Tampa Bay continues to win championships

Not even the threat of hurricane Elsa could keep Tampa Bay from reigning supreme again.

Fortunately, it was ice hockey and so it was played indoors at the Lightning’s Amalie Arena and the Western Conference champs again carried off the prestigious Stanley Cup via Wednesday night‘s nerve-racking 1-0 win over an underdog Montreal team that was dominated in the first three games, but recovered to win game four in overtime and force a game five.

The last two games were good ones. The Eastern Conference champion Canadiens entered Cup play with the worse record, were 500-1 to not make the Cup finals, and twice answered back from 3-1 deficits in the first two rounds against the favored Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets.

Then after being outscored, 13-4, in the first three games versus the Lighting, Montreal won at home in game four and challenged Tampa Bay in the final minutes of game five before the clock ran down and the Lightning celebrated again.

And so kudos remain for Tampa Bay. It is still the reigning Super Bowl champions and still the American League baseball winners. As for Montreal, it last won the Cup 28 years ago, and no Canada franchise had gained the final until Montreal crashed the party this time that had been dominated by the teams based in the United States.

As for Elsa, reports kept coming in regarding the damage it was causing. Trees were falling, floods were forming, there were injuries that included vehicle accidents, and inside the hockey rink, the game went on.

The Lighting didn’t have it easy. It took seven games to dispose of the New York Islanders for the second-straight time after defeating the Florida Panthers in five in round one. Then came the surprising challenge from Montreal, which was allowed only a limited 4,500 spectators to attend its games in the historic Bell Centre, while Tampa Bay was allowed to fill to capacity, but didn’t in any of its home games.

In game six, the Lightning had more shots, 30-22, and rookie Ross Colton scored the lone goal late in the second period. It came on an assist from David Savard, who found Colton in front of the net, sent the puck his way, and Colton just tipped it in.

It was like game four in Montreal, close. Each team was hit with four penalties and eight minutes in the penalty box. In the closing minutes, the Canadiens really turned it on, keeping the puck in Tampa Bay territory, getting away shots that were blocked by goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy and his concerned teammates.

Even at the final buzzer, Montreal right wing Brandon Gallagher

got off a hard shot that bounced off the post. Earlier in the final period, Josh Anderson, who scored the game four overtime goal, took a shot and tumbled into the knocked down goal, but the shot was too high and Anderson was helped to his bench until the final minutes.

The Lightning finished at 36-17-3, the Canadiens at 24-21-11, but at least they provided hockey-mad entertainment north of the border as fans packed Montreal Plaza for each game. Plenty of empty seats at their home venue, but outside it was jammed for the NHL’s most successful franchise that has won a record 24 Stanley Cups.

But kudos to Tampa Bay, the area that has the Super Bowl champions, the American League baseball champs, and again the Stanley Cup carried off by the Lightning.