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The Florida ice hockey team won their home game against the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 on Wednesday evening (local time) and thus achieved the necessary fourth victory in the final series. The Canadiens only won game four. The only goal in Tampa was scored by Ross Colton in the second period.
“It's unbelievable. It's such a cliché, but there are no words,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos told NBC TV before the trophy was presented. “It is great.” NHL boss Gary Bettmann presented the trophy for the most valuable player in the final series to Lightning goalkeeper Andrej Wassilewski.
Since the National Hockey League's salary cap was introduced in 2005, only the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the Stanley Cup for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017. For the Lightning it is the third title in its history.
The Canadiens, however, could not end the 28-year long dry spell of Canadian teams, despite the rearing up in game four. Since the NHL record champions won the last of 24 final wins in 1993, no team from the motherland of ice hockey has raised the Stanley Cup. When it first won the finals for one of the most historic trophies in the world of sport, in 1916, the league didn't even exist.
