Blues make 1st Final since 1970

ST. LOUIS — The Blues are marching into the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in decades.

David Perron had a goal and an assist, Jordan Binnington picked up his franchise- record 12th playoff win and the Blues beat the Sharks 5-1 in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals Tuesday night.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn and Tyler Bozak also scored for the Blues, who will face the Bruins for the championship. Ryan O’Reilly had three assists, and Binnington stopped 25 shots.

The Blues won four consecutive games to advance to the franchise’s first Cup Final since 1970. That series also pitted the Blues against the Bruins.

Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” blared over the speakers at the Blues’ home arena after the latest victory on an improbable run from last in the NHLJan. 3 to one of the last two teams standing. The turnaround came after Craig Berube replaced Mike Yeo as coach in November and Binnington took over as the starting goaltender in J

San Jose played without injured forwards Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl and defenseman Erik Karlsson. Injury attrition played a role for the Sharks, who played seven games in each of the first two rounds.

Keeping sharp: The Bruins think they’ve found a way to stay sharp for the Stanley Cup Final while waiting a total of 10 days between games.

The Eastern Conference champions will hold a public intrasquad scrimmage on Thursday night, and coach Bruce Cassidy said he’ll try to maintain a regular game-day schedule so that the players will get back in the routine before the opener of the championship series on Monday.

“We’ve got some ideas we bandied around. We came up with this one,” Cassidy said on Tuesday, the Bruins’ fifth day off since sweeping the Hurricanes in the East finals. “We’ve had good practices, but this will be a little bit different.”

The Bruins had either just one or two days off before starting their previous two series.