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.

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.

St. Louis had to kill off delay-of-game penalties for shooting the puck into the stands in the first two overtimes. The Blackhawks killed a holding penalty in the second overtime.

Jonathan Toews, like Kane back from a lengthy injury absence, had two assists for Chicago.

Avalanche 5, Wild 4, OT

DENVER — Paul Stastny scored 7:27 into overtime after tying the game with 13.4 seconds remaining in regulation, lifting Colorado over Minnesota in 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.

Rangers 4, Flyers 1

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 its 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.

Sharks 6, Kings 3

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Tomas Hertl and Raffi Torres both scored in their first game together as teammates and San Jose jumped on top of Jonathan Quick and rival Los Angeles with a victory in its playoff opener.