The St. Louis Blues brought their Sunday best to San Jose.

St. Louis overwhelmed the San Jose Sharks to win Game 5 5-0, take a 3-2 edge in their Western Conference Final series and secure a franchise-high 11th win this postseason.

Oskar Sundqvist netted the game's first goal at the 14:10 mark in the first period. Sundqvist capitalized with a one-time slap shot off an errant attempt to clear the puck by Erik Karlsson. The goal extended the St. Louis fourth line's scoring streak to four games. 

In these Stanley Cup playoffs, the Blues are 8-1 when scoring in the opening six minutes. 

Just over three minutes into the second period, Jaden Schwartz collected a sloppy ricochet off Sharks goaltender Martin Jones' stick to give the Blues a 2-0 lead.

Matters worsened for the home team soon thereafter when the Blues stacked a 3-0 lead with a converted penalty shot from Vladimir Tarasenko, who had been tripped in transition by Brent Burns. Tarasenko's was the first successful penalty shot in Blues postseason history.

Schwartz poked in two more goals, one on the power play and the other in garbage time, during the third period. His hat trick Sunday marks his second of these Stanley Cup playoffs and brought his postseason total to 12 goals (in 18 games), which surpassed his 11-goal total for the regular season (69 games).

After an aggressive Game 5 performance, St. Louis is now just one win away from its first Stanley Cup Final appearance since the 1969-70 season. The Blues have never hoisted Lord Stanley, but they're giving themselves as good a shot as any by taking advantage of this series to work out some kinks—remember, this was the league's worst team as of Jan. 2—and everything came together for them in Game 5 at both ends of the ice.

For example, the Blues similarly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period in Friday's Game 4, but head coach Craig Berube lamented his team's effort in the next two periods. On Sunday, St. Louis maintained a sense of urgency for 60 minutes. Since the start of second period, the Blues put 35 shots on goal opposed to just 10 from the Sharks.

In the midst of the Blues' offensive onslaught was rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington making 21 saves to post his first career postseason shutout. 

Meanwhile, the series began to take a toll on the Sharks in Game 5. At one point in the third period, five Sharks were in the team's locker room. San Jose's frustrations boiled over as they committed mindless penalty after mindless penalty to end the game, one of which resulted in Michael Haley serving a 10-minute misconduct. 

Frustration is an easier thing to correct than health, and heading into a must-win Game 6 on Tuesday, the Sharks' will be concerned about the status of Karlsson, captain Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl, who suffered a head shot.

Karlsson was questionable to suit up for Game 5 after spending most of Game 4's third period on the bench with undisclosed discomfort. Whatever it is that's ailing him, it seemed to worsen during Game 5 as the All-Star spent only 10:32 on the ice through two periods. 

While the Sharks surmounted a 3-1 deficit in the opening round against the Vegas Golden Knights, this 3-2 hole against the Blues has a more defeated feel after this demoralizing Game 5. 

What's Next? 

The Blues can advance to the Stanley Cup Final by winning Tuesday's Game 6 in St. Louis, set for an 8 p.m. ET start.