Blackhawks haunted by Brouwer in Winter Classic

The great outdoors provided a pretty great outdoor game Sunday, especially for one Troy Brouwer.

The former Blackhawks forward scored the game-winning goal with 12.9 seconds remaining in regulation to lift a pumped-up Capitals bunch to a 3-2 victory in the Winter Classic at Nationals Park.

“It's pretty special, for sure,” said Brouwer, whose father, Don, suffered a stroke a few years back and hasn't been to many games but was able to attend Thursday. “I've had some good moments in my hockey career, but this one, with all the intangibles, that played a part in it.

“My parents being able to come into town, playing against my former team, this being the first goal that I scored against my former team and the dramatic fashion at the end of the game of how everything played out … it's going to be a memorable day, a memorable event.”

Not so much for the Hawks, though, who got off to a sluggish start, blew a great chance by not capitalizing on a 5-on-3 power play, may have lost Kris Versteeg for a while with a hand injury, and in the end weren't able to hold on for 12 more seconds to at least pick up 1 point for the day.

“I think that if we could have left here with a point, we would have been a lot happier with the whole buildup and the whole thrill and experience,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “The fans were great. They're just a little happier than we are today.”

Playing in just about perfect conditions — save for a little too much sun early on — Washington's Eric Fehr opened the scoring when he corralled a loose puck that Brent Seabrook couldn't handle at the Caps' blue line, outraced Seabrook into the Hawks' zone, and beat Corey Crawford for his third goal in two Winter Classic games.

Shortly after the teams switched sides at the 10-minute mark of the first due the intense glare on the ice, Alex Ovechkin scored on a rebound goal to make it 2-0.

The Caps' captain, who was noticeable all game, nearly added another goal or two, banging one off the post and another off the crossbar.

“Alex, the bigger the stage, the bigger Alex is,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “Alex … he's a rock star.”

Just seven seconds after Washington's Nicklas Backstrom was whistled for holding, Patrick Sharp scored his sixth power-play goal of the season to make it 2-1 at 13:36 of the first.

Some great tic-tac-toe passing from Marian Hossa to Jonathan Toews to Brandon Saad resulted in Saad's ninth goal and a tied game just three minutes into the second period.

“It seems like sometimes we're more comfortable chasing the game from behind,” Sharp said during the second intermission.

Midway through the second, the Hawks had a great chance to gain even more momentum with a 5-on-3 power play for about a minute-and-a-half, but they were way too passive and not nearly shootive enough and came away empty-handed.

“We were waiting for the perfect time to shoot, and we didn't shoot the puck enough,” Toews said.

“To me, that was the tipping point of the game,” Trotz said. “If we don't kill that off, the Chicago Blackhawks are leaving here with the 2 points and we probably have a pretty disappointed locker room.”

Brouwer made sure that wasn't the case.

With Toews in the penalty box for hooking, Brouwer finished off a storybook day with his 11th goal of the season.

“We started talking about the Winter Classic since we started the season,” Ovechkin said. “I remember Brouwer said it's a good time to show up and make a show … and he did.”

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