Keith's pass, Toews' goal and a Hawks win
ST. LOUIS - Duncan Keith wouldn't come out and say if he actually saw Jonathan Toews breaking free at center ice.
He wouldn't say that when he got his stick on the puck in front of Corey Crawford a millisecond before a fast-closing Alexander Steen did, and then turned and passed in one motion, putting it right on Toews' tape, that it was all part of his master plan.
"Oh, I'm not going to give myself that much credit," Keith said. "Maybe some guys would, I don't know."
Toews would … and did.
"He said he did," a smiling captain said of Keith. "He told me on the ice, so we'll go with that.
"It was a great pass."
And a great way to end a great game in a great series that the Blackhawks lead 3-2 thanks to Keith's pass and Toews' sweet shot past Ryan Miller for a 3-2 overtime victory.
"I was just saying to some of the guys in the other room, I'm trying to get the puck out of the zone and all of a sudden it lands on his stick - couldn't believe it," Keith said. "So I was pretty happy seeing that.
"If you're going to have a guy on a breakaway, he's the one you want."
And if you're going to have a team that's not going to panic when it falls in a hole early in a series, well, the Blackhawks are the team you want, because in a matter of a week they've gone from being down 0-2 to the Blues to being one game from clinching the series, which returns to Chicago on Sunday afternoon.
"We had confidence. We've been there before, and I we knew what we needed to do," Andrew Shaw said. "We didn't want to go back to Chicago being down a game.
"We beared down and stuck together and came out with a hard-fought win."
Marian Hossa opened the scoring with his first playoff goal at 16:11 of the first, and after the Blues tied it midway through the second, Ben Smith's first of the postseason gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead.
But just more than a minute into the third, Alex Pietrangelo sent the SRO at Scottrade Center into a frenzy when he beat Crawford … and they stayed in that state the remainder of the evening.
But this time the Hawks finally got their OT victory in St. Louis after two failed tries.
"The first two in here were excruciating losses," coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had good composure coming out in overtime. We got a fortunate break.
"Duncs, what a pass, what a break, and Johnny buried it."
The victory has the once uber-confident Blues on the ropes as they fight not to lose four straight after winning their first two as they did last year to L.A.
"We've got to do everything in our power to get back here for Game 7," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock admitted.
"What's pouting going to do?" Steen said. "You just get back on the horse. It's a game. You've got to win four. They have three, we have two.
"Off to Chicago we go. See you there."
mspellman@dailyherald.com
Spellman's 3 stars
No. 1 Jonathan Toews
The captain comes through with game-winner in overtime
No. 2 Marian Hossa
Big Hoss needed that first goal. Was noticeable all game.
No. 3 T.J. Oshie
Prettiest goal of the game ... and the series.