Non-stars making difference for Hawks

CALGARY, Alberta - On a night when Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell were nowhere to be found on the scoresheet, the Blackhawks still found a way to roll over a pretty good team in the Calgary Flames.

This is a Hawks team hitting on all cylinders again and getting difference-making efforts from all corners of the lineup.

Fourth-liners Adam Burish and Colin Fraser each had a goal in Thursday's 5-2 win at the Saddledome.

Andrew Ladd had a goal and 2 assists, and sixth defenseman Matt Walker added 3 assists.

The Hawks have recaptured the feeling they had in December, when they believed they were going to win every time they stepped on the ice.

"When you have a good team and you have those feelings, you go into every game expecting to win," Burish said. "That's what good teams do. You can sense we have that feeling in the locker room that we know the right way to play and how we have to play."

The Hawks are 4-1 after five stops on their eight-game road trip that pulls into Vancouver tonight.

The Hawks are getting great special-teams play, which has helped set the tone for the way the trip has started. The penalty-killers came up big in wins over the Oilers and Flames after allowing at least 1 power-play goal in seven straight games.

"We had seven games in a row where the penalty-kill got scored on, and obviously that's not good enough," Fraser said. "We had meetings and we talked about being better and getting back to basics."

The fourth line of Fraser, Burish and Ben Eager has had a strong trip, playing with energy as Fraser and Burish kill penalties and chip in key goals like they did Thursday.

"Killing penalties is a big part of the fourth line's role," Fraser said.

"You see teams that go deep into the playoffs and teams that are successful in the regular season, they've got guys that can contribute across the board," Burish said. "Look at Walker. He goes out and puts up all those assists, and now we're telling him he looks like Paul Coffey out there."

Fraser has become one of the Hawks' unsung heroes as a penalty-killer and faceoff man. He won 2 critical faceoffs in his own zone the final minute of the 3-2 win at Anaheim on Jan. 28 that got the trip started on a positive note.

"Fraser is a smart player and has a good stick on faceoffs, which is something we're all trying to get better at," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "He pays attention to the details and, penalty-killing wise, he's very effective.

"We feel we're getting the momentum from the four lines again, and that group (on the fourth line) has been has been in the offensive zone a lot and that really sustains your team's momentum. You get a lot of energy off that group."

The win at Calgary marked another victory against a quality opponent. So far on this trip, the Hawks have defeated the first, third and fifth seeds in the Western Conference in San Jose, Calgary and Anaheim.

"With our speed and skill and being physical, we can dominate out there," Dave Bolland said. "If we keep getting these key road wins, we're going to be able to go back home in front of our fans in great shape."

Once the Hawks finish this stretch with six of the next seven games still to play on the road, they get to close out the regular season with 17 of the final 25 games at the United Center.

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