Electrifying

TAMPA -- There is no telling when the NHL will be back in business, all signs pointing to a lockout by the owners this fall, but the 2003-04 season went out with a bang here last night when the Tampa Bay Lightning captured their first Stanley Cup in franchise history with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of the finals.

Paced by a pair of Ruslan Fedotenko goals, and what at times was a smothering attack against a visibly exhausted, chewed-up Calgary squad, the Lightning became the southernmost club to win the Cup.

Similar to Ray Bourque clinching the Cup in Colorado at the end of his 22-year career, ex-Bruin Dave Andreychuk was the first of the Lightning to hoist the Cup and skate it around the St. Pete Times Forum. One of the game's most prolific goal scorers, the 40-year-old captain finally had his crowning moment. After his short skate-around, he handed it over to fellow ex-Bostonian Tim Taylor.

"You dream about this day for a long time," said Andreychuk, who said he spoke with Bourque a few times in recent days, the ex-Boston captain inspiring him to do a Ray Redux. "It's taken me a while to get to this point, and I don't believe you can put into words the things that go through your mind."

The Flames looked tired from the start, able to push only three shots on net in the first period, consistently frustrated by their defensemen's inability to head-man the puck. As the minutes ticked by, Tampa Bay moving to leads of 1-0 and 2-0, what little energy the Flames had left seemed to drain from their bodies.

"In the end, we ran out of gas," said Flames coach Darryl Sutter, whose club lost hold of a 3-2 series lead, the finals turning on the chance they frittered away in Game 6 back in Calgary. "Winning Game 5 actually hurt us more than helped us because of injuries. The longer the series went, the tougher it was going to be. I think we tried to summon all we could in terms of energy. In the end, they had more legs than we did."

The 25-year-old Fedotenko, overshadowed by bigger and pricier names during his two seasons in Philadelphia, popped in the 1-0 lead with 6:29 to go in the first, ducking under defensive coverage between the circles after Brad Richards unloaded a wrister from the right side. The puck popped hot into the slot, where Fedotenko slipped Robyn Regehr's coverage, and the 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound winger potted his 11th goal of the postseason.

Here only since 1992, when Japanese investors followed Phil Esposito's dream to have a team by the bay, the Lightning finally made their fans' dreams come true. When Fedotenko's goal zipped by Miikka Kiprusoff, the arena quaked, as if it would shake from its concrete underpinnings and slide into the Gulf of Mexico.

"Until you go through it, you don't realize what it is," said the Concord, Mass.-raised John Tortorella, Tampa Bay's coach. "You don't realize how hard it is to get there. I'm happy for the players -- they're the ones who have to do it, they have to do it, no one else."

The piece de resistance was turned in by Vincent Lecavalier in the second period, when he delivered the relay that Fedotenko ripped home for the game-breaker.

Constantly urged by his coaches over the years to add an element of toughness and defensive accountability to his game, Lecavalier hung tough with the puck as he skated out of the left corner. Taking hits and spinning, and still able to hold the puck, he slid a velvety feed toward the slot. Fedotenko, with a half-slap reminiscent of those Cam Neely patented during his years in Boston, smoked the 2-0 lead to the top right corner.

"I was just trying to get away from the defensemen," said Lecavalier. "The last three games, it seemed I couldn't go around those guys, and tonight I made sure I brought the puck to the net as much as I could."

The Flames, down by a pair, were in serious trouble after 40 minutes. Now they needed three goals, and they needed at least a pair in the third period. Perhaps worst of all, they needed to pot that pair against Nikolai Khabibulin, one of the game's elite backstops. Slim chance. Outside the building, where thousands of fans milled around in anticipation of the celebration, spirits pegged higher and higher.

Nonetheless, the Flames were able to close it to 2-1 when Craig Conroy drove in a power-play goal with 9:21 gone in the period. They put up 10 shots in the final 20 minutes, but that was the only one to elude Khabibulin.

At 10:52 p.m., just under a dozen years since getting in the stick biz, the Lightning had their Cup, and a crowd of 22,217 began to dance in the aisles and samba into the streets.