Chicago stays alive in series with double-OT win in Game 5

— -- ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues pushed. Boy did they push. They had all the jump in the first overtime after a third-period rally got them there. The Chicago Blackhawks players could feel it on the ice. This was a group of players from St. Louis that had the defending champs on the ropes and wanted desperately to end it. The crowd felt it. The players felt it.

And the Blackhawks weathered it.

That's just how this postseason is going to have to go for Chicago -- a lot less dominance than in the past, a lot more savvy.

"It's kind of a bend-but-don't-break mentality," said Hawks forward Patrick Kane, who scored the 4-3 game-winner in double overtime that narrowed the Blues series lead to 3-2. "We just had to stay alive and wait for our push."

They stayed alive in the game, they stayed alive in the series and, with the series shifting back to Chicago, they continue to prove that they're the toughest team in the NHL to send home for the summer.

With the win, the Blackhawks improve to 12-3 in elimination games since winning the Stanley Cup in 2010. Two of those losses were overtime losses in Game 7 during classic games against the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings.

This version of the Blackhawks is the same as those teams in that they don't give in. If the Blues want to win this series they're going to have to beat them, plain and simple.

This version of the Blackhawks is different in that they rely on their stars perhaps more than any Blackhawks team in that stretch.

The Blues were able to get back in this game after a big second period by the Blackhawks because they have superior depth. They keep coming. Unlike Blues teams from years past, they don't let a little adversity sink the effort. They just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. They did against the Blackhawks in Game 5 and they'll do it again in Chicago.

"We just stuck to our game," said Blues rookie forward Robby Fabbri, who scored a huge third-period goal and had a couple other high-end opportunities. "We had the same mentality throughout all five periods and that's just the way we've got to keep playing the rest of the series."

Five games into this series, it's pretty clear that from top to bottom the Blues are the better team.

The Blackhawks, however, have the better stars and those stars delivered in this game.

Defenseman Duncan Keith played exactly 42 minutes as coach Joel Quenneville was in full-on survival mode in his deployment of time.

"I feel good," Keith said afterward.

Good enough to play another 40?

"Sure," he answered.

Marian Hossa scored his first goal of the playoffs, opening the scoring for the Blackhawks with his short-handed goal in the second period. He had the hop in his game that he has when it's going well and got stronger as the game went on. It was the performance they needed from the veteran star.

And then there was Kane.

He had just two shots on goal in this game, despite playing more than half an hour. He wasn't thrilled with how he played in the first three periods and the first overtime session. He reminded himself to play with confidence, he said afterward, which is an interesting insight into a player who is likely going to win the Hart Trophy. But even the confidence of the best can waver when they enter the second overtime of the fifth game without a goal.

Then he struck. Like he has done so often during these Chicago spring runs through the years.

"I've played a lot of overtimes with this team, had some long stretches here in playoff runs so when you get those opportunities you come up big, sometimes you get lucky too," Kane said. "I think in the past with our team, it seems like it's kind of like the next guy up, it's someone else's turn."

He's correct, and that should make the Blues a little nervous. It should make them a little nervous even though they're playing well, well enough to be celebrating a first-round victory with a break in overtime.

Now that Kane has his goal, it's somebody else's turn.

The next guy up for Chicago is Jonathan Toews. He still needs to get his.

Toews will get that opportunity in Game 6. He and the Blackhawks just need to withstand this machine that is the Blues to give him the opening, an opening like the one Kane found to keep the reigning champions alive.