Blues knock out Blackhawks in first round in Game 7 thriller

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues already had blown a 3-1 series lead, backed into the cauldron of a Game 7, the pressure squarely on their shoulders. They had let a two-goal, first-period lead slip away for the second straight game. They were clinging to a one-goal lead, killing off the final 11 minutes, 29 seconds of the biggest game of their lives as if it were one long power play, desperately trying to hold on, and to shed their label as perennial playoff chokers.

And here came the Blackhawks. The three-time Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks. The unflappable, unkillable Blackhawks.

The story was writing itself, a familiar script in its final pages. The hero moment for Jonathan Toews, or Patrick Kane, or Brent Seabrook. The inevitable Blues meltdown. Another Hawks triumph. On to the next one.

But this time, this year, it was a different story.

The Hawks failed to summon one last bit of heroics, and the Blues held on for an excruciatingly tight 3-2 victory — a breathless conclusion to a breathtaking first-round series between two of the best teams in the league.

So it’s the Blues — who had been repeating over and over again throughout the series that they were a different team this year — who will face the Dallas Stars in the second round, showing off their newfound resilience and resolve against the league’s most playoff-tested team. And it’s the Hawks, perhaps feeling the weight of an almost unimaginable amount of hockey in the past 39 months — Game 7 was Niklas Hjalmarsson’s 362 NHL game, and Seabrook’s 361st — who ran out of gas, and ran out of magic.

“It just doesn’t really feel right,” Kane said.

After three straight years defined by playoff success — an all-time classic conference final sandwiched between two championships — the 2015-16 Hawks season will be remembered merely for regular-season accomplishments. Kane’s 26-game point streak, a record for an American player. Kane’s career season, becoming the first American to win the scoring title. A 12-game win streak. A regular season to remember, followed by an unforgettable playoff series. But that’s all. No history. No banners.

The reality was still sinking in moments after the game.

“Disappointment,” Toews said. “You get that feeling that it’s going to be one of those things again. We felt from the get-go this season that we [had] the team to do it again. … People were saying this series looked like it was probably going to come down to one goal at the end, and it did. Just wasn’t in our favor.”

That one goal, cruelly enough, came from Troy Brouwer — a member of the Hawks’ 2010 championship team that started the Hawks’ run of dominance. After redirecting Robby Fabbri’s pass into the post, Brouwer reached back and cleaned up his own rebound at 8:31 of the third period. That came after the Hawks had rallied from an early 2-0 deficit with a goal by Marian Hossa late in the first, and a power-play goal by Andrew Shaw early in the second.

The Hawks didn’t go quietly after Brouwer’s goal. They never do. Seabrook came closest to keeping the season alive, his shot from the point with four minutes to go somehow ringing off both posts without crossing the goal line. Toews tried to tie it. Kane tried to tie it. The Hawks swarmed and attacked and pulled Corey Crawford — who prolonged the season with his spectacular overtime performance in Game 5, and who was brilliant in the second period Monday night to preserve the tie — for an extra attacker. But the Blues defense held firm, Brian Elliott stood tall, and St. Louis flipped the script on the Hawks.

“It was really eye-opening what a championship team can do when they dial it up,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “You find yourself on the bench just in awe of some of the things they do. We had to find a way to battle through it. We knew that there was going to be a push. And they came, they came hard. You play in a series like this, you see why that team has won three Cups.”

It’ll stay at three, for now at least, as the Hawks head into their first long offseason since the summer of 2012. There will be the usual salary-cap casualties, with Shaw — a fan favorite and playoff hero — the likeliest big-name departure. And there will be time — five months — to reflect, to rest, and to recover from the most remarkable three-year stretch in franchise history.

“This is what we play for — these type of games, and these series, and playing late into the year,” Duncan Keith said. “It’s fun having short summers. Obviously, we’re going to have a longer summer this year.”

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus