Brouwer's goal leads Blackhawks past Sharks in OT

Posted January 28, 2010 10:00 pm

By Tim Sassone

While others tried to read anything and everything into those limousine pictures from Vancouver, the Blackhawks concerned themselves only with playing the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Rising to the occasion like they have all season, the Hawks knocked off the Sharks 4-3 in overtime on Troy Brouwer's second goal of the night.

With the Sharks earning a point, they still lead the Hawks by 1 point in the NHL's overall and Western Conference standings.

The Hawks took a 3-0 lead in the first period only to watch the Sharks chip away. The Hawks had 18 shots on goal in the third period to regain the momentum, then they carried it into overtime.

"We had exactly the right start that we wanted," Brouwer said. "We had a little hiccup in the middle of the game, but we were able to fend them off and pull it out in overtime."

Brouwer's winner, his fifth goal on the road trip, came when he flew down the left side, cut to the middle and beat goalie Evgeni Nabokov through a Kris Versteeg screen.

The Hawks were ready from the drop of the puck and took a 3-0 lead less than nine minutes into the game on goals by Dustin Byfuglien, Brouwer and Andrew Ladd.

"We had a good start - good pace and a lot of jump," Ladd said.

Byfuglien's goal at 5:02, set up by Patrick Kane, came on a one-timer from in the slot.

Brouwer got his first goal 48 seconds later on a snap shot from inside the left circle.

The Hawks kept buzzing the San Jose net and made it 3-0 at 8:23 when Patrick Sharp outworked a defender in front and fed Ladd for the tap-in.

The Sharks got 2 goals from Joe Pavelski and 1 from Manny Malhotra to tie it.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville addressed the issue of the limousine photos with reporters following the morning skate.

The pictures of shirtless Hawks Kane, Versteeg and Jon Madden in a limo with several fully clothed women first appeared Tuesday afternoon on the Internet before the Hawks went out and beat Edmonton 4-2.

The Hawks confirmed the pictures were taken Saturday night after a 5-1 to the Canucks.

"The situation was addressed and we're going to keep it internal," Quenneville told reporters. "We already played a game (after the pictures appeared). It was addressed and we handled that game all right."

Kane also spoke to reporters after the morning skate and admitted he should have used better judgment, particularly only a few months removed from his incident with a taxi driver.

"I've had a couple incidents, obviously," Kane told reporters. "I'm 21 years old. It's probably time I grow up a little bit. It's not the way we want to represent the team."

Tim Sassone's game tracker Blackhawks 4, Sharks 3, OT Three stars 1. Troy Brouwer, Hawks: Two goals, including the winner in overtime, giving him 5 for the road trip. 2. Cristobal Huet, Hawks: Made 34 saves in regulation, looking every bit the part of a No. 1 goalie. 3. Joe Pavelski, Sharks: Two goals in a losing cause. One more to go The win made the Hawks 5-2 on their eight-game road trip that finally ends Saturday at Carolina. They have achieved their goal of double-digit points. Fourth star Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith was fabulous again. With partner Brent Seabrook and the Jonathan Toews line, they held Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau without a goal.

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