After three consecutive first-round exits, the St. Louis Blues finally broke through in Game 7 on Monday, knocking out the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-2 victory - which pleased no one more than Ken Hitchcock.

"The naysayers can all take a day off," the Blues head coach said postgame, according to Mark Lazerus of the Sun-Times. "We can celebrate for a day, and then you all can start bashing us again."

A loss likely would've cost Hitchcock his job, as it would've marked St. Louis' fifth consecutive playoff appearance without reaching the conference finals. Instead, the club eliminated the defending Cup champions.

"Every game was just packed with a sense of urgency and emotion," Hitchcock said of the series, as quoted by NHL.com's Lou Korac. "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."

With the victory, the Blues advance to Round 2, where they'll face the Dallas Stars - the team Hitchcock led to his lone Stanley Cup win in 1999 against the Buffalo Sabres, who at the time were coached by current Stars bench boss Lindy Ruff.

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Troy Brouwer knows his Game 7 winner wasn't pretty.

The St. Louis Blues forward was in full self-deprecation mode after scoring the goal that eventually eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks and helped the Blues advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"It was almost really embarrassing," Brouwer told FOX Sports Midwest's Darren Pang postgame. "If I'd have missed it, I would have quit hockey, but I'm glad that it went in. A couple good efforts, good plays on the wall, and it went in. That's all that matters."

The veteran winger's initial shot hit the post, and he whiffed on the rebound with an open net before burying a third attempt on the backhand to give the Blues a 3-2 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock had his own way of describing Brouwer's winner.

It was Brouwer's first goal and second point of the series.

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Patrick Kane, the most prolific playoff performer of his generation, and one of the most clutch performers in postseason history, isn't used to packing his bags in April.

Ousted by the St. Louis Blues in the first round, the Chicago Blackhawks find themselves in an unfamiliar position.

"It just doesn't really feel right," Kane said after Game 7.

A three-time Stanley Cup Champion and Conn Smythe winner, Kane only recorded one goal in the series, albeit a big one: the overtime winner in Game 5. He added six assists over the seven opening-round games.

It is only the third time in Kane's career that the Blackhawks haven't made it out of the first round.

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The St. Louis Blues finally overcame the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 on Monday night, and there was no shortage of action.

The instant classic concluded a thrilling series, and the Twittersphere was on top of its game.

And just like almost everything in 2016, the Blackhawks received the "Crying Jordan" treatment.

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A matter of millimeters ended the Chicago Blackhawks' quest to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions.

Trailing 3-2 with time expiring in the third period, Brent Seabrook launched a shot that bounced of both posts, but stayed out of the cage.

They don't get any closer than that.

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ST. LOUIS - Troy Brouwer tapped in his own rebound to snap a third-period tie and the St. Louis Blues advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in four seasons, eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in Game 7 of their Western Conference quarterfinals series Monday night.

Brouwer, who played for the Blackhawks' Cup winner in 2010 and was among the veteran additions to a team trying to break through, swiped in a backhander. The goal at 8:31 was his first in 24 postseason games since 2013.

It is the first time the Blues advanced past the first round since 2012, when they beat San Jose in five games but then lost four straight to Los Angeles.

Jori Lehtera scored his first career playoff goal and rookie defenseman Colton Parayko also scored for the Blues, who avoided another inglorious finish. They led 2-0 early before the Blackhawks tied it in the second period.

Chicago just missed a chance to tie it when Brent Seabrook's shot went off both posts with about 3:30 left.

Marian Hossa scored his third goal of the series and Andrew Shaw got his fourth on a power play for the Blackhawks. Patrick Kane was dangerous all night but was scoreless, and was minus-2.

The Blackhawks have won three of the last five Cups - but when they don't win it all, the postseason can be a short one, with three first-round eliminations the last six seasons.

Brouwer, playing in his seventh career Game 7, scored from close range off a feed from Robby Fabbri. The first shot went off the right post and he nudged the second past Corey Crawford.

St. Louis was coached by the Blackhawks' Joel Quenneville the last time it played in a Game 7, a loss at Vancouver in 2003. The Game 7 win was the franchise's first since 1999.

The Blues outscored the Blackhawks 7-3 in the first period in the series, but Chicago owned the second period with an 11-3 advantage. That included the first three of five unanswered goals in Game 6 on Saturday.

Blues standout Vladimir Tarasenko was no factor after entering among the playoff leaders with four goals. He went to the locker room for about 2 1/2 minutes midway through the second for undisclosed reasons and his ice time was down, just as it has been earlier in the series.

Game 7 drew a standing-room attendance of 19,935 and the arena had seldom been louder than after Parayko's drive from the point made it 2-0 at 13:43 of the first period. Lehtera's deflection on Jay Bouwmeester's point shot gave St. Louis an early cushion just a minute in.

The Blackhawks had a 7-0 shots advantage the rest of the period and Hossa's third of the series, a drive from the top of the right circle on the counter-attack, cut the deficit to one at 18:30.

Chicago made it 14 shots in a row at the start of the second period, including the tying goal by Shaw from a bad angle off the leg of Bouwmeester crouching in the crease and past Brian Elliott.

NOTES: The Blackhawks made no lineup changes. The Blues re-inserted rookie D Joel Edmundson after sitting two games in place of Robert Bortuzzo. ... The 37-year-old Hossa has 149 career playoff points, including 52 goals. ... The Blues outscored the Blackhawks 7-3 in the first period in the series.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - James Neal scored the winning goal late in the second period, and the Nashville Predators held on to beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on Monday night and force the first Game 7 in franchise history.

The Predators had lost the previous five Game 6s when needing a win to stay alive in the playoffs, and they snapped a three-game skid to the Ducks to force this series back to Anaheim for the deciding game Wednesday night.

Shea Weber had an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left off an assist by Neal. Mattias Ekholm also scored a goal, and Pekka Rinne made 26 saves for the win.

Ryan Kesler scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, who now are 8-6 in Game 6s. They return to Anaheim where they lost their last Game 7 last spring in the Western Conference finals to eventual Stanley Cup champ Chicago.

Rinne, who had been struggling in this series, came up big late. He stopped Corey Perry on a point-blank shot from in front with 6:40 left and turned away David Perron's wrister with less than 3 minutes to go.

Nashville brought out Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker to wave a towel and charge up the sellout crowd. Fans just needed something to cheer after watching the Predators get outscored 12-3 in losing the last three games. They also got right wing Craig Smith back on the ice after he missed most of the last three games with a lower-body injury.

Ekholm put the Predators up 1-0 at 8:10 of the second period, beating Andersen with a wrister from the top of the right circle off a pass from Calle Jarnkrok. That made the defenseman Nashville's top goal scorer with his second in this series. Fans rewarded the Predators with not one, but two standing ovations in the period.

The Predators took a 2-0 lead when Ryan Johansen brought the puck up the right side and passed to Neal at the left post who tapped the puck into the net behind Andersen at 17:45.

The Ducks got a power play with 42.8 seconds left in the period when officials penalized Ekholm for holding Hampus Lindolm after the Anaheim defenseman jumped onto Ekholm's back at the end boards. Kesler tapped the puck into the net behind Rinne who had just stopped a tip-in attempt by Perry.

Fans still furious at the penalty tossed a handful of the towels given away by the Predators onto the ice and booed as the period ended.

NOTES: The only other Game 6 Nashville won came in 2011 when clinching the franchise's first postseason series win over Anaheim. ... Andersen passed Jonas Hiller (26) for second for most postseason games played by an Anaheim goalie with his 27th playoff appearance. ... Predators center Cody Bass played only 1 minute, 17 seconds and three shifts before leaving the game with a lower-body injury.

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