Chicago Blackhawks’ Game 7s, Ranked, Under Coach Joel Quenneville

No. 1: 2013 Western Conference semifinals, vs. Detroit (2-1 OT win)

When you have a record-setting (albeit lockout-shortened) regular season, seeing your year end in the playoffs’ second round against your historical rival is not optimal. This is especially true when said rival is switching conferences at season’s end.

And so the Blackhawks found themselves in this spot after Game 4 of the conference semifinals against the Detroit Red Wings. Seabrook had his penalty box chat with Toews in Game 4, and the Blackhawks all of the sudden showed back up with wins in Games 5 and 6.

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That established a winner-take-all, end-of-the-traditional-rivalry game at the United Center. It was just a tightly played game, but a really well-played game on top of that. And with the crowd just waiting to explode at any moment, the atmosphere was unreal for a game that wasn’t part of a conference or league final.

Patrick Sharp and Henrik Zetterberg traded scores in the first and second periods to set us up for a fantastic finish. And we got it. Kind of. Before that, we got a false fantastic finish:

This moment would’ve gone down in Blackhawks infamy had the team not secured a win later. Niklas Hjalmarsson had a goal taken away with less than two minutes to play in regulation as a result of Stephen Walkom retroactively calling penalties.

It was ridiculous and infuriating, but this was the way it had to be, right? A sort of “passing of the torch” between Detroit and Chicago couldn’t come without at least one more insane hurdle. This was about as insane as it could get.

So, instead of Hjalmarsson ending the series for Chicago, Seabrook got to do it.

Dave Bolland destroyed Gustav Nyquist in the neutral zone to free the puck, and Seabrook slipped a floating shot past Jimmy Howard to send the UC into hysterics.

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It might not have been exactly how they drew it up, but given the opponent and the situation, this Game 7 win was the Blackhawks’ most memorable under Coach Q.