The Blues Are in the Stanley Cup Finals, Eliminate Sharks in Six Games, 5-1

The St. Louis Blues are in the Stanley Cup finals. Who could have expected this to happen after seeing them at the bottom of the standings back in January?

They defeated San Jose Sharks tonight, beating them 5-1 at the Enterprise Center, clinching the series with 4-2. Just to remind everyone, the Blues were behind 2-1 at one moment and were heavily damaged by the referees in Game 3. All that makes their success even greater.

“I can’t really describe how excited I am,” said Ryan O’Reilly after the game.

The Blues were excellent last night. They used every chance to score, and the final result isn’t that realistic when we look at how San Jose played. The guests from California had more shots, and they were punished for each of their mistakes. Pretty hard.

Hosts netted twice on a powerplay, and their goalie, Jordan Binnington had 25 saves, some of them fantastic.

Sharks’ coach Peter DeBoer commented on that after the game, saying that he feels his team deserved more out of this one.

I was proud of our group tonight,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think the score reflected the work that we put in. I know what the scoreboard said at the end of the night, but I felt we made them earn it tonight.”

Though we need to add that San Jose played without three big names, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl and Erik Karlsson. All these guys were playing a huge part in Sharks’ playoff run, and their absence definitely affected visitors’ performance tonight.

The start of the game was shocking for the guests and couldn’t be better for the home team. David Perron netted after just 1:32, and set on fire the crowded Enterprise Center. The left winger tapped Sammy Blais’ shot past Martin Jones.

Vladimir Tarasenko doubled the advantage with 3:44 until the end of the opening period after scoring with a precise wrist shot.

For one moment, Sharks were back in the game. Dylan Gambrell cut the gap to 2-1 after 6:40 in the second sequence, but their hopes for making a comeback were crushed when Brayden Schenn raised to 3-1 with 12:47 into the period.

Both Tarasenko and Schenn scored on powerplays.

Tyler Bozak posted his 5th goal of the playoffs 6:55 left until the end of the contest, and the celebration in St. Louis started. Ivan Barbashev made it, even more, sweeter with an empty-net goal 2:15 before the end.

For the first time since 1970, the Blues reached the finals, and a chance to fight for the Stanley Cup trophy.

“It’s just unbelievable where we were the beginning of the year to where we are now,” St. Louis forward Patrick Maroon said.

What is interesting is that the opponents in that 1970 finals, were the same as in this one. The Boston Bruins.

Eastern Conference champs defeated Carolina Hurricanes in four games, posting very convincing performances. It is no wonder that the odds are favoring them over the Blues to win the trophy.

However, anything is possible in the finals.

The Blues have three lost finals, and they were in consecutive years, ’68,’69,’70. Bruins swept them in their direct matchup.

By the way, they lost all three finals with 0-4, and still haven’t posted a win at that stage.

But that doesn’t have to mean anything. It could just give extra motivation to this generation of Blues’ players, who would want to correct all the mistakes their predecessors made.

We all saw how they clicked at the start of this year, and began crushing every opponent who stood in their way. Their mental strength is rock-solid, and they showed that on numerous occasions throughout both playoffs and the regular part of the season.

Boston will have home-ice advantage, but in this case, it doesn’t have to mean anything, as we saw Blues often recording victories on the road in this postseason.

When looking the head-to-head meetings this season, both sides have one win apiece. The Blues lost the first one in Boston, 5-2, but got even in Missouri, 2-1 after the shootout.

The finals are starting next Monday.