The Roundup- Stanley Cup Playoffs Edition: May 22/19

ST LOUIS BLUES 5 SAN JOSE SHARKS 1- (St Louis wins series 4-2)

The Sharks were in tough when the series began, but as injuries started to mount, their chances diminished. Heading into last night without Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl, you knew it would take a miracle for the Sharks to force a Game Seven. Alas, there are no such things as miracles, and once again the Sharks will have to look at what could have been.

Ryan O’Reilly led the way for the Blues with a big night, notching 3 assists. They got things going early, as David Perron, who went to the Finals last year with the Vegas Golden Knights, opened the scoring:

They would make it 2-0 later in the period, as Vladimir Tarasenko cashed in on the power play:

The Sharks would press in the 2nd, and got a break when Dylan Gambrell scored his 1st NHL goal on a heck of a snipe for the kid from Seattle:

But 6 minutes later on another Blues power play, Brayden Schenn finally gets one to go in and it’s 3-1 after two periods.

The Blues would add third period goals from Tyler Bozak and Ivan Barbashev to finish with a convincing 5-1 final. They move on to their first Finals appearance since 1970 where they lost in 4 straight to... the Boston Bruins. This is hardly the mismatch from that last appearance, when the Western Conference was comprised of all the new expansion teams from 1967, making the Finals win for the East a virtual cakewalk until the Flyers rattled off back to back wins in 1974 and 1975.

Game One goes Sunday at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific in Boston. And as always, we’ll have open threads for your hate-watching pleasure.