By a toe.

The St. Louis Blues earned an all-important Game 1 win over the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks after captain David Backes scored his first career playoff overtime winner off the skate of Trevor van Riemsdyk.

Backes got the postgame interview, but the plaudits belong to Brian Elliott. The Blues netminder - who quietly finished with the league's best save rate - made 35 saves to register his first career playoff shutout.

He bailed out a Blues team that was being outshot 2-to-1 through 69 minutes before Backes' banker, and went more than 20 minutes without firing rubber on Corey Crawford for a stretch that spilled into overtime.

Any win, of course, is quite meaningful in a seven-game series, but this victory was particularly important. Duncan Keith will return from suspension in Game 2 and aid a blue line stretched thin in his absence.

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