Originally Posted by FBinNY

As Demoncyclist said you aren't supposed to push pins back and forth to open and close chains on anything more modern than a 20 year old 6 speed chain. You might have done yourself a favor, in preventing a broken chain while you had maximul load on the pedals.

In any case the solution to your problem is easy, push out the corresponding pin on the other end of the outer plates, so your chain ends with inner links at both ends, and buy a connecting link made by Sram, KMC, or Wippermann, the right width for your chain, ie. 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s etc. You might buy a spare at the same time so you can do an emergency splice on the trail the same way.

From here forward cut with a chain tool, splice with a connector.