After letting in two goals early in the first period, Corey Crawford was pretty much a brick wall for the Chicago Blackhawks, stopping almost everything that the St. Louis Blues could throw at him.

A wild second period saw Crawford make spectacular save after spectacular save, most notably turning away a wrister from Robby Fabbri with his blocker and straight up robbing Vladimir Tarasenko with a spectacular glove save.

But eventually, with 10 minutes gone in the third period, the Blues’ Troy Brouwer took advantage of an error by Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson who turned the puck over in the neutral zone to finally break through on Crawford, though it took not one, not two but three tries to find the back of the net.

It’s not pretty, but after missing a wide open net, Brouwer finally gets past a sprawling Crawford. Watch the insanity in slow motion to fully appreciate the no-quit displayed by Brouwer, who’s the only current player on the Blues roster who has won a Stanley Cup (and with the Blackhawks no less).

That’s just the kind of night it was for the Blues, who threw everything including the kitchen sink at Crawford for the better part of 40 minutes and their persistence finally paid off in a 3-2 win that dispatched the current Stanly Cup champions in the first round of the playoffs.

“That was the ugliest goal I ever scored, but probably the most timely goal,” Brouwer told reporters after the win. “If I didn’t put that one in, I might have quit hockey.”

Brouwer’s reaction on the bench summed it up perfectly.

The Blackhawks had a heart-stopping chance late in the third to tie it up, but the post had other ideas.

It’s like a game of pinball. So, so close, but just not enough.

“For a while people were saying this series looked like it was probably going to come down to one goal at the end, and it did,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “Just wasn’t in our favor.”

It wasn’t all animosity between the Blues and Blackhawks though. There was a touching moment in the handshake line between good friends Tarasenko and Blackhawks sensation Artemi Panarin, who played junior hockey together.

Bros for life. (gif: Imgur/MyRegularFace)

For the Blues, their last Game 7 win was in the 1999 Western Conference Quarterfinals vs. Phoenix and, at the time, they were lead by current Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville. After three straight years of first round playoff exits, the Blues finally advance to the second round of the Stanly Cup playoffs to take on the Dallas Stars.