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Blues embrace ‘80s hit ‘Gloria’ as post-win anthem

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Pat Maroon taps in the game-winner in 2OT and Jordan Binnington saves 29 shots as the Blues eliminate the Stars and advance to the Western Conference Final.

You may have heard parts of a 1980s tune blaring in the background after each of the St. Louis Blues’ three playoff home wins or while they were celebrating a victory in the dressing room this postseason.

The song — “Gloria” by the late Laura Branigan — has become the team’s post-win anthem since February as they were in the midst of a season turnaround. That turnaround continued Tuesday night as Patrick Maroon’s double overtime goal knocked out the Dallas Stars in Game 7 and sent the Blues to the Western Conference Final.

St. Louis radio station Y98 promised to play “Gloria” for 24 consecutive hours if the Blues eliminated the Stars. Well, here we are as the ‘80s hit started playing in the wee hours Wednesday morning.

The story of how “Gloria” became attached to the Blues goes back to early January and NFL Wild Card weekend as the Philadelphia Eagles played. With the team in town to the play the Flyers, Robert Bortuzzo, Joel Edmundson, Robby Fabbri, Jaden Schwartz, and Alexander Steen got together at a local bar to watch the game while a DJ played during commercial breaks.

“They played this song ‘Gloria’ a couple of times, and this one guy looked at the DJ and said ‘keep playing Gloria!’, so they kept playing it,” Edmundson told the Blues website in February. “Everyone would get up and start singing and dancing. We just sat back and watched it happen. Right there we decided we should play the song after our wins. We won the next game, we got a shutout, so we just kept on playing it.”

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That next game just happened to be Jordan Binnington’s first NHL start, which was a 3-0 shutout of the Flyers.

Branigan’s hit tune actually replaced Dion’s “Runaround Sue” as the team’s post-win song. Both gave off a good vibe and were perfect for the situation inside a happy dressing room.

“I want to see the Blues in the Stanley Cup — that’s the ultimate,” said Kathy Golik, who runs Other Half Entertainment and managed Branigan, and is now her legacy manager, to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. “But however far they go, I support them. This is just great, and I hope next season they continue to use the song because I think it’s brought them luck, and it’s something that’s become a really big thing.”

It’s been one happy season so far for the Blues, and now they’re four more wins from playing for the Stanley Cup. We likely haven’t heard the last of “Gloria.”

MORE: Maroon’s double OT goal brings son to tears

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.