1970 Stanley Cup Final Game 5, Bruins vs Blues
Two years, two Cup Final heartbreaks—the Blues' youth met Boston's dynasty.
The 1970 Stanley Cup Final pitted the Boston Bruins against the St. Louis Blues in a series that showcased the gulf between a dominant, star-laden Boston squad and a young expansion club still finding its footing in the NHL's upper echelons. Game 5, the clinching contest, sealed Boston's fourth championship and marked the second consecutive year the Blues fell short in the Cup Final after their 1969 loss to Montreal.
This series is remembered as a defining early chapter for the Blues franchise—proof that the 1967 expansion teams could compete at the highest level—and as another monument to the Bobby Orr–Phil Esposito era that made Boston the team to beat in the early 1970s.
- Series result
- Boston Bruins 4, St. Louis Blues 1
- Year
- 1970
- Bruins key stars
- Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito
- Blues context
- Second consecutive Stanley Cup Final (1969, 1970)
- Franchise note
- St. Louis Blues were a 1967 expansion team
- Boston Cups at this point
- 4th Stanley Cup (after 1928, 1939, 1941)
Lore & Background
The St. Louis Blues arrived in the NHL in 1967 as one of four expansion franchises, and they hit the Stanley Cup Final in just their third season. The 1969 loss to Montreal stung, but the 1970 meeting with Boston carried an extra weight: the Bruins were not merely good, they were terrifying. Bobby Orr, in the prime of his revolutionary two-way game, and Phil Esposito, whose power and leadership defined an era, anchored a Boston team that seemed to operate on a different plane of hockey.
For the Blues, the series was a coming-of-age exercise. They were young, fast, and full of belief, but the physical and tactical depth of the Bruins—particularly in the special teams and the defensive structure Orr provided—proved too much. Winning one game in the series was an achievement in itself, a statement that the expansion era was producing genuine contenders, not just fillers.
In the broader narrative of 1970s hockey, this Final sits between the Bruins' 1970 title and their back-to-back 1972 Cup, and it frames the Blues' own 1969-72 stretch of Cup Finals that made them the face of the new NHL. The rivalry between established powers and hungry expansion clubs defined this era, and this series is a clean, early example of that tension.
In Their Own Story
The ice in Boston was cold in the truest sense. You could see your breath in the arena, the old black-and-white jerseys of the Bruins hanging heavy with the weight of expectation. Orr skated his blue line with that unhurried, almost lazy grace, the puck never more than a flick of his stick away. Across the ice, a young Blues forward tried to drive the slot, and the puck simply wasn't there anymore—Orr had redirected it before the play fully formed, and Esposito was already streaking down the wing.
The Blues' bench was quiet. They'd done everything they could. The crowd noise was a low, sustained roar, not the explosive cheers of a goal, just the steady pressure of a city that had waited thirty years for this particular cup. The final horn came, and the ice was already being hosed, the water catching the arena lights in thin silver sheets. Somewhere in the tunnel, a young Blues player sat with his skates still on, laces untied, watching the confetti fall on a team that wasn't his. He'd be back next year. They always were.
Reader's Guide
The 1970 Stanley Cup Final was the fifth meeting between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues in the NHL's championship round, and it was the second straight year the Blues found themselves in the Final after their 1969 loss to Montreal.
Boston, riding the momentum of a dominant regular season and a series of convincing playoff wins, dispatched the Blues 4-1. The series was defined by the Bruins' depth and the sheer force of their two-way game. Bobby Orr, playing at the peak of his early career, controlled the blue line with a combination of speed, passing range, and physicality that the young Blues simply could not answer over five games. Phil Esposito provided the scoring punch and the intangible leadership that turned good shifts into great ones.
The Blues, in their third season in the NHL, were a fast, aggressive team full of belief. They managed to steal one game in the series, a reminder that they belonged at the highest level. But the cumulative weight of Boston's structure, experience, and star power proved decisive.
The series is remembered for several reasons: it cemented the Bruins as the team to beat heading into their 1972 back-to-back title run, it validated the expansion era by showing the Blues could compete with the old powers, and it gave the franchise a painful but formative lesson that would shape their identity for the next decade. For Bruins fans, it was the capstone of a title run; for Blues fans, it was the beginning of a long, patient climb.
Did You Know?
- The St. Louis Blues reached the Stanley Cup Final in just their third season in the NHL (1969 and 1970), a remarkable feat for a 1967 expansion team.
- Bobby Orr's two-way dominance in this era helped redefine the defenseman position in hockey, a transformation that was already well underway by the 1970 Final.
- The Bruins' 1970 Cup was their fourth championship, ending a nearly three-decade drought since their 1941 title.
- The Blues' back-to-back Cup Final appearances (1969, 1970) made them the most visible expansion franchise in the NHL's early 1970s.