Preview: Blues at Blackhawks

[April 23, 2016]  After falling short in double overtime, the visiting St. Louis Blues face an arduous task on Saturday if they are going to oust the defending Stanley Cup champion-Chicago Blackhawks from the playoffs. Although St. Louis still holds a 3-2 edge in the first-round series, Chicago has emerged victorious in 14 of its last 15 Game 6 contests under coach Joel Quenneville - including eight straight since 2013.

Patrick Kane picked a fine time to score his first goal of this postseason, doing so 3:07 into double overtime to secure Thursday's 4-3 win for the Blackhawks and send the tight first-round series back to Chicago. St. Louis won Games 3 and 4 at the United Center, perhaps prompting defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to provide bulletin board material with a rather confident statement after his three-assist performance on Thursday. "It's going to be a tough place to win, but we won the last two there, so go there and (do) more of the same. ... It's going to be fun here to win it in Chicago," the 26-year-old Pietrangelo said. Little margin of error exists in this series, as each contest has been decided by one goal and two games have ventured past regulation.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC, TVAS2

ABOUT THE BLUES: Pietrangelo's five points in the series have him tied for the team lead with Vladimir Tarasenko as well as Jaden Schwartz, who scored in his third straight contest on Thursday to extend his point streak to four games (three goals, two assists). Former Blackhawk Troy Brouwer, who has been held without a point in seven straight contests, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that eliminating Chicago will not come easily. "My last playoff series with them (in 2011) is when we were down 3-0 to Vancouver and lost Game 7 in overtime," Brouwer said. "So I know firsthand from a long time ago what these guys can do and when they don't have a whole lot of options."

ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS: Although Kane was able to find the net on Thursday, captain Jonathan Toews still is looking for first goal of the postseason. "The time is now. I've been telling myself that all series," said Toews, who joined Kane in assisting on rookie Artemi Panarin's goal with 0.4 seconds remaining in the second period on Thursday to give Chicago a 3-1 lead. Defenseman Duncan Keith, who leads the team with three tallies, added to his legacy as a workhorse by skating in a game-high 42 minutes on Thursday.

OVERTIME

1. Chicago RW Andrew Shaw is eligible to return on Saturday after serving a one-game suspension for using a homophobic slur at the conclusion of Tuesday's contest.

2. St. Louis has scored five power-play goals in the last three games after going 0-for-5 with the man advantage in the previous two.

3. The Blackhawks are 8-1 in their last nine elimination games.

PREDICTION: Blackhawks 4, Blues 2

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