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St. Louis • Alexander Steen scored at 26 seconds of the third overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Thursday night.

Steen beat Corey Crawford off a pair of short passes from Steve Ott and David Backes to cap the longest overtime game in franchise history.

"It's big. We want to start this series off on a good note," Steen said. "Especially at home in front of our fans."

Ryan Miller blanked the Blackhawks after Patrick Kane scored on a breakaway to put Chicago up 3-2 late in the first period and Jaden Schwartz tied it with 1:45 to go in regulation.

Both teams face a short turnaround with Game 2 Saturday afternoon.

The Blues' previous longest overtime game was a 4-3 loss at Detroit in 1984 that extended 37 minutes, 7 seven seconds. The home record for a playoff overtime game was 33:49 extra time in a 5-4 win over Chicago on April 20, 1989.

Avalanche 5, Wild 4 (OT) • In Denver, Paul Stastny scored 7:27 into overtime after tying the game with 13.4 seconds remaining in regulation, lifting Colorado over Minnesota n the opener of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O'Reilly and Jamie McGinn also added goals for Colorado in Patrick Roy's postseason debut behind the bench.

The Hall of Fame goaltender led the Avalanche to two Stanley Cup titles as a player.

Erik Haula, Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter and Kyle Brodziak scored for the Wild.

Game 2 is Saturday.

Stastny beat Ilya Bryzgalov with a close-in wrist shot in overtime.

Rangers 4, Flyers 1 • In New York, Brad Richards and Derek Stepan scored power-play goals 47 seconds apart in the third period, and New York beat Philadelphia in the playoff opener to stretch their home-winning streak over the rival Flyers to nine games.

The teams were locked in a 1-1 tie when Jason Akeson — playing in just his third career NHL game — was given a double high-sticking penalty for clipping Rangers forward Carl Hagelin with 7:35 remaining.

New York quickly took advantage. Richards gave the Rangers their first lead of the night when a rebound of Martin St. Louis' shot came to him, and he fired it in from the right circle.

Note • San Jose and L.A. were still playing at press time. —

NHL playoffs

O Friday's games

• Montreal at Tampa Bay,5 p.m., CNBC

Canadiens lead series 1-0

• Detroit at Boston,5:30 p.m., NBCSN

First game of series

• Dallas at Anaheim, 8 p.m., NBCSN

Ducks lead series 1-0