Chicago Blackhawks defeat the St. Louis Blues, 6-3, and force Game 7

Artem Anisimov, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise scored during host Chicago’s dominant second period, and the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-3, on Saturday night to send their first-round playoff series to Game 7.

Andrew Shaw added a third-period goal in his return from a one-game suspension for using a gay slur during Chicago’s 4-3 loss in Game 4. Andrew Ladd had a goal and an assist as the Blackhawks improved to 15-1 in their last 16 Game 6s in the playoffs.

Chicago trailed 3-1 in the series, but stayed alive with a 4-3 double-overtime victory in St. Louis on Thursday. Then the defending Stanley Cup champions trailed 3-1 after one period in Game 6, but found a way again.

Game 7 is Monday night.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo and Scottie Upshall scored for St. Louis, which lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. Brian Elliott made 30 saves.

Trailing by two goals after one and facing the possible end of their title defense, the Blackhawks roared back with perhaps their best period of the season.

With St. Louis center Kyle Brodziak in the box for hooking, Anisimov got Chicago within one when he poked home a rebound opportunity for his third goal of the series. That seemed to spark the Blackhawks, and Elliott made a couple of nice stops on Richard Panik and Marian Hossa to keep the Blues in front.

But Chicago only turned up the pressure from there.

Panik left the puck for a streaking Jonathan Toews, and the captain slid it over to Van Riemsdyk for the tying goal at 12:21. Spurred on by a raucous crowd of 22,260, which stood and applauded for a whole TV timeout at one point, Chicago went ahead to stay when Artemi Panarin passed from behind the net to Weise for a one-timer at 16:18.

It was Weise’s first goal since he was acquired in a trade with Montreal on Feb. 26. It also was his sixth career playoff score, including a pair of overtime winners during his time with the Canadiens.

at Pittsburgh 6, New York Rangers 3: The Penguins emphatically ended their postseason slump against the Rangers, lighting up Henrik Lundqvist in a remarkably easy Game 5 rout to win the series 4-1 and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Rookie Bryan Rust scored twice during a four-goal burst in the second period and Matt Murray made 38 saves for the Penguins. Pittsburgh outscored the Rangers 14-4 over the final three games to gain a measure of revenge after New York ended the Penguins’ seasons each of the last two years.

Matt Cullen, Carl Hagelin, Conor Sheary and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins to end a miserable and brief postseason for Lundqvist, who stopped just 17 of 23 shots and failed to make it to the third period for the third time in the series.

Rick Nash, Dominic Moore and Chris Kreider scored for the Rangers.