The St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 yesterday to take a 2-1 lead in the first round series of the 2016 NHL Playoffs. Patrik Berglund, Colton Parayko and Jaden Schwartz scored for St. Louis. Brian Elliot made 44 saves for the Blues and was named the game’s first star.
St. Louis Blues Win In Chicago For First Time Since 2002
The late, great Pavol Demitra scored at the 18:43 mark of the second period and the Blues held on for a 1-0 win on April 23, 2002 at the United Center in Chicago. The Blues and coach Joel Quenneville took a 3-1 series lead over the Blackhawks with the win and would go on to close out the series on April 25th.
That April 23, 2002 win was the last for the Blues in a playoff game in Chicago before yesterday’s win.
While the referees were the story of game 2 in the series, the stories of game 3 were rightly-focused on the players. In an interesting tidbit, however, Tim Peel was the referee for yesterday’s game. He was also on the ice for that 2002 Blues win in Chicago.
Brent Seabrook opened the scoring in the game with his first goal of the postseason 2 minutes and 18 seconds in. Colton Parayko tied the game for St. Louis with the first postseason goal of his career at the 12:18 mark.
Despite a combined 37 shots between the teams, Chicago scored the only goal of the second period. Brian Elliot saved 23 of 24 Blackhawks shots.
The start of the third period saw the Blues down a goal in front of a Chicago crowd that didn’t have a lot of blue in it.
First, Patrik Berglund scored on a shot from just inside the blue line that took a strange hop to beat Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford.
Patrik Berglund ties the game for St. Louis in Game 3
Then, with just over six minutes left in the game, some slick passing had Chicago’s Duncan Keith all turned around as Jaden Schwartz scored what would be the winning goal for the St. Louis Blues.
Schwartz scores game-winner in Game 3.
This 2016 NHL Playoffs first round series will stay in Chicago for Game 4 on Tuesday night. The April 19th telecast is scheduled to begin on NBCSN at 8:30 PM CST because the NHL doesn’t really care about us.
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