Brouwer big part of Hawks' success

LOS ANGELES - The list of those Blackhawks who came up big on the circus road trip is long, but right near the top is Troy Brouwer.

The second-year right winger has played his way into a key role and earned the confidence of coach Joel Quenneville, who uses Brouwer in all situations, including the power play and as a penalty-killer.

Brouwer has been getting better and better over the last month and appears to have found a home at right wing on the line with John Madden and Andrew Ladd.

"To me he's one of those forwards who is so useful in a lot of ways," Quenneville said. "He's got a great shot, he's got size, and he's got sense. Whether he's scoring or not, I think he makes a contribution to the team game.

"We like the progress. We like the way he's been playing now, but we think he can still improve off these levels."

Brouwer went into Saturday's game against the Kings at Staples Center a plus-4 with 2 goals and 2 assists in the first five games of the road trip.

It was Brouwer's short-handed goal at San Jose that started the scoring and energized the Hawks as they went on to beat the Sharks 7-2 in their biggest win on the trip.

"Coach has given me every opportunity to play," Brouwer said. "He has a lot of confidence in me, and any athlete will tell you that confidence means everything.

"He told me at the start of the season I was going to be one of the penalty-killing guys and that as long as I was working hard and doing the right things it would be tough for me to get off it."

Road warriors: Why have the Hawks been a good road team over the past two seasons?

"I think maybe it's the chemistry we have in the locker room and it definitely transfers out on the ice," winger Patrick Sharp said. "We enjoy each other's company and when you're on the road you're forced to hang out, and I think that carries over."

This and that: Jonathan Toews won 9 of 11 faceoffs Friday at Anaheim to put his winning percentage at 60.5, which ranked third in the NHL.

Heading into the weekend, the Hawks and Sharks were the only two teams with two centers ranked in the top 15 in the league in faceoffs. John Madden ranked 11th before Saturday.

Marian Hossa's 2 goals at San Jose gave him 297 since the start of the 2000-01 season, which put him third in the league during that stretch behind only Calgary's Jarome Iginla (334) and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk (310).