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Blues Fans Rejoice As St. Louis Clinches First Stanley Cup Final Appearance In 49 Years

Fans celebrate amid falling streamers after the St. Louis Blues defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Tuesday night, sending the team back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 49 years. May 22, 2019.
Rachel Lippmann | St. Louis Public Radio
Fans celebrate amid falling streamers after the St. Louis Blues defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Tuesday night, sending the team back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 49 years.

Enterprise Center and much of St. Louis erupted in bedlam Tuesday night as the final horn sounded, sending the St. Louis Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.

The Blues beat the San Jose Sharks in spectacular fashion, scoring two power-play goals and an empty-netter to win 5-1. It sets up a rematch of the 1970 final, which the Boston Bruins won in four.

Tony Sansone and his daughter Lilly were among the 20,000 fans taking it all in.

“I was an anxious wreck,” said Tony Sansone, who has been a Blues fan since he was 10 and remembers the team’s last trip to the championship series. “I didn’t feel good until the last few minutes of this game.”

Lilly Sansone added: “But we saw this team, and let me tell you, they knew what they wanted and that was the Cup.”

Aubrey Proetz, 9, was at her second playoff game of the season. She came prepared, with a sign that read “Play Gloria” in yellow letters, and “I’m hungry for some shark sushi” in blue letters. "Gloria" has become the team’s winning anthem. The “shark sushi” part was her sister’s contribution, she said.

Proetz said she was “amazed” when her parents told her she would get to go to Game 6. The best part was winning, she said, but the second-best part was how well the Blues performed with the man advantage.

“We never score on our power plays,” she said. Before the two goals on Tuesday, the Blues had scored just eight goals in 58 power-play opportunities and had given up three short-handed goals.

The best-of-seven series between St. Louis and Boston begins Monday in Boston. Though the Blues made it to the final round in their first three seasons, they have never won a Stanley Cup Final game.

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Rachel is the justice correspondent at St. Louis Public Radio.