Troy Brouwer bit the hand that once fed him, and it helped the St. Louis Blues eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks from the playoffs. Brouwer scored at 8:31 of the third period to lift the Blues to a 3-2 win against the Blackhawks in Game 7 of their Western Conference First Round series at Scottrade Center on Monday. It's the first time the Blues have advanced to the second round since 2012. They will play the Dallas Stars.
Brouwer, who won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2010, redirected Robby Fabbri's pass and the puck hit the post. He whiffed on a second try before backhanding a shot past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford to help St. Louis to its first Game 7 victory since the first round of the 1999 playoffs against the Coyotes. The goal was Brouwer's first in 24 playoff games, dating to May 8, 2013, when he played for the Washington Capitals against the New York Rangers. Brouwer played for the Blackhawks from 2006-11.
Fabbri made the initial play in the neutral zone when he knocked Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson off the puck and turned it around going the other way. Center Paul Stastny passed the puck to the left hash marks for Fabbri, who sent it to Brouwer at the top of the crease.
St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott made 31 saves in the first Game 7 start of his NHL career. Brent Seabrook nearly tied it for the Blackhawks with 3:30 remaining, but his shot through traffic hit each goal post. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was there to clean up the crease in front of Elliott and backhand the puck out of danger. Jori Lehtera and Colton Parayko scored in the first period for the Blues.
The Blackhawks, who were eliminated in the first round for the first time since the Coyotes eliminated them in 2012, got goals from Marian Hossa and Andrew Shaw. Crawford made 23 saves; he's 2-3 in Game 7 in his NHL career.
Chicago is the first defending Stanley Cup champion to lose in the first round since the Boston Bruins in 2012. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, who was coach of the Blues for their previous Game 7 on home ice, in 2000.
Lehtera scored at 1:00 of the first when he tipped Jay Bouwmeester's shot from the left point to give the Blues a 1-0 lead. It tied Martin Rucinsky for fastest goal to begin a Game 7 in Blues history; Rucinsky scored his against the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2003 playoffs. Lehtera is the first Blues player to score his first NHL playoff goal in Game 7 since Ron Schock on May 5, 1968.
Parayko made it 2-0 when he scored his first NHL playoff goal at 13:43. Alexander Steen pinched behind the net and got the puck to Patrik Berglund, who fed Parayko for a big slap shot from the blue line.
Chicago had an answer late in the first. The Blackhawks broke out after an ill-advised pass by Lehtera in the offensive zone for Jaden Schwartz, who fell to the ice. Richard Panik fed Hossa, who used Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson as a screen and beat Elliott high to the short side from the top of the right circle with 1:30 remaining in the period. The Blackhawks tied it on the power play in the second period when Shaw scored his fourth goal of the playoffs. After Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk was called for hooking Marcus Kruger, Shaw’s cross-crease pass to Hossa caromed off Bouwmeester and past Elliott at 3:20.
Once Brouwer scored, the Blues felt the Blackhawks would have a big push. They’d witnessed it in Game 6, when they lost 6-3 after leading 3-1.
Hawks Quotes
Joel Quenneville: "Tough way to go out. We had the perfect setup there and we did exactly what we’re not supposed to do, or what we’re unaccustomed to doing, and it’s in our net and it’s game, set, match. Huge disappointment for me. ... In first rounds, that felt like the conference finals."
Patrick Kane: "We fought back to get it to 2-2. Obviously, they got that goal there in the third and you’re trying to play catch-up again. Yeah, maybe one too many times in the hole."
Blues Quotes
Troy Brouwer: "That was the ugliest goal I've ever scored and probably the most timely goal I've ever scored. I was joking with [Fox Sports Midwest color analyst Darren Pang] that if I didn't put that one in, I might quit hockey. I just tried to stay with it; knowing the magnitude of the game, knowing how everything's been going. We'd been having great opportunities but haven't been able to put them in."
Alex Pietrangelo: "I just got back as quick as I could. I got it at the last second. A half a second later and it's in our net."
Ken Hitchcock: "Every game was just packed with a sense of urgency and emotion. Every game felt like its own sudden-death game. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to coach in it, to play in it, to strategize in it. It was a lot of fun. It was real eye-opening what a championship team can do like them when they can dial it up. You find yourself on the bench just in awe with 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. It came and came hard. You play in a series like this, you see why that team has won three [Stanley] Cups. I'm sure leaving Game 6, they probably thought they had us cracked. They pushed us back hard and we had no answer for Game 6. We came back and had an answer tonight."
Jori Lehtera: "Ville Nieminen once told me, 'If you want pizza, you go to Pizza Hut.' 'If you want to score goals, you go to the net.'"
Other Results
Anaheim @ Nashville 1-3 - Monday, April 25, 2016 - Series Tied 3-3
The Nashville Predators defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 in Game 6 of their Western Conference First Round series at Bridgestone Arena on Monday to force the first Game 7 in their history. Mattias Ekholm, James Neal and Shea Weber scored for Nashville, which got 26 saves from Pekka Rinne. The win was the Predators' first in three games at home in the series. Ekholm gave Nashville a 1-0 lead at 8:10 of the second period on a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. He took a pass from forward Calle Jarnkrok, circled behind the net, and shot through traffic to beat Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen for his second goal. Neal made it 2-0 at 17:45 of the second on a shot from below the left faceoff circle. Center Ryan Johansen led a 2-on-1 rush up the ice and passed the puck to Neal, who beat Andersen for his second goal.
Ducks center Ryan Kesler scored a power-play goal to make it 2-1 with 13.9 seconds remaining in the second. Defenseman Cam Fowler’s shot from the point snuck between Rinne’s pads, and Kesler got to the rebound for his third goal. Weber scored an empty-net goal with 10 seconds remaining to make it 3-1. The Ducks have been eliminated from the playoffs by losing Game 7 at home the past three seasons. Predators forward Craig Smith returned to the lineup after missing the past two games with a lower-body injury. He had not played since he was injured in the first period of Game 3. Nashville forward Cody Bass left the game with a lower-body injury in the first period after crashing into the boards on an attempted hit. Andersen made 23 saves.
Nashville @ Anaheim 2-1 - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - Preds Wins Series 4-3
The Anaheim Ducks were on the wrong side of their own repeating history at Honda Center on Wednesday. The Nashville Predators made their own. The Predators handed the Ducks their fourth straight Game 7 loss, all at home, winning 2-1 to take their Western Conference First Round series. Colin Wilson and Paul Gaustad scored first-period goals, and Pekka Rinne made 36 saves for the Predators, who were playing the first Game 7 in franchise history. Nashville won a playoff series for the first time since 2012, when the Predators eliminated the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Nashville will visit the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round on Friday. The Ducks fell to 2-6 all-time in Game 7s and are 1-4 at Honda Center. They lost Game 7 at home to the Red Wings in 2013, the Los Angeles Kings in 2014 and the Chicago Blackhawks last year. Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau is 1-7 in Game 7s with the Ducks and Washington Capitals.
But the Ducks felt this loss stung more than the first three. Despite the two early goals by Nashville, Anaheim controlled play for most of the game. The Ducks outshot the Predators 28-10 in the final two periods and had odd bounces and open looks that will haunt them through the summer. Ryan Kesler cut Nashville's lead to 2-1 at 1:45 of the third period when he one-timed a feed by Jakob Silfverberg from the low slot past Rinne for a power-play goal. Anaheim outshot the Predators 15-4 in the third period; with 7:19 left, defenseman Hampus Lindholm's shot skipped off Rinne and hit the crossbar, but Nashville defenseman Roman Josi managed to clear the loose puck out of the crease.
Rinne also made two quick saves on Corey Perry with 1:15 remaining. Wilson gave Nashville a 1-0 lead 6:19 into the first period when his backhand shot off a broken play went off the crossbar and over the shoulder of goaltender Frederik Andersen. It was Wilson's second goal and fifth point of the series. Gaustad made it 2-0 at 15:53 when he redirected Shea Weber's wrist shot from the right point past Andersen. The goal stood after a video review determined that Gaustad's stick was not over the crossbar. The Ducks have been outscored 9-1 in the first period in their past four Game 7s. Jamie McGinn had the best chance for Anaheim in the second period, but his shot ticked the crossbar and went over a wide-open net. It was one of several quality chances for Anaheim in the second period, when the Ducks outshot Nashville 13-6 but couldn't capitalize.
Andersen made 18 saves for Anaheim, which made its earliest playoff exit since 2013.
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