The St. Louis Blues made franchise history on this date in 2019 by winning their first -- and so far their only -- Stanley Cup. In fact, it was the first time that the Blues played past a Game 4 in the Stanley Cup Final after getting swept in their first two seasons in existence.
Not many thought that the Blues would have what it takes to win it all when they fired Mike Yeo on November 19 with the Blues sitting at 7-9-3. There was even less confidence when the Blues finished 2018 at 15-18-4. But the Blues went 30-10-5 to finish the season, including an 11-game winning streak from January 23 to February 19 to turn their season around.
They then defeated the Winnipeg Jets in four games, then fell behind the Dallas Stars 1-0 and 3-2 in the series, but battled back to win that one in seven games. After overcoming 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in the Western Conference Final to get past the San Jose Sharks in six games, the Blues faced their final test in the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins, too, won Game 1 and Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead, and silenced the St. Louis crowd that was hoping for a celebration in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all Game 7 back in Boston.
The nerves were high in Game 7 on the road to the tune of a 12-4 shots-on-goal advantage for the Bruins in the first period. That included a Boston power play with Colton Parayko getting called for delay of game.
But the Blues managed to score on two of those four shots, with Ryan O'Reilly tallying another clutch goal to open the scoring late in the opening frame. Alex Pietrangelo, who assisted on the opening goal, then scored himself with eight seconds left to give the Blues a huge 2-0 lead heading into the locker room.
The Bruins once again had double-digit shots (11) and held the Blues to just six, but neither team was able to find the back of the net as Jordan Binnington stopped all 23 shots through two frames.
Brayden Schenn gave the Blues some breathing room midway through the third period, and Zach Sanford all but put the game away less than four minutes later for a 4-0 lead. The Bruins eventually solved Binnington with Matt Grzelcyk making it a 4-1 game with 2:10 remaining, but the rest is history.
"It doesn't feel real," Schenn said after the win. "It's absolutely incredible. I can't even explain. It feels like a video game we're in. It's what you dream of as a kid, posing with the Stanley Cup, getting to lift it. It's a special group. We're going to party hard."
"Put the team on his back," Schenn said of O'Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy. "He obviously believed we could do it. We all believed we could do it. He led the way."
Binnington stopped 32 of 33 shots while Pietrangelo and O'Reilly each had a goal and assist.
O'Reilly finished the Stanley Cup Final with nine points (five goals, four assists) for 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in the playoffs.
"Most of these guys on [the trophy] I pretended I was as a kid, and now to be on here with them, it's an incredible feeling," O'Reilly said. "I can't believe that we hung on and got this done."