Keith's late goal for Chicago Blackhawks damages Blues' hopes
One goal. On 185 shots.
Those were Duncan Keith's stats after 79.998 games this season, so when the veteran defenseman wound up and ripped the puck toward Blues goalie Jake Allen with 10 seconds left Wednesday night in the Chicago Blackhawks' game at St. Louis, almost everyone at Scottrade Center had to figure OT was coming.
They were dead wrong.
Keith's power-play shot sailed past Allen with 8.5 seconds left, and the Hawks completed an improbable comeback to claim a 4-3 victory that seriously damaged St. Louis' playoff chances. The Blues (43-31-6, 92 points) remain 1 point behind Colorado (42-29-9) for the final wild-card spot in the West.
"You can tell these points are obviously important for them," Keith told NBCSN. "It's more fun to play in a game like this. The last few games, it hasn't been like that. It gives us a little more incentive to play and it's more exciting."
Said Allen of Keith's shot: "I should have stopped it. I let the boys down."
St. Louis was in a good spot after taking a 3-1 lead on second-period goals by Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko.
The tide turned, though, when Hawks goalie J-F Berube made 2 impressive stops with the Blues on the power play. Seconds later, Nick Schmaltz gained control of the puck, brought it over the offensive blue line and dropped it back to Blake Hillman, who fired an absolute rocket past Allen to cut the lead to 3-2.
"I was going to go off for a change, but I saw him cut back, so I decided to step up and called for it," said Hillman, who signed a two-year deal last week and was playing in just his second NHL game. "Just kind of closed my eyes and saw it went in. It was pretty exciting."
According to StatsCentre, Hillman is just the third Blackhawks player in the last 30 years to score his first NHL goal short-handed. The others were Jake Dowell in 2007 and Mike Hudson in 1988.
Alex DeBrincat made it 3-3 when he managed to get a shot past Allen from a bad angle 8:30 into the third period. DeBrincat holds a 1-goal edge over Patrick Kane for the team lead at 28-27.
The reeling Blues gave the Hawks a chance to win it when Chris Butler was whistled for holding Patrick Sharp with two minutes to go. Brent Seabrook and DeBrincat played a little catch as the clocked ticked from 18 seconds down to 17, 16, 15, 14, 13 … and then DeBrincat saw a wide-open Keith and sent the puck cross-ice.
Two seconds later, it was game over.
"We played terrible in the third, from myself out," said Allen, who allowed 3 goals on the last 15 shots he faced. "Not good enough. It's unacceptable, especially at home against a team that really has nothing to play for except beat us out.
"It's tough to take right now."
Berube made 31 saves and improved to 3-5-1. Seabrook matched a season high with 6 blocked shots.
The Hawks (33-37-10) and Blues square off again Friday at the United Center.