The 2019 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2018–19 season and the culmination of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Western Conference champion St. Louis Blues defeated the Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins four games to three in the best-of-seven series. It was the Blues' first championship, in their 51st season of play (not including the 2004–05 lockout), ending what was then the third-longest championship drought in league history. The Bruins had home-ice advantage in the series with the better regular season record. The series began on May 27 and concluded on June 12. The Blues' Stanley Cup-winning run of 26 playoff games tied the 2013–14 Los Angeles Kings for the longest of any Stanley Cup-winning team.
This was a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final, which Boston won in four games. This was the fourth consecutive Final to both involve at least one team vying for its first championship and end with the champion clinching the Cup on the road. It was also the first time since 2011 where the Final went the full seven games.
Entering the 2019 Final, the Blues were the only active team from the 1967 NHL expansion to have not won a Stanley Cup. The Blues' victory resulted in all five of the active 1967 expansion teams obtaining a Stanley Cup title, while the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks became the oldest active expansion franchises to not win one, and the Toronto Maple Leafs became the last active team not to win the Cup since the expansion era.
This is the most recent professional sports championship won by a St. Louis-based team, and was the last time the Stanley Cup Final did not feature a team from Florida until 2026.
Paths to the Final
This was the eleventh meeting between teams from Boston and St. Louis for a major professional sports championship. This previously happened in four World Series (1946, 1967, 2004, 2013), four NBA Finals (1957, 1958, 1960, 1961), Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, and the 1970 Stanley Cup Final.
Boston Bruins
This was the Boston Bruins' 20th appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, six years after , when they faced the Presidents' Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks and were defeated in six games. The Bruins last won the Stanley Cup in against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks in seven games, their sixth Cup in franchise history.
Brad Marchand became the first Bruin since the 2005–06 season to score 100 points, finishing the regular season with 100 points in 79 games. David Pastrnak led the team in goals with 38. Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak split the goaltending duties during the regular season. Halak had signed with the team during the off-season, and approaching the trade deadline the Bruins acquired forwards Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson.
Boston finished the regular season with 107 points, finishing in second place in the Atlantic Division and third overall in the league. In the first round of the playoffs, they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games for the second consecutive playoff meeting against the Maple Leafs and third since the 2012–13 season. They then defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4–2 in the second round. In the conference finals, Boston swept the Carolina Hurricanes.
St. Louis Blues
This was the St. Louis Blues' fourth appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. Their last appearance in the Final was in against the Bruins, which Boston won in a four-game sweep. All of St. Louis' prior appearances came during their first three seasons after the Blues and five other new teams formed the West Division in the 1967 NHL expansion. While the Blues were able to advance past their fellow expansion franchises, each Final appearance ended with them being swept by Original Six teams that comprised the East Division, concluding with their 1970 defeat. In the years that followed, the other expansion teams from 1967 would win Stanley Cup titles (excluding the defunct California Golden Seals franchise), but the Blues went nearly half a century without reaching the Final again and became the oldest franchise not to win the Stanley Cup.
Ryan O'Reilly, who was acquired via trade in the off-season led the team in scoring with 77 points and assists with 49. Vladimir Tarasenko led the team in goal-scoring with 33 goals.
St. Louis struggled early in the regular season, beginning the year with a 7–9–3 record. Head coach Mike Yeo was fired and assistant coach Craig Berube was named interim coach. Their record declined to an NHL-worst 15–18–4 with 34 points on January 2, 2019. However, the Blues went on a 30–10–5 run to finish the season with 99 points, third in the Central Division. Amid their turnaround, rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington was given his first start and went on to obtain 23 wins. In the playoffs, St. Louis defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4–2 in the first round, eliminated the Dallas Stars in seven games in the second round, and won 4–2 against the San Jose Sharks in the conference finals.
Game summaries Note: Number in parentheses represents the player's total goals or assists to that point of the entire four rounds of the playoffs
Game one
In game one, Brayden Schenn scored the first goal of the Final for the Blues, firing a wrist shot past Tuukka Rask. In the second period, Bruins forward David Pastrnak mistakenly passed back to an open Schenn who gave the puck to Vladimir Tarasenko who doubled the lead for St. Louis. The Bruins quickly scored after, as a pass by Sean Kuraly deflected off of intended target Connor Clifton's skate and then goalie Jordan Binnington's stick and into the net. Charlie McAvoy then tied the game on the power play speeding through the Blues zone to put one past Binnington. In the third period, Boston gained the lead as a net-mouth scramble ended up on Sean Kuraly's stick who fired it past Binnington. The Bruins continued their shot output, placing ten more on Binnington before being pulled. Brad Marchand sealed the Bruins victory after a successful defensive zone face-off put the puck into the Blues' zone and the forward shot it into the empty net.
Scoring summaryPeriodTeamGoalAssist(s)TimeScore1st STL Brayden Schenn (3) Jaden Schwartz (5), Jay Bouwmeester (6) 07:23 1–0 STL2nd STL Vladimir Tarasenko (9) Brayden Schenn (6) 01:00 2–0 STL BOS Connor Clifton (2) Sean Kuraly (4), Joakim Nordstrom (3) 02:16 2–1 STL BOS Charlie McAvoy (2) – pp Unassisted 12:41 2–23rd BOS Sean Kuraly (3) Noel Acciari (2), Zdeno Chara (3) 05:21 3–2 BOS BOS Brad Marchand (8) – en Unassisted 18:11 4–2 BOSPenalty summaryPeriodTeamPlayerPenaltyTimePIM1st BOS Sean Kuraly Tripping 03:37 2:00 STL David Perron Tripping 13:15 2:00 STL Robert Thomas Hooking 16:45 2:002nd STL Joel Edmundson High-sticking 05:25 2:00 STL Oskar Sundqvist Cross-checking 11:04 2:003rd BOS David Krejci Illegal check to head 06:55 2:00 STL Samuel Blais Interference 13:28 2:00 Shots by periodTeam123Total 8 3 9 20 8 18 12 38
Game two
In game two, Boston scored the first goal when Samuel Blais was given a penalty for goaltender interference and Charlie Coyle put the puck past St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington. The Blues struck back when Robert Bortuzzo's shot deflected off of Matt Grzelcyk and squeaked past Tuukka Rask on the short side. The Bruins scored 40 seconds later to take the lead again with Joakim Nordstrom moving around the St. Louis defenceman and backhanding his shot past Binnington. Vladimir Tarasenko then tied the game for the Blues when his shot rebounded off of Rask and backhanded his shot into the open net. In the second period, the Blues dominated in shots fourteen to six but neither team scored. However, Blues forward Tyler Bozak was high-sticked resulting in an injury to the forward; St. Louis was granted a 4-minute power-play. The teams were even in shots in the third period, but with no scoring, the game went into overtime. During the overtime period, Bruins defenceman Brandon Carlo tripped up Alexander Steen and on the delayed penalty, Carl Gunnarsson fired a slap shot past Rask giving St. Louis their first victory in the Final in franchise history and tying the series 1–1.
Scoring summaryPeriodTeamGoalAssist(s)TimeScore1st BOS Charlie Coyle (7) – pp Jake DeBrusk (5), David Pastrnak (9) 04:44 1–0 BOS STL Robert Bortuzzo (2) Tyler Bozak (6), Carl Gunnarsson (1) 09:37 1–1 BOS Joakim Nordstrom (3) Sean Kuraly (5) 10:17 2–1 BOS STL Vladimir Tarasenko (10) Jaden Schwartz (6) 14:55 2–22ndNone3rdNoneOT STL Carl Gunnarsson (1) Ryan O'Reilly (12), Oskar Sundqvist (5) 03:51 3–2 STLPenalty summaryPeriodTeamPlayerPenaltyTimePIM1st STL Samuel Blais Goaltender interference 03:55 2:00 STL Oskar Sundqvist Boarding 17:57 2:002nd BOS Connor Clifton Interference 03:34 2:00 STL Joel Edmundson Tripping 12:19 2:00 BOS Connor Clifton High-sticking – double minor 15:39 4:00 STL Jaden Schwartz Goaltender interference 17:56 2:00 3rd STL Brayden Schenn Slashing 13:22 2:00OTNone Shots by periodTeam123OTTotal 10 14 9 4 37 8 6 9 0 23
Game three
In game three, Boston took over the first period with three unanswered goals. The first came from Patrice Bergeron on the power-play. The next came from Charlie Coyle whose wrist shot got past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. The last goal came from Sean Kuraly with less than ten seconds in the period; the goal was unsuccessfully challenged on an offside review. With power-play given to the Bruins from the failed offside challenge, David Pastrnak capitalized in the second period, backhanding his shot past Binnington. The Blues were able to get on the board as Zach Sanford passed to an open Ivan Barbashev for his third goal of the playoffs. However, the Bruins quickly had their four-goal restored when Colton Parayko was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking and Torey Krug cashed in for Boston's third power-play goal of the game. Binnington was pulled from the game following this goal and replaced with Jake Allen. In the third period, a roughing penalty by Bruins captain Zdeno Chara proved costly as Parayko scored on the given power-play, his slap shot deflecting off of Brandon Carlo. Although the Blues out shot the Bruins eleven to four, beyond the one goal, St. Louis could not get another past Tuukka Rask. Bruins forward Noel Acciari scored an empty-net goal to add insurance. Boston added another power-play goal with Marcus Johansson's slap shot cleanly beating Allen finalizing the score at 7–2. The Bruins scored on every power-play that they had in the game, scoring on each of their four power-play shots.