Many wondered when the NHL's regular-season points leader would show up in the Western Conference first-round series between the Blues and Chicago.
Patrick Kane arrived at 12:25 a.m.
It wasn't a moment too late for the Blackhawks, who staved off elimination with his first goal of the series 3 minutes, 7 seconds into double-overtime.
Another valiant comeback bid by the Blues was punctured when Kane pierced through the wall of players, deking Alexander Steen and splitting Alex Pietrangelo and Paul Stastny. Kane's shot was turned aside by Brian Elliott, but he then skated around the back of the net, and with Elliott's stick caught in the legs of Jay Bouwmeester, the Blackhawk with a flair for the dramatic beat the goalie to the loose puck and backhanded in the game-winner.
"He was opportunistic obviously on the overtime goal," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.
If opportunistic is another word for electrifying, then yes.
Kane ranked second in the NHL with 46 goals this season, and led the league with 106 points, but through the first four games of the best-of-seven series, he had no goals and four assists. He was so quiet Thursday, in fact, that after 80 minutes of play he had just one shot on goal, but his second shot silenced the standing-room-only crowd of 19,956 at Scottrade Center.
The Blues still lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, but after dropping a Game 5 on home ice for the fourth straight season, they are now headed back to Chicago for Game 6 Saturday at 7 p.m. They have won twice at the United Center in this series, which has seen the road team win four of the five games.
"Plane is at 3 (p.m.), let's get playing," Hitchcock said. "We knew this would be difficult, we knew this was going to be hard, and we knew it was going to be a huge challenge. We've just got to find another way to make them crack some more."
The Blues outshot the Blackhawks 46-35, including 12-9 in overtime. But after erasing a 3-1 deficit with third-period goals by Robby Fabbri and David Backes, the club could not complete a third consecutive comeback against the Hawks.
"It could have gone either way," Blues left winger Jaden Schwartz said. "A ton of chances both ways. When you get to overtime, anything can happen. Obviously we had the belief that we were going to win. But, we have to bounce back here."
The Blues made the evening — and the next morning — interesting, but they had only themselves to blame after giving up a shorthanded goal to Chicago in the second period and then coughing up two more goals late in the period.
Like Kane, Marian Hossa was still looking for his first goal in the series in Game 5, but the Blues obliged him on their own power play, surrendering a 2-on-1 rush. Hossa had defenseman Duncan Keith at his side, but kept the puck and pumped it past Elliott for a 1-0 lead with 8:28 left in the second period.
The Blues struck back just 57 seconds later with Schwartz's third goal of the postseason. He took a pass from teammate Alex Pietrangelo near the blueline, skated to the top of the left circle and ripped a shot far-side over Corey Crawford’s glove. Just like that, the Blues pulled even, 1-1, with 7:31 left in the period.
But then the Blues had their biggest lapses of the series.
Artemi Panarin put a shot on net that clanked the post and first lay on the ice, then rolled into the crease. Armtemi Anisimov had body position on Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, giving him ample opportunity to poke in the loose puck in before Elliott could react with 4:36 remaining.
"My bad, boys," Shattenkirk said as the Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead with 3:36 left in the period.
They weren't done.
There was a faceoff in the Blues' defensive zone with 7.3 seconds to play in the period. Patrik Berglund won a draw against Jonathan Toews, dropping the puck back into the corner. But there, Jay Bouwmeester lost a board battle with Kane.
Kane pulled it off the wall and passed to Toews, who gave it back. Kane then made a terrific cross-ice pass to Panarin, who slipped the puck past Elliott with 0.4 seconds left to play in the period for a 3-1 lead.
"Well, they get to play, too," Hitchcock said. "They won some board battles, they were having a high sense of desperation."
But now the desperation shifted to the Blues, who were staring at a return trip to Chicago, trailing by two goals entering the third period.
Then Fabbri, who had been buzzing all night offensively, scored his first goal of the postseason to pull the club to within 3-2 with 13:03 left in regulation. He picked up the puck at the red line, cut by Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook into the high slot and then ripped a shot past Crawford.
Fabbri wasn’t finished. About eight minutes later, as the rookie was falling to the ice, he managed to flip a pass to Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo put a shot on net, which Backes changed the direction of with a no-look, backhanded tip.
Backes' second goal of the playoffs tied the score 3-3 with 5:10 left, sending the crowd into a tizzy. Every fan stood up for the final minutes, though many exhausted ones took a seat as the game went into overtime.
The Blackhawks were looking fatigued themselves by the end of the first OT, but they got a breather before coming out for the second extra session.
This one didn't last long, though.
The Blues called a timeout 2:22 into double-overtime because they were tired, Hitchcock said, and he wanted to get the line of Steen, Paul Stastny and Troy Brouwer on the ice against Kane's unit.
"I wanted the match, got it, won the faceoff, went down on their end," Hitchcock said. "They did their job."
But the Blues could not finish the job, as Kane struck just after midnight.
"I still thought we deserved to win the game," Pietrangelo said. "I mean, puck ends up right back on his stick somehow (and) he finds an open net. But I thought we did a lot of good things. We played one of our better games. We deserved to win. Get ready for the next one. We are still up 3-2."
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