Tampa, Fla. — The Calgary Flames' remarkable run through the National Hockey League playoffs ran out of miracles last night.
The miracle belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning this time, as their 2-1 win in the seventh and deciding game of the NHL championship final gave them their first Stanley Cup in their 12-year history.
By the final minute of the third period, when Flames defenceman Andrew Ference took a charging penalty to snuff out their last hopes, the party started among the 22,717 fans in the stands at the St. Pete Times Forum.
It also raged on the concourse outside the arena, where about 4,000 more fans watched the game on a big screen.
Calgary Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprosoff and Ville Nieminen watch the puck fly into the net on a goal by Tampa Bay Lightning Ruslan Fedotenko during second period of game seven of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals Monday (Ryan Remiorz/CP)
"This is the ultimate dream for a player," Lightning forward Martin St. Louis said. "We will walk together forever."
Brad Richards did not score the winning goal this time — Ruslan Fedotenko had it with his second goal of the game — but he set up Fedotenko's first one. That and his NHL record seven game-winning goals in the playoffs were enough to nail down the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs for the native of Murray Harbour, PEI.
"It's unbelievable," Richards said. "I'm so proud of where I'm from."
Beside Richards on the podium was centre Vincent Lecavalier, who played perhaps his best game of the playoffs. He was the first pick overall in the 1998 NHL entry draft, two rounds ahead of Richards, who has been his friend and teammate since they were 14 years old.
"This is unbelievable for both of us," Lecavalier said. "We were in last place for four years when we first got here [in 1998]."
Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin was the other contender for the award, and he made his mark in the third period during a desperate rally attempt by the Flames. They finally shook off the Lightning checkers, but all they could manage was a power-play goal by Craig Conroy at 9:31.
"We were letting them have some shots, but Nik was there," Lightning defenceman Darryl Sydor said. "He was a wall for us."
It proved to be a bitter end to a Cinderella run for the Flames.
The Flames finished the regular season in sixth place in the Western Conference.
All that will be remembered in Calgary was the goal by Martin Gélinas that should have been in the sixth game on Saturday.
That would have put the Flames ahead in the third period and could have brought them the Cup. But even though it looked like a goal on television replays, the NHL ruled it could not be conclusively judged a goal, and the Flames eventually lost in overtime to force last night's deciding game.
Flames head coach and general manager Darryl Sutter did not want to dwell on such questions after the loss.
"In the end, we ran out of gas," he said, adding that the injuries finally caught up to his team. "Winning Game 5 actually hurt us more than it helped," Sutter said, because forward Shean Donovan was lost to an ankle injury and defenceman Robin Regehr suffered a knee sprain that hobbled him badly in the final two games.
This time, the Flames fell cleanly to a tenacious checking effort led by 40-year-old Dave Andreychuk, who finally won the Cup in his 22nd and possibly final NHL season.
"You know what? We played as well as we could," Sutter said. "We got beat by a great team."
The Lightning managed to squeeze the only goal out of an offence-starved first period to take a 1-0 lead going into the second. By the end of the period, the Lightning had outshot the Flames by a paltry 6-3 margin.
The trend continued in the second period, as each team had only four shots in a truly ugly game, but the Lightning managed to extend the lead to 2-0. By the end of the first 40 minutes, the Flames' inability to muster any offence had them sinking fast.
Jarome Iginla, Calgary's best offensive threat, was subjected to a tenacious team checking effort by the Lightning. He could not manage a shot on goal through the first two periods.
In the meantime, Tampa's best two players, Richards and Lecavalier, set up the Lightning goals by Fedotenko.
It was not until almost eight minutes into the game, at 7:55, that the first shot was registered. Fedotenko's weak attempt as he was pulled down by the Flames' defence barely qualified as a shot.
Both teams had trouble hitting the net, while the Lightning blocked shots with determination early in the period.
The condition of the ice at the St. Pete Times Forum did not help the quality of play. It looked soft and full of ruts. The puck bounced all over the place, and players, too, took pratfalls with no one around them.!
