When Ducks get a whistle, he gets a call

As a kid in suburban Chicago, and later as he began his professional career, Mike Brown didn’t picture himself filling the role he’s playing so capably for the Ducks.

“You never really grow up saying, ‘I want to be a penalty killer.’ Everyone wants to play power play and score goals,” said the sturdy right wing, acquired from Vancouver on Feb. 4 for Nathan McIver.

“But it just kind of grew on me. Once I started killing penalties and started developing that role and you get used to it and get better at it, it becomes part of your game. And fun.”

Being a reliable penalty killer is also a sure way to retain steady employment with the Ducks, the NHL’s second-most penalized team.

The playoffs may be a new season, but the Ducks didn’t shed their old habits Thursday in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Sharks. Ignoring familiar warnings from Coach Randy Carlyle to stay out of the penalty box, they gave the Sharks six power plays and were tested on each one.

That the eighth-seeded Ducks skated off with a 2-0 victory over the top-ranked Sharks is a credit to strong goaltending from Jonas Hiller and tenacious penalty-killing. The work was mainly shared by Brown -- in his playoff debut -- with Todd Marchant and Petteri Nokelainen up front and defensemen Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin.

“They’re very good,” Sharks defenseman Rob Blake said Saturday after San Jose devoted a chunk of its practice to devising a new power-play strategy for Game 2 tonight at HP Pavilion.

“Brown’s come in and done a great job for them on the PK. It’s something he wasn’t used much for in Vancouver and he gets there and they find a role for him and he does it very well.”

Acquiring the 23-year-old set off a chain of events that turned the Ducks’ season around.

Carlyle and General Manager Bob Murray knew Brown and thought he could bring mental and physical toughness to a team that was losing its drive as it aged.

Before making the Canucks’ roster this season Brown had played three seasons for Vancouver’s top affiliate in Manitoba, the team Carlyle had coached before the Ducks hired him in 2005. Carlyle tapped his Manitoba connections for a scouting report and was told Brown had the potential to be a good penalty killer in the NHL.

Murray’s knowledge of Brown goes back even further. Brown’s father, Barry, owns a motorcycle dealership in Chicago and became friends with many members of the Blackhawks. Among them was Bob Murray, now the Ducks’ general manager.

Murray also watched many of Brown’s youth-league games because Murray’s sons are around the same age and played in many of the same rinks. “I’ve liked that kid for a long time,” Murray said.

Brown remembers meeting Murray years ago and marveled at the turns that have made Murray his boss. “It’s a very small world,” Brown said.

Having Brown allowed the Ducks to give up two of their top penalty killers, Travis Moen and Samuel Pahlsson, on the day of the NHL trading deadline and replenish their lineup on several fronts.

Brown was moved onto a line with Nokelainen -- acquired from Boston for Steve Montador -- and George Parros, a trio that has added vigor and the kind of battle-readiness that often proves decisive in the playoffs.

“He’s willing to sacrifice, block shots, and he understands our systems and how we play. We needed that,” Marchant said. “We needed other guys to step in after what transpired at the deadline.”

Brown credited his Manitoba teammate Mike Keane with helping him learn the fine points of his new role and said Marchant had been helpful since he joined the Ducks. Those lessons wouldn’t be worth much, though, if Brown weren’t so willing to learn and improve.

“The first thing with Mike Brown is tenacity and his ability to get around the rink. He’s going to go out and play the same energetic game, game in and game out,” Carlyle said.

“We’ve tried to actually tone him down a little bit so that the game slows down for him a little bit more so that his hands, his head and his feet are all in unison, versus just feet. He’s done an excellent job for us up ice on the penalty killing.”

Brown wasn’t afraid of the pressure he faced Thursday. And if they call on him often tonight -- let’s be realistic and say when, not if -- he’ll be ready.

“It was just exciting to be there and be in the moment. Those are the games I love to play in,” he said. “If I’m out there I just try to work hard and get the intensity level up.

“It was a good thing we got the win.”

One that might inspire kids to forsake the glamour of goalscoring to become penalty killers.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com