5. Schwartz’ Game 5 game-winning goal vs Winnipeg
Talking about moments when you knew the series was probably over, this one pops to mind way back in the first round. Schwartz may have gone silent during the final, but he was so instrumental in the Blues winning two of their first three series, it boggles the mind to think we forgot about it at all.
With everything that came after this moment, it is easy to forget how close to doom the Blues were before they even got started. In Game 5 against Winnipeg, St. Louis was on the brink.
The series might have been tied, but the Blues had lost two straight and looked poised to lose a third. They trailed 2-0 going into the third period, giving the Jets all the confidence they needed to close it out and look to eliminate St. Louis in St. Louis.
Instead, the Blues battled back. They got an early goal from Ryan O’Reilly, on the power play no less, and then tied it up almost 14 minutes into the period. Still, it seemed ready to go to overtime, when anything can happen and then the craziness happened.
You could tell the Jets were weary, looking to get to intermission. They were desperately trying to hold the puck on the boards to kill the last 30 seconds.
Instead, as we saw in other moments on this list, the Blues forecheck wrestled it loose and cause mistakes. Tyler Bozak saw Schwartz in front and threw it toward the space and Schwartzy finished it off.
This might have been the first moment in chronological order, but it has to go high on this list because, when looking back, it began the entire string of events. There were so many unbelievable moments in every series, that it had to start somewhere.
Though I’m not as big a fan of John Kelly as many in St. Louis, his call fit that moment perfectly. It was crazy.
We were all ready for OT because battling back from 2-0 down was enough. Blues fans were not greedy and figured another period was fine. Instead, they won and crushed the hopes of so many Midwestern Canadians.
The Jets would play their guts out in that final game. Even so, it was hard to overcome that kind of deflating defeat.