TAMPA, Florida, 9 June 2004 — Ruslan Fedotenko scored a pair of goals as the Tampa Bay Lightning clinched the first Stanley Cup in their 12-year history on Monday with a nail-biting 2-1 Game Seven win over the Calgary Flames.

Just the second team since 1971 to erase a 3-2 series deficit to lift the title, the Tampa comeback drove an icy spike through the hearts of hockey-mad Canadians who had been primed to celebrate the nation’s first NHL champions in 11 years.

While Fedotenko and goalie Nikolai Khabibulin were Game Seven stars and Brad Richards picked up the Conn Smythe award as playoff MVP, it was 40 year-old captain Dave Andreychuk who had the honor of hoisting the Cup and parading around the St. Pete Times Forum to thundering applause.

In the history of the NHL, no player had endured more frustration in the pursuit of hockey’s holy grail than Andreychuk, the veteran playing in a record 1,758 games over a 22-year career before finally realizing his childhood dream.

“You dream about this day for a long time,” Andreychuk said.

“It’s taken me a while to get to this point and I don’t think you can put into words the things going through your mind.

“The years that you got knocked out in the first round, the years that you didn’t make the playoffs, all the players you have played with.

“We battled all year long to get home ice advantage and it happens that we win a Stanley Cup in a seventh game in our own building.

“I can’t put into words how I feel.”

Fedotenko, who missed Game Four of the finals after being slammed into the boards in Game Three, tallied once in each of the first two periods and Khabibulin did the rest stopping 16 of 17 shots.

The Lightning stepped onto the ice knowing that history and a record crowd of 22,717 were on their side.

Of the 12 Stanley Cups decided by Game Sevens since 1942, the home team had won 10 and the raucous support inside the Forum along with thousands watching outside on giant screens provided the weary Lightning that extra jolt of energy.

The Flames, however, with an NHL playoff record-equaling 10 road wins were never in danger of being intimidated and started smartly, swarming to the attack from the opening face off. But it would be the Lightning who would draw first blood, Fedotenko’s power-play goal staking Tampa to a 1-0 lead.

Richards, who had seven game winners during the postseason, set up the opener with a low wrist shot from just inside the blueline that Miikka Kiprusoff could not control, allowing Fedotenko to snap home the rebound.

In the second period, the Flames returned the physical, aggressive play that had carried them to the finals but could not slow the inspired Lightning who added to their advantage when Fedotenko took a perfect feed from Vincent Lecavalier and drilled a slapshot past Kiprusoff.

With just seven shots in the first two periods, the Flames reached deep into the reserves in the third hammering 10 shots at Khabibulin.

Craig Conroy fanned the Flames fading hopes by spoiling Khabibulin’s shutout bid with a power-play goal midway through the third but the “Bulin Wall” would not be breached again, saving some his most acrobatic stops for a final Calgary assault.

“This is the ultimate dream for a player and I’m really proud of the team that I am playing on,” said the Lightning’s diminutive sniper Martin St. Louis, who forced the decider with his winning goal in double overtime of Game Six. “We’re going to walk together forever as winners. Nothing can describe how it feels to be the last team standing.”

The final seconds ticked off the scoreboard and the Forum exploded in celebration, but the party is likely to be cut short with an ugly labor dispute looming on the horizon.

Owners are threatening to lockout players next season unless a new collective bargaining agreement is reached before the present one expires on Sept. 15.