Louie Korac – NHL.com Correspondent–(Photo by Janet Schultz Photography)–
ST. LOUIS — Patrick Kane felt like the start of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs was not going well for him.
Redemption came when Kane scored 3:07 into the second overtime and the Chicago Blackhawks avoided elimination with a 4-3 victory against the St. Louis Blues in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series on Thursday at Scottrade Center.
Kane deked around Troy Brouwer in the slot and slid a shot on goal that hit goaltender Brian Elliott and squirted past the left post. The NHL’s regular-season scoring leader circled the net, picked up the loose puck and backhanded it into the net.
“I tried to make a move around a guy who was maybe trying to block my shot,” Kane said. “Made a move, saw the puck and tried to get one on net there. Fortunately enough it kind of squeaked out to the other side.
“I don’t think I was very good in that first overtime or very good at all tonight. It’s one of those things I tried to tell myself just to get confidence going into that fifth period and try to make some plays.”
The Blues lead the best-of-7 series 3-2, with Game 6 at United Center on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports 2).
“He’s a clutch player,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Kane, who scored his 49th playoff goal. “Obviously he’s a great player. Not a lot of guys can do what he did or does. Couple of those spin moves tonight were dangerous and he stuck with it on the other side of the net, so obviously you have to give him credit. He’s special and he’s special with everything on the line as well.”
The Blues rallied from a 3-1 deficit and forced overtime with third-period goals by Robby Fabbri and David Backes. Jaden Schwartz had a second-period power-play goal, and Elliott finished with 31 saves.
The Blues had the belief that they were going to win, especially after the surge in the third to tie it and in the first overtime.
“You’ve got to have that belief,” Schwartz said. “It could have gone either way. Chances both ways. When it gets to overtime, anything can happen. Obviously we had the belief that we were going to win, but we’ve got to bounce back here and get ready for the next game.”
Marian Hossa, Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin scored second-period goals for the Blackhawks, who got 43 saves from Corey Crawford.
Crawford’s best save of the overtime came on a tight-in angle from Alexander Steen.
“We were able to stay pretty calm given the fact and fight off the momentum and those times in our zone,” Crawford said. “I thought this game was strong for us.”
Since 2009, the Blackhawks are 12-4 when facing elimination and 44-15 in games 4-7 of all series.
“Obviously it feels good,” said defenseman Duncan Keith, who logged a game-high 42:00. “I don’t know if that’s the way we drew it up. It would have been nice to just hang on to that lead. But [Kane] came through and I thought they probably carried a lot of the play there in the first overtime. But it just matters that we got the goal.”
The Blues lost for the first time in six games in their franchise history when holding a 3-1 series lead with a chance to clinch on home ice.
“I thought we played a really good first period,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They had a surge a little bit in the second for about seven or eight minutes. We played great in the third, great in the overtime. Played a hell of a hockey game.”
Fabbri cut Chicago’s lead to 3-2 when he cut around defenseman Brent Seabrook to the slot and beat Crawford to the short side at 6:57 after taking outlet Alex Pietrangelo’s pass.
Backes made it 3-3 with 5:10 remaining. He was between the hash marks in the slot when he deflected Pietrangelo’s straightaway wrist shot from inside the blue like past Crawford.
“I thought we outplayed them,” said Pietrangelo, who had three assists. “Chances were there. We’ve just got to find the back of the net. Like I said, [we’re] still up 3-2 and we won the last two there, so more of the same.”
Hossa put the Blackhawks on top 1-0 at 11:32 of the second period when he was sprung by Niklas Hjalmarsson on a 2-on-1 shorthanded break after Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk tried rimming the puck around in the corner. Hossa went in with Keith, kept the puck and beat Elliott to the short side off the post for his 50th playoff goal.
But with Anisimov still off for tripping, Schwartz tied it at 12:29 with his third power-play goal in as many games. He took an outlet pass from Pietrangelo and beat Crawford from the left circle to the glove side.
However, Chicago scored twice late in the period to go up 3-1. Anisimov followed up Panarin’s shot from the left circle and popped it in at 15:24 after Elliott couldn’t handle the rebound. Panarin scored with 0.4 seconds left after the Blues won a defensive zone faceoff but Kane checked Jay Bouwmeester off the puck before getting it from Jonathan Toews and feeding Panarin for the slap shot high short side from the slot.
“They get to play too,” Hitchcock said of the Blackhawks. “They won some board battles. They were having a high sense of desperation.”
(Reprinted with permission of the Chicago Blackhawks)
