BOSTON — Ryan O’Reilly scored for the fourth straight recreation and rookie Jordan Binnington stopped 32 photographs in Recreation 7 of the Stanley Cup Closing on Wednesday night time to guide the St. Louis Blues to a Four-1 victory over the Boston Bruins and their first NHL championship.
Alex Pietrangelo added a purpose and an help and Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford additionally scored for St. Louis. The Blues awakened on New Yr’s morning with the worst file within the league however gained 30 of their last 49 regular-season video games and soared by the playoffs to succeed in the ultimate for the primary time since 1970.
Alex Pietrangelo scored in Recreation 7 (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
Coach Craig Berube, who took over when Mike Yeo was fired in November, is the fourth coach prior to now 11 years employed in midseason to guide his crew to the NHL title.
Matt Grzelcyk scored the Bruins’ solely purpose, and Tuukka Rask stopped 16 photographs for Boston.
Boston outshot St. Louis 33-20, however the Blues went forward on the finish of the primary interval on targets from Reilly and Pietrangelo about three minutes aside. The second interval was scoreless, then Schenn put it out of attain with eight:35 to play and Sanford made it Four-Zero earlier than the Bruins spoiled Binnington’s bid for a shutout.
St. Louis can cease singing the blues.
It is Time to Play Gloria
Returning to the location of their final look within the last, which ended when Bobby Orr sailed by the air after scoring the Cup winner, the Blues gained for the third time in Boston this collection and an NHL record-tying 10th time within the post-season.
The Blues defeated the Bruins in 2019 in a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Closing when Bobby Orr scored his flying purpose. (Photograph by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Photos)
O’Reilly gained the Conn Smythe Trophy because the MVP of the post-season. He’s the primary participant since Wayne Gretzky to attain in 4 consecutive Stanley Cup Closing video games.
Not so stunning with Gretzky, who’s the NHL’s main regular-season and playoff scorer, however O’Reilly had simply three targets in his first 22 post-season video games.
Boston should console itself with the 2 main sports activities championships it has already gained prior to now yr, or the dozen trophies which have been chauffeured by Boston in a parade of town’s iconic, amphibious Duck Boats. Three of them have come at St. Louis’ expense.
Bruins Introduced Out the Celebrities
Olympic gold medallist Aly Raisman and Julian Edelman waved a banner earlier than the sport whereas sporting David Ortiz jerseys; the Purple Sox slugger is recuperating only a mile or so away from an assassination try in his native Dominican Republic.
Retired Purple Sox pitcher Curt Schilling additionally was within the crowd, sporting his World Collection ring and a Bruins jersey. Transportable get together Rob Gronkowski additionally made an look on the video board.
And the Bruins responded, dominating for lengthy stretches of time besides in the way in which that mattered most.
The Blues had only one shot on purpose heading into the ultimate minutes of the primary interval, however they scored first when O’Reilly deflected a shot from Jay Bouwmeester into the web. Then with simply eight seconds left within the interval and Bruins ahead Brad Marchand tentative on a line change, Pietrangelo beat Rask to make it 2-Zero.
Bouwmeester performed in 1,184 regular-season video games — the third most amongst energetic gamers who had not gotten their names etched on the Stanley Cup.
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Extra AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Jimmy Golen, The Related Press
