BOSTON -- The St. Louis Blues are Stanley Cup champions for the first time.
St. Louis defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on Wednesday.
"It doesn't feel real," Blues center Brayden Schenn said. "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."
Jordan Binnington made 32 saves; Alex Pietrangelo and Ryan O'Reilly each had a goal and an assist; and Schenn and Zach Sanford scored for St. Louis, which entered the NHL in 1967-68 and had never won a Cup Final game in three prior appearances (1968-70).
O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy, voted the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup 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."
Tuukka Rask made 16 saves, and Matt Grzelcyk scored for Boston, which won Game 6 of the best-of-7 series 5-1 on Sunday.
"It's an empty feeling," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "It's a long year. Someone had to win and someone had to lose and we came out on the wrong side of it. It's not the way you picture it. It's as simple as that."
The Blues were last in the NHL on Jan. 3. They are the first team to win the Stanley Cup after being last in the standings at least 30 games into a season.
St. Louis defeated the Winnipeg Jets in six games in the Western Conference First Round, the Dallas Stars in seven games in the second round, and the San Jose Sharks in six games in the conference final.
"It had to be this way, man," Binnington said. "It was an incredible year and I can't believe where we're at. It's awesome."
Rask allowed more than three goals in a game for the first time since Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 17, ending a streak of 19 games allowing three or fewer. He allowed two goals on four shots in the first period.
"It was a nightmare for me, obviously," Rask said. "Barely didn't make a save in the first. And you know we tried to create, we had good chances, and [Binnington] made the saves when they needed."
O'Reilly gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 16:47 of the first period, scoring from between the hash marks on a deflection of Jay Bouwmeester's shot from the point. He became the first player to score in four straight Cup Final games since Wayne Gretzky did so with the Edmonton Oilers in 1985.
O'Reilly was the leading scorer of the Cup Final with nine points (five goals, four assists) and finished tied for the most points in the playoffs with 23 (eight goals, 15 points) with Bruins forward Brad Marchand (nine goals, 14 assists).
"Put the team on his back," Schenn said of O'Reilly. "He obviously believed we could do it. We all believed we could do it. He led the way."
Pietrangelo made it 2-0 with eight seconds left in the first. He scored on a forehand-backhand deke with a shot over Rask's blocker from the slot.
The Bruins outshot the Blues 12-4 in the first period and 23-10 through two periods but did not score.
Binnington, who played one NHL game three seasons ago prior to Dec. 16, became the first rookie goalie to win 16 games in a single NHL postseason.
"He was outstanding tonight," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "I thought it was his best game of the series."
Schenn made it 3-0 at 11:25 of the third period, scoring on a one-timer off a pass from Vladimir Tarasenko. Sanford extended the lead to 4-0 at 15:22.
Grzelcyk ended Binnington's shutout with 2:10 remaining to make it 4-1.
"We did it, we did it," Blues forward Pat Maroon said. "I mean, there's nothing else. We put everything on the line from Jan. 3 on and we deserve this. What a way to finish it."
They said it
"We knew it was there, we knew we had the pieces, but it was so educational for myself to see how tough it is and how hard you have to work and how even-keel you have to be to keep coming every day and just keep punching at it. It was always there that we can do it, but to actually do it, it's exhausting. I'm exhausted." -- Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly
"We thought we were going to do it. We had that belief we have all year. We've done it plenty of times. It takes one goal to get going and swing that momentum, and we just didn't get that one early enough. We thought that we'd be able to come back, but obviously we didn't." -- Bruins forward Brad Marchand
Need to know
The road team won five games in the Cup Final for the fourth time (1945, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings; 1966, Montreal Canadiens and Red Wings; 2000, New Jersey Devils and Dallas Stars). ... The Blues finished 10-3 on the road in the playoffs, including 3-1 in the Cup Final. They are the seventh team in NHL history, first since 2000, to win three road games in the Cup Final (1921 Ottawa Senators, 1928 New York Rangers, 1945 Maple Leafs, 1966 Canadiens, 1990 Edmonton Oilers, 2000 Devils). All seven won the Stanley Cup. ... St. Louis tied the record for most road wins in a single postseason (1995 Devils, 2000 Devils, 2004 Calgary Flames, 2012 Los Angeles Kings, 2018 Washington Capitals). ... The Blues are the fourth team in the NHL modern era (since 1943-44), first in 30 years, to win the Cup without a previous Cup winner on the roster (1974 Philadelphia Flyers, 1980 New York Islanders, 1989 Flames). ... St. Louis was swept in the Cup Final by the Montreal Canadiens twice and the Bruins. ... Boston has lost the Cup Final 14 times, most of any team.
What's next
Season complete
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