1. Lightning Strikes Twice.
- Author
-
Cannella, Stephen
- Subjects
STANLEY Cup (Hockey) - Abstract
This article discusses the efforts of the hockey Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Posters and T-shirts proclaiming STANLEY NEEDS A TAN were everywhere in Tampa during the playoffs, but until Martin St. Louis's goal 33 seconds into the second overtime of Game 6 last Saturday, it seemed the hometown Lightning would be the ones who emerged from the Stanley Cup finals looking red-faced. After being outworked and outplayed in four of the first five games--and falling behind the Calgary Flames three games to two--Tampa Bay engineered a stunning comeback, putting together its first back-to-back victories in more than a month and winning its first championship with a 2-1 triumph in Game 7 on Monday night. With Calgary pressing frantically after center Craig Conroy's goal midway through the third, Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin made a series of Cup-worthy stops, ensuring Fedotenko of his third game-winning goal of the playoffs, second to Richards's NHL-record seven. If the upstart Flames had no business being in the Cup finals--the league's 12th playoff seed, they were the first team to get there by beating three division winners--Tampa Bay often looked as if it had no business winning them, especially after Game 5. While Canadians rallied around their Flames--Game 6, which drew 4.7 million viewers, was the most watched hockey broadcast on CBC in 10 years--the series fell flatter than "Gigli" in the U.S. Games 3 through 5 on ABC drew an average rating of less than 2.1, the lowest for a Cup finals on network TV.
- Published
- 2004