The Chicago Blackhawks saw their defence of the Stanley Cup end at the first-round stage after St Louis Blues won the decisive rubber of their seven-match series 3-1. But the Blues used a structured system and a bushel of desire to beat Chicago, 3-2, and set the stage for a second round match-up with They also used a tremendous second-effort from former-Hawk Troy Brouwer, who won it all with Chicago in 2010.
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Brouwer was part of an offseason trade with the Washington Capitals that saw him and TJ Oshie trade places.
The 30-year-old forward showed plenty of poise when his first shot clanked off the post midway through the third period. That’s could be. There’s a lot more winning to do for the Blues before they lift a Stanley Cup for the first time in their almost 50-year history.
“I think I celebrated the goal three different times there until he actually put it in”, said Robby Fabbri, who setup the sequence.
“I just tried to stay with it, knowing the magnitude of the game, knowing how everything’s been going”, Brouwer added.
Brouwer is the only player on the Blues who has won the Stanley Cup.
The Blackhawks looked to have the equalizer late in the third but a big shot from Brent Seabrook hit both posts and was swept away, giving the Blues the break they needed late to eliminate the champs.
Coach Joel Quenneville echoed that sentiment.
“Me? I’m not Mark Messier, not one of the top point guys of all time”, said the defenceman. “We’ve got (the knowledge) now”.
Randall Ritchey is the St. Louis Correspondent for The Fourth Period.
“We’re still not where we want to be”, Brouwer said.
Since we’re not in the room with Hitchcock and his players, it’s hard to know just what goes down, just what caused his stops in Dallas, Philadelphia and Columbus to fall apart at the seams as players grew frustrated and eventually distrustful of Hitchcock.
The Blackhawks were down 2-0 just 14 minutes into this one, thanks to goals from Jori Lehtera and Colton Parayko. “And probably the most timeliest goal I’ve ever scored”. His pass, intended for Patrick Kane, instead deflected off defenseman Jay Bouwmeester in the crease and slid past Elliott into the net 3:20 into the second period.
“It’s this ability to into really tough areas and succeed, even at times feel comfortable”. “Pretty quick right after to put everything into words”.
“You get that feeling that it’s going to be one of those things again, we feel from the get-go this season that we got the team to do it again”, Toews said. While the Stars do not have as much beef with St. Louis as say Chicago, there is still plenty of hate to build off of. “It was close the whole way”. Shortly after the Blues went 2-1 up, Vladimir Tarasenko chose to get on the score sheet, showing nothing but composure and pure finesse on his near side finish on Corey Crawford. But then the Blues chose to play one of their worst games of the season, having a mess of game and losing 6-3 in Chicago to force a Game 7. “It was like mini-golf”, said his coach, Ken Hitchcock. The 3-2 victory ended a string of three straight one-and-dones for a franchise that’s usually among the NHL’s best in the regular season.
Game 1 – Series tied 0-0, 6 p.m. Now he’s behind the St. Louis bench.
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Early in the second period, the Hawks got a power play after a Kevin Shattenkirk penalty, and they scored in short order.
