Hawks shrug off goal drought

After scoring just 1 goal in the last two games on their road trip, the Blackhawks insist the offense is fine.

"We're going to have games like that where not everything goes in, but it's all about the way we play," Jonathan Toews said. "If we keep shooting the puck and keep setting ourselves up and giving ourselves good opportunities to score, the puck's got to go in eventually."

The Hawks saw the tightest checking of the road trip at Anaheim and Los Angeles.

"There wasn't much room out there," Toews said. "We're not concerned about the lack of production the last couple games. It's going to come to us as long as we work hard."

The Hawks played a good third period in Saturday's 2-1 shootout loss at Los Angeles after coach Joel Quenneville tweaked his lines.

With the second line of Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp and Dustin Byfuglien generating little, Quenneville split up Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane. He used Andrew Ladd with Toews and Hossa and later had Sharp on the ice with Toews and Kane.

"I could have done it earlier, too," Quenneville said. "It's something you're always thinking about playing with."

Quenneville liked the results of the third period when the Hawks outshot the Kings 12-6 and forced overtime on Toews' power-play goal.

"We'd been on the road for a while and at the end of trips a lot of times traditionally, teams look like they're looking for the finish line," Quenneville said. "I liked how we competed and how the third period showed we were determined to get something out of it."

The Hawks look to carry their strong play in the third period into Tuesday's game against Columbus back at the United Center.

"I think on the whole we can go back to Chicago feeling good about our game and what we've been doing," Duncan Keith said.

Another challenge: Like with the Ducks on Friday, the Kings viewed playing the Hawks as a way to measure themselves and were rewarded with the win in a shootout.

"You have to play good against Chicago," Kings coach Terry Murray said.

Tip-ins: Jonathan Toews had been 3-for-3 in shootouts before missing on Saturday. -Patrick Kane's miss made him 1-for-4. - Cristobal Huet has allowed 8 goals on 16 shots in shootouts. - Joel Quenneville will take his third crack at winning his 500th game on Tuesday against Columbus.