It took a while, but the moves made by Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman during the past year paid big dividends at United Center on Saturday. Led by a group of players Bowman has acquired through trades since Chicago won the 2015 Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the St. Louis Blues 6-3 in Game 6 and tie their Western Conference First Round series at three victories apiece. Game 7 is at Scottrade Center on Monday.
The defending champions had to be ready for anything in Game 6, including a three-goal barrage by the Blues in a 4:48 span of the first period that gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead after Ladd scored 3:47 into the game. The Blackhawks regrouped during the first intermission, then scored three goals of their own during a dominant second period that put a charge into the building. Chicago outshot St. Louis 19-6 in the period and got goals from Artem Anisimov, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise to retake the lead for good. Andrew Shaw, who returned from a one-game suspension, scored on a power play at 16:53 of the third to make it 5-3 and Marian Hossa scored into an empty net with 2:20 left.
Corey Crawford allowed three straight goals to Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko in the first, but stopped all last 17 shots he faced in the final two periods and finished with 25 saves. Brian Elliott allowed five goals on 35 shots for the Blues, who had won three straight games in Chicago and were looking to win four in a row for the first time in franchise history. Instead, they're just looking to survive a series they've had two straight chances to end.
How do they plan to stem the Blackhawks' tide?
They just haven't been good enough in the past two games; Chicago won Game 5 in double overtime Thursday in St. Louis before the Game 6 comeback on Saturday.
The Blackhawks will try to win a series in which they've fallen behind 3-1 for the second time in three seasons. Chicago lost three of its first four games to the Detroit Red Wings before rallying to win and going on to capture the 2013 Stanley Cup.
Chicago coach Joel Quenneville has to like his chances as well. The Blackhawks have a long pedigree of winning series in comeback fashion under his tenure, which began in 2008-09. In that span, they are 13-4 when facing elimination, 15-1 in Game 6s, and 5-1 when trailing 3-2 in a series. They will be looking for their third victory in five Game 7s.
Much like the first five games, the pace was fast right from the start.
The Blackhawks went ahead 1-0 on Ladd's goal, but St. Louis responded with three straight goals for its 3-1 lead. Chicago's Andrew Desjardins whiffed on a tip-in at 6:07 that would have made it 2-0, and Upshall scored 11 seconds later to make it 1-1. Pietrangelo and Tarasenko had goals 2:09 apart to make it 3-1.
In the second, the Blackhawks took control for nearly the entire 20 minutes, sparked by Anisimov's power-play goal at 4:13 and a boisterous home crowd. The noise level really jumped when Van Riemsdyk made it 3-3 by redirecting a feed from Toews past Elliott, and became a full-on roar when Weise put Chicago ahead to stay with his goal, the fourth postseason game-winner of his career.
Weise has struggled to crack the lineup since the trade; he came into the game with one assist in 15 regular-season and two playoff games with Chicago. Andrew Ladd had a goal and assist in arguably his best game since Bowman re-acquired him from the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 25. Weise's first goal since Bowman acquired him from the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 26 made it 4-3 and turned out to be the game-winner.
Hawks Quotes
Andrew Ladd: "We haven't done anything yet, right? We just wanted to give ourselves a chance to get to a Game 7 and we achieved that. So now you've got to regroup and get ready for another big game."Dale Weise: "We didn't get too down. We just had to defend a little better. We gave them too many odd-man rushes [in the first]. They have too many good players over there. They're going to score on those. [We continued] to defend and fed off the crowd there."
"It's a little bit of a fresh new start for me. I'm just waiting for my opportunity to get in and then do what I can do. I never really have issues with my confidence. I believe I can contribute in the playoffs. I've shown that in the past. That one felt good tonight."
Jonathan Toews: "At the end of the day, we'll give [the Blues] credit. They're a tremendous hockey club. [There's] been no easy moment against that team throughout this series. But it's testament again to our experience and to the guys who haven't been here too long to really buy in and play the right way when we've been in this do-or-die position the last couple games, and you see what can happen when we all buy in, we all play the right way."
Blues QuotesKen Hitchcock: "They raised the bar for a period, OK? So now it's our turn to answer. We've worked hard all year to get to this and we've got an opportunity in front of us. I really want to see us take advantage of it, but we're going to need people to play better. We need our whole team to play better. If we do that, then I like our chances."
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