Chicago Blackhawks force Game 7 against suddenly staggering St. Louis Blues

— -- CHICAGO -- You can't help but wonder if there's an inherited script. A script woven into the DNA of both the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, passed down from one team to the next so strongly that it's going to take a dramatic act to change it.

It's going to take a game or moment so memorable that it would have to shake the course this series appears to be on. Like a monumental Game 7.

The Blackhawks are the team that always finds a way to win, like they did in their 6-3 win in Game 6 on Saturday night. They always win Game 6, it seems. It's their script.

This win improved the Blackhawks to 14-1 in their last 15 Games 6s.

They're the team that plays best when pushed to the brink, and they're finding new ways to test that resolve in this series. At one point, they trailed 3-1 in the series. That has been completely erased.

At one point in this game, they trailed 3-1 and came out and played their best period of hockey in these playoffs. They scored three unanswered goals in the second period to not only erase the deficit but to take a lead.

In holding that lead, they improved to 13-3 in elimination games since winning the Stanley Cup in 2010.

Then there's the Blues. I thought that perhaps they were past this. I saw them take the Blackhawks' best punch and return punches of their own earlier in the series.

But Saturday's second period was a devastating blow. It knocked the wind out of the Blues and, for the first time this series, they didn't have an answer. The Blackhawks have been strong in the second before, but nothing like this: Goals from Artem Anisimov, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise got the United Center so booming that Andrew Shaw guessed it was as loud as he has ever heard the building, and he's played a few big ones in the place.

The Blues had a two-goal lead after one period and played like they were content to sit on it. That's just about the worst thing you can do against these Blackhawks.

"We've got to keep pushing the pace of the game," said Blues forward Alexander Steen, with a bit of hindsight. "We took our foot off the gas. They went to intermission and came back with steam."

In doing so, it raises all the questions that these Blues are trying to bury. Can they win the big one? Do they have the knockout punch for the Blackhawks? Is this spring going to be another one in a long series of disappointments?

Perhaps the worst of all, is losing a part of the DNA of this group?

After the game, in a deserted dressing room, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo anticipated the question, nodding as it was delivered.

Does a game like this bring up all the haunting questions of playoffs past?

"Not for me," Pietrangelo said. "We're worried about Game 7. We'll get home tonight, get some rest and get ready for Monday."

You'd be more inclined to believe him if the third period went a little better than it did. The Blackhawks did what they've done all series in the second and that's make a push. The Blues came out and steadied play early in the third period but never made the big push they needed to get the equalizer. Then Patrick Kane, working behind the net on the power play, patiently waited until the perfect moment to feed Shaw in front of Brian Elliott for the goal that ended up being the dagger.

This time, an overwhelming second period was more than this Blues team could overcome.

"There's a reason they've won a lot of hockey games and championships," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They were desperate. We didn't match it."

Nobody in that Blues dressing room is ever going to admit it, but this game had to insert a bit of doubt as to whether they can actually close out this series. It had to.

Steen shot that theory down but admitted that during the worst stretch of hockey we've seen from them in this postseason, that second period, hesitation snuck into their game.

"They came out and give us a good push and we almost squeezed the sticks a little bit," Steen said.

It's a familiar story for the Blues.

Maybe it has to be the next generation that can save the last one. Hitchcock has raved about how fearless his young players are, and he's right. Still, in this game, when the Blues desperately needed the equalizer, Vladimir Tarasenko played just 16:56. Robby Fabbri, who has shown flashes during the season of being a special player, played 15:48.

It might be early enough in the process for them to carve a new path that isn't yet shaped and guided by the failures of the past. They've now got one game left to figure it out, to prevent a repeat of the story we've seen before.