ST. LOUIS -- Just like virtually the entire season, the St. Louis Blues find themselves pursuing the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blues passed the Blackhawks in Game 81 of the 82-game schedule to grab the fourth seed in the Western Conference and home-ice advantage for the first round. Now, heading into Game 2 today in St. Louis, the Blackhawks have the upper hand again.

But not by much.

"We're not chasing them, we're down one game," Blues center Ray Ferraro said Friday. "This is a playoff series, not an 82-game season. Obviously we'd have liked to have won but we didn't and now we'd better play better in Game 2."

Rest assured, the Blackhawks aren't satisfied with their 2-1 victory on Thursday.

"Believe it or not, we weren't totally satisfied with our game," coach Brian Sutter said. "I don't care what game you play, you've got to look for ways to be better."

For the moment, the Blackhawks have the momentum. Chicago was 3-1-1 against St. Louis in the regular season, then the Blues dominated in the season finale with a 5-1 victory on April 5.

The Blackhawks got goals from unexpected sources, defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev and slumping forward Kyle Calder, and 34 saves from goalie Jocelyn Thibault to regain the edge. Karpovtsev scored only one goal in the regular season, in an empty net, before getting the game-winner with 3:10 to play, Calder snapped a 23-game goal drought and Thibault rebounded from a 4-10-2 finish.

The combination gave the Blackhawks, in the playoffs for the first time in five years, their first postseason victory since 1996.

"It was a huge win as far as our confidence is concerned," Thibault said. "We had a lot of success in the season but the playoffs are something else."

The Blues now will try to draw on the feeling they had while winning eight of the last 10 regular-season games to rescue a precarious postseason situation. Coach Joel Quenneville said his team lacked that edge in Game 1.

"I think we played OK," Quenneville said. "I think we've still got another level to go to."

For one thing, Thibault gave up a lot of rebounds, and Blues players are disappointed they didn't get to virtually any of them.

"I think we made him look pretty good," center Doug Weight said. "We want to get in his face and get some rebounds and ugly goals, that's how you score in the playoffs."

Sutter said the point is the Blues weren't able to convert any of the rebounds.

"You can have God in goal disguised as a goalie, and if the puck goes to the net and hits him and there's traffic in front, there's going to be a rebound," Sutter said. "The key is to make sure your people are on top of rebounds."

Quenneville said he may make a few lineup changes for Game 2. For one, he could insert rookie right-handed defenseman Mike Van Ryn, a healthy scratch for the first time since Dec. 18 in Game 1. The Blues had five left-handed defensemen in the opener, leaving Chris Pronger playing on the right side.

Two Blues defensemen took stray pucks to the face in practice Friday, but both could play if needed in Game 2. Marc Bergevin required several stitches above his left eye and rookie Christian LaFlamme, a healthy scratch in Game 1, was struck on the cheek bone.

"It was a freak thing where both guys had the exact same scenario, almost the same place on the ice, same type of positioning, boom, right in the head," Quenneville said. "But they'll be fine."

The Blues were on the ice less than a half-hour because this was the lone off-day in a stretch of three games in a four-day span. The Blackhawks worked out a little longer, about 45 minutes.

"There's not really a great need for conditioning at this time," Ferraro said. "Just get your legs going a little bit and make sure we're ready." Notes: Blues faceoff specialist Mike Eastwood was 5-12 in the opener. "It's just terrible, a terrible night," Eastwood said. "There's no room for that kind of performance." ... Blackhawks D Boris Mironov returned to the lineup after missing 17 of the last 18 games with shoulder and groin injuries, but played only 5:41. Sutter expects him to be available again on Saturday. Karpovtsev missed the last seven games after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on April 3 and played 21 minutes.