Blackhawks 1 - 3 Blues
Final
  for this game

Blues down Blackhawks, lock up No. 4 seed

Apr 28, 2013 - 5:54 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Jaden Schwartz scored twice and the St. Louis Blues locked up the fourth seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a 3-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

St. Louis (29-17-2) won its last three games of the season to guarantee home ice in the first round and the team will play Los Angeles when the playoffs start.

Chicago (36-7-5) had already wrapped up the Presidents' Trophy and rested many of its top players in this game. The Blackhawks will begin their quest for the Stanley Cup against the Minnesota Wild.

Patrik Berglund scored the other goal while Brian Elliott stopped 22 shots for the Blues, who won their final three games of the season.

"Playing in front of our home crowd is always important," said Elliott. "The support and the way everything has grown here has been tremendous."

Ben Smith scored the only goal and Carter Hutton, making his NHL debut, turned away 25-of-28 shots for the Blackhawks, who lost three of their last five games.

"I thought I settled down and made some big saves," said Hutton. "You know, I talked to Corey (Crawford) and I thought I was trying to do too much at first because I was too pumped up."

St. Louis got on the board 4:33 into the game after Andy McDonald's shot from the left circle was stopped and Berglund banged in the rebound from the right side for his 17th of the year.

It was 2-0 with 2:36 showing on the clock in the first period as Schwartz put in a rebound of a David Backes tip.

The Blues made it a 3-0 game 8:39 into the middle stanza on Schwartz's seventh of the year as he flew down the right wing and dribbled a shot in from down low between the pads of Hutton.

Chicago made it a 3-1 game off Smith's shot from the left circle at 8:23, but the team was unable to close the gap any further.

Game Notes

St. Louis went 15-8-1 at home this season ... Chicago finished the season 18-4-2 on the road ... Chicago won three of the five games against St. Louis this season ... Both teams went 0-for-2 on the power play.






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