Welcome to On This Day In Blues History, a series looking back at some key moments over the years for the St. Louis franchise.
The St. Louis Blues were on their way to the pinnacle of the hockey world six years ago. Back in 2019, St. Louis was tied 2-2 with the San Jose Sharks after Jordan Binnington posted 29 saves in a Game 4 victory.
But the series was far from over. The Blues had to head back to San Jose, where they split the first two games of the series.
However, the series may have felt over for San Jose after the night was up.
Oskar Sundqvist scored an unassisted goal to open the scoring just 5:50 into the game, and that was the eventual game-winning goal as the Sharks failed to find the back of the net.
The Sharks gave it their all in the first period with an 11-4 shots-on-goal advantage, but that ended up being half of their shot total for the game. The Blues came alive with 20 shots on goal in the second period while holding the Sharks to just six shots in the middle frame.
Jaden Schwartz scored his first goal of the game early in the second period, and Vladimir Tarasenko extended the Blues' lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal less than four minutes later. That was all the scoring for the second period despite St. Louis' SOG total.
The Sharks entered the third period trailing by three goals and managed just four shots on goal in the final 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the Blues kept the pedal to the metal.
Jaden Schwartz scored a power-play goal of his own just 2:19 into the third period with assists from David Perron and Tarasenko on a 5-on-3 man advantage. Schwartz completed the hat trick on Sharks goalie Martin Jones with 3:58 remaining in the game. Tarasenko had an assist on that goal as well for his third point of the game.
"That's something you don't really think about before the game," Schwartz said of his hat trick. "You just kind of prepare the way you usually do and get focused for the game to help the team. Sometimes you get some bounces your way and you never score a goal by yourself. … We've been a team where our depth has gotten us here and different guys step up every night, and tonight was no different."
Schwartz had a hat trick against the Winnipeg Jets in the first round and became the first player with two hat tricks in a single playoffs since Johan Franzen of the Detroit Red Wings in 2008.