LOS ANGELES: Troy Brouwer came back to haunt his ex-teammates Monday, scoring the decisive goal halfway through the third as the St. Louis Blues eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in seven games.

Brouwer, who won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2010, was left alone in front of the Chicago net and banked a shot off the post before getting his own rebound and tapping it home to break a tie and lift the Blues to a 3-2 win.

It was Brouwer’s first goal of the series for the Blues who needed seven games to earn their first opening round NHL playoff series win since 2012.

Brouwer, of Canada, is the only St. Louis player to have won a Stanley Cup and the only one to have played in more than two game sevens.

The last time the Blues won a game seven contest was 1999 when Blackhawks current coach Joel Quenneville was guiding their bench.

“This is a huge disappointment for me,” Quenneville said. “We had a sniff there. It was close. We were gambling a bit.

“We had the toughest matchup you could face in the first round. We had a tough draw and we didn’t get it done.”

Chicago’s loss means there won’t be a repeat Stanley Cup champion since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997 and 1998.

The visiting Blackhawks almost tied Monday’s game in front of a crowd 19,900 at Scottrade Center with four minutes to go when a shot by Andrew Shaw hit both posts but stayed out of the net.

After spotting the Blues an early 2-0 lead, the Blackhawks came back to tie the game on goals by Marian Hossa and Shaw.

The Blues built the early lead on goals from Jori Lehtera just one minute into the game and Colton Parayko at 13:43 of the first period.

Lehtera deflected a shot by Jay Bouwmeester past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford for his first career playoff goal.

Parayko, of Canada, scored on a blast from the point while Swede Alexander Steen was screening Crawford in front of the net.

Predators 3 Ducks 1: In Nashville, Tennessee, James Neal scored the winning goal late in the second period as Nashville held on to beat Anaheim and force the first Game 7 in franchise history.

The Predators had lost the previous five Game 6s when needing a win to stay alive in the playoffs, and they snapped a three-game skid to the Ducks to force this series back to Anaheim for the deciding game Wednesday night.

Shea Weber had an empty-net goal with 10 seconds left off an assist by Neal. Mattias Ekholm also scored a goal, and Pekka Rinne made 26 saves for the win.

Ryan Kesler scored a power-play goal for the Ducks, who now are 8-6 in Game 6s. They return to Anaheim where they lost their last Game 7 last spring in the Western Conference finals to eventual Stanley Cup champ Chicago.