen and 21 forwards remaining on their training-camp roster . . . Next up, the Flames will play the New York Islanders tonight at Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre, while the Coyotes will travel to Edmonton to face the Oilers at Rexall Place . . . The Coyotes round out their exhibition schedule with a game against Dinamo Riga in Riga, Latvia on Oct. 6.