Patrick Maroon Powers Blues Past Brilliant Ben Bishop, Stars in Game 7 2OT Win

Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop stonewalled an overwhelming 52 shots from the St. Louis Blues in Monday night's Western Conference Semifinal Game 7 at Enterprise Center, but he couldn't keep out a deflected goal by Patrick Maroon that gave the Blues a 2-1 double-overtime victory.

The game-winner began with a won faceoff by Tyler Bozak, which resulted in Robert Thomas putting the puck on net. The shot deflected first off the goalpost and then off the back of Bishop, and Maroon was right there to slap it in.

Just as in Sunday's must-win Game 6, the Blues were aggressive on the attack. With 6:30 left to play in the first period, St. Louis opened the scoring when defenseman Vince Dunn drilled the puck between teammate Maroon and Stars center Tyler Seguin to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.

While the Blues benefitted from Dunn's first postseason goal, the Stars leveled the game at 1-1 with right winger Mats Zuccarello's first goal of the series a little over two minutes later. From then on, however, the Stars struggled to generate any semblance of offense, and Bishop's historic performance was in vain.

These two goals will sting Bishop and the Stars for a while, but they are the only goals the 32-year-old has allowed in his three career Game 7 starts. Dallas couldn't have asked for more out of the Vezina Trophy finalist and will spend the summer toiling over the inability to capitalize on Bishop's outing.

On the opposite side of the ice, rookie Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made an impressive Game 7 debut. While Dallas didn't bombard Binnington like the Blues did Bishop, he was still required to make key saves in both overtimes to keep St. Louis' quest for its first Stanley Cup in franchise history alive.

The 25-year-old began this season in the AHL, but his play for the Blues has already gained the respect of World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright.

The lasting hero of the night, though, was Maroon—fittingly a St. Louis native. "What an exciting time in St. Louis," Maroon said to NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire on the ice.

"I'm proud of these guys," he added. "We've been down in the dumps ever since January, but we've been fighting ever since then. You could see it tonight. We just kept fighting, kept fighting."

The Blues began January as the NHL's worst team before stringing together 30 wins out of 45 games.

Now, they will wait until Wednesday night's Game 7 is decided between the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks to see who they will fight against next. St. Louis holds a perfect 4-0 record against Colorado, while the Sharks went 2-1 against the Blues this season.

St. Louis last made it to the conference final in 2015-16 but lost to San Jose 4-2.

What's Next?

The Blues will face either the Avalanche or Sharks, who play their semifinal series' Game 7 on Wednesday night, in the conference final.