Blues dispatch defending champions

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

St. Louis advances to play Dallas in the second round.

Brouwer, who played for the Blackhawks’ Cup winner in 2010, swiped in a backhander. The goal at 8:31 was his first in 24 postseason games since 2013.

“That was the ugliest goal I’ve ever scored,” Brouwer said, “and probably the timeliest goal I’ve ever scored.”

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

Marian Hossa scored his third goal of the series and Andrew Shaw got his fourth on a power play for Chicago, which almost tied it again with 3:30 left when Brent Seabrook’s shot went off both posts.

“Not much you can say right now,” Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. “It was close the whole way.”

Predators 3, Ducks 1: James Neal scored the winning goal late in the second period and host Nashville beat Anaheim to tie the West series 3-3.

Game 7 is Wednesday night in Anaheim, with the winner advancing to face the Sharks.

“Anything can happen,” Nashville captain Shea Weber said. “It’s obviously two good teams that are pretty equal and it is going to come down to the last game, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Mattias Ekholm scored Nashville’s first goal and Weber added an empty-netter. Pekka Rinne made 26 saves for the win.

Ryan Kesler scored a powerplay goal for the Ducks, who had won the previous three games in the series.

Rinne came up big late. He stopped Corey Perry on a point-blank shot with 6:40 left and turned away David Perron’s wrister with less than three minutes to go.

“They’re fighting for their lives, and we knew that we were going to get their best,” Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf said.

Chris Lee / Associated Press Goalie Brian Elliott celebrates with center David Backes after St. Louis beat Chicago to clinch its first-round playoff series.