Blues take Game 5 from Bruins and are one win away from first Stanley Cup championship

By Helene Elliott Los Angeles Times • June 7, 2019 6:00 pm
David Perron of the St. Louis Blues celebrates his third-period goal against the Boston Bruins in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday. The Blues won, 2-1, for a 3-2 series lead. (Bruce Bennett | Getty Images/TNS)
David Perron of the St. Louis Blues celebrates his third-period goal against the Boston Bruins in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday. The Blues won, 2-1, for a 3-2 series lead. (Bruce Bennett | Getty Images/TNS)

By Helene Elliott

Los Angeles Times

BOSTON — The St. Louis Blues, who ranked last in the NHL on Jan. 2 and appeared destined for a second straight non-playoff finish, are one victory away from capping a remarkable comeback season with a Stanley Cup championship.

Goaltender Jordan Binnington, who became the key to their rise when he seized the starting job in January, stopped 38 shots by the Boston Bruins on Thursday and made Ryan O’Reilly’s second-period goal hold up as the Blues grabbed a 2-1 triumph at TD Garden. The Blues can claim the franchise’s first Cup title on Sunday, when the Final resumes at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The Blues entered the NHL in the six-team expansion of 1967, and they’d be the last of the five surviving teams from that group to get their name engraved on the Cup.

The Bruins hoped to get a lift from the presence of veteran defenseman Zdeno Chara, who suffered a face or jaw injury in Game 4 when a shot deflected upward off his own stick. His status was doubtful but he did play, wearing a clear shield over the lower half of his face. The crowd roared when he skated out for warmups and again when he was introduced but the Bruins couldn’t ride that wave of emotion.

With his 15th playoff win, Binnington tied Patrick Roy, Ron Hextall, Cam Ward, and Matt Murray for most wins by a rookie goalie in one playoff year.

Of the 25 times the Cup Final has been tied at 2-2 since the best-of-seven format was adopted in 1939, the Game 5 winner has gone on to win the Cup 18 times (72%).

Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy decided to go with seven defensemen and 11 forwards, apparently preferring to have the extra defenseman—Steven Kampfer—available in case Chara had difficulty related to his facial injuries. Cassidy scratched veteran forward David Backes and double-shifted David Pastrnak, deploying Pastrnak on the top line alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron and on the fourth line with Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci. As the game went on Cassidy tried several other line combinations in an effort to spark some production.

The Bruins dominated the first period in shots (17-8) and hits (23-18) but neither team could score. Each team had one power play in the opening period. Blues defenseman Vince Dunn was penalized for delay of game at 6:27 and the Bruins got two shots with the man advantage but Binnington was up to the task. The Blues got a power play at 17:22, when Marchand was penalized for slashing Binnington, but St. Louis couldn’t capitalize. The Blues produced a dangerous chance during that advantage, a one-timer by David Perron from down low on the left side, but Boston goalie Tuukka Rask managed to stop it.

The Blues had a forceful start to the second period, and that paid off. With Chara and defense partner lured behind the net, Zach Sanford made a pass that went between his own legs and the legs of Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy and found O’Reilly, who was alone in front when he lifted a backhander beyond Rask’s reach at the 55-second mark. O’Reilly has scored three goals and five points in the Final; Sanford, who got a chance to play when Oskar Sundqvist was suspended, has kept himself in the lineup with three assists in the Final.

That proved to be the only goal of the second period. However, Bruins forward David Krejci saved a goal when he got his chest in front of a shot by Alex Pietrangelo in the waning seconds of the period, with Rask on his belly and unable to get back up to deal with the shot.

The Blues doubled their lead at 10:36 of the third period, after the referees missed a tripping or slew-footing offense committed by Tyler Bozak, who used his left knee to strike the back of the right knee of Bruins forward Noel Acciari. With Acciari down, play continued and Perron scored from the right circle. Fans who were irate over the lack of a penalty threw towels and trash on to the ice, causing a brief delay.

The Bruins struck back at 13:32, with a delayed penalty pending against Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist. Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, shrugging off the jab from Sundqvist, kept the puck in at the blue line and passed it to DeBrusk, whose shot skipped off Binnington’s stick and into the net. But that goal was all the Bruins can muster, and they face the end of their season on Sunday.

A seventh game, if necessary, would be played in Boston next Wednesday.