2015 Arch Awards: What was the Best Storyline in St. Louis Sports During 2015?

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Blues Beat Blackhawks in #RoarBacon Comeback

Heading into a November 4 meeting with the arch-rival Chicago Blackhawks, the St. Louis Blues were at a fork in the road. The Blues were 8-3-1, but they’d been shut out 3-0 by the Los Angeles Kings the previous night, and with key players Paul Stastny, Jaden Schwartz, and Kevin Shattenkirk sidelined by injuries, things didn’t look the greatest for the battered Blues.

The Blues came out sluggish, and the game looked to be pretty much in the bag for the Blackhawks just six minutes into the first period, as the Hawks took a 3-1 lead. Rookie Robby Fabbri put the Blues back into contention with a goal at 15:12, but after a head injury knocked Blues goalie Brian Elliott out of the game two minutes later and the Blackhawks got two late-period goals from Brent Seabrook and Patrick Kane, it looked like the Blues were out of it with Chicago leading 5-2 at the end of the first.

Things changed drastically in the second period for the Blues, though. While goaltender Jake Allen, who had relived Elliott, remained strong in net and shut out the Blackhawks, the Blues got goals from Alexander Steen, Jay Bouwmeester, and David Backes to tie the game up again. It was all capped off by a now-famous post on the Blues’ official Instagram account which featured perhaps the most famous typo in sports marketing history. As the post attempted to state that the Blues had “roared back” to tie the game, an autocorrect failure instead resulted in the caption stating “#OurBlues roar bacon with three second-period goals to tie the game 5-5.”

As they say, the rest is history, as the Blues fought through the third period to take the game to overtime, where Vladimir Tarasenko scored a spectacular game-winning goal with just over a minute left in the five-minute period. The hashtag #RoarBacon went viral through pretty much every social media channel, and the Blues went so far as to bring a live pig into their practice facility, create “Roar Bacon” merchandise, and add additional bacon-themed items to the stadium menu in the following weeks.

While #RoarBacon may be remembered as nothing more than a silly example of the outright oddity that social media can create, it was the theme for one of the more impressive victories in Blues history, which was made even more exciting by the fact that it came at a key time against an intense rival and the defending Stanley Cup champions.

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