ONE GOAL II: Blackhawks Advance Past Red Wings in Conference Semifinals

This was it: the last hurrah for a storied rivalry between two Original Six teams. In their 87-year shared history, the Blackhawks and Red Wings have clashed 725 times in the regular season, the most of any NHL matchup, and have met in the playoffs in every decade except the 1950s, so it was a tall order to give the rivalry a befitting sendoff. They better make it a good one, people said - and so it came to pass, in a breathtaking seven-game series.

The well-traveled Red Wings arrived in Chicago mere hours after outlasting the Anaheim Ducks in another seven-game series. Game 1 was laid out on a platter for the Blackhawks, who greeted their visitors rudely with a 4-1 win.

The next three contests wrote a very different narrative. The veteran Red Wings found their legs after a three-day recess between games and returned with a 4-1 victory of their own in Game 2. Chicago put forth a better effort in Game 3 at Joe Louis Arena, but Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard was more than equal to his task, making 39 saves on 40 shots in a 3-1 win.

"No negative thoughts," said captain Jonathan Toews after that setback, but like fevers or broken bones, things would get worse before they got better. In Game 4, a 2-0 loss at the hands of an airtight Howard, Toews exhibited an uncharacteristic bout of frustration, taking three minor penalties in the second period, the last of which prompted teammate Brent Seabrook to take a well-timed constitutional to the visitors' penalty box.

The gesture was brief - a quick knocking of the helmets and no more than a sentence exchanged - but effective. Seabrook himself wasn't having the best of times in this series; he finished Game 4 with just 12:03 of ice time. Whatever private rallying cry was shared between the two was never revealed, but it had a lasting effect on both players.

Recovery came not a moment too soon, with the Blackhawks toeing the edge of an early exit to their hot-blooded antagonists. Chicago resuscitated their offense in Game 5, cruising to a 4-1 win at the United Center as the power play woke up and Toews scored his first goal of the 2013 playoffs. The defense seemed to settle down as well, after Head Coach Joel Quenneville rethought his blue-line pairings, reuniting Seabrook with Duncan Keith and Johnny Oduya with Niklas Hjalmarsson.

The Blackhawks evened the series by edging the Red Wings 4-3 two nights later for their first road victory of the series. Two quick strikes transformed a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead - not the last time the Blackhawks would accomplish the feat-but at the beginning of the third period in Game 6, the players were dreaming of nothing more than the next game.

It's not often that two teams each get to enjoy a three-game winning streak in one playoff series, but this series deserved the melodrama. Both sides came out hungry in Game 7, which seemed destined to reach sudden-death status - especially after Hjalmarsson's goal with two minutes left was cruelly waved off by offsetting penalties.

The chaotic nature of the playoffs declares all men likely heroes, but there was none more appropriate than Seabrook, whose personal redemption arc coincided nicely with his team's three-game win streak, and whose wristed puck at the 3:35 mark of overtime took a deflection and fluttered past Howard. Cue the sonicbooms of approval coming down from the United Center rafters.

Quenneville enthused: "Give Detroit credit. It was a tough series, a great series. We were on the ropes for a long time." His team had survived the scare and reached the halfway mark.