from Jeff Gordon of the St, Louis Post-Dispatch,

They defeated the Blackhawks 3-2 Monday night in their Game 7 showdown. Thanks to Brian Elliott’s clutch goaltending, Troy Brouwer’s game-winning goal and some overdue puck luck, they toppled the defending Stanley Cup champions.

They shed the oppressive burden of previous playoff failures and won just their second playoff series since 2002. Now they move on to face the Dallas Stars as a more confident contender.

“We turned that page on the first round, now we’ve got to concentrate and let you write another optimistic, positive story on the second round and we’ll just keep those churning out and everybody will be happy in there,” Backes said.

“None of it has been easy. We’ve had to sacrifice and those lessons have been learned the hard way in the past couple of years. Now we’re putting them to good use and we have lot of guys in this group buying in and doing the right things.”

With the Blackhawks gone and the two-time champion Los Angeles Kings also eliminated in the first round, the Western Conference is there for a different team to take.

Why can’t that be the Blues?

“We have a unique team,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We have a team that is a team in every sense of the word. This is the most together group of players I’ve coached in a long, long time.”

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