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NHL Stanley Cup Final 2020: Most Memorable Highlights from Stars vs. Lightning
September 30, 2020
The Tampa Bay Lightning brought the Stanley Cup back to the Eastern Conference after a one-year hiatus Monday night.
Tampa Bay joined the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016 and 2017) and Washington Capitals (2018) as championship winners out of the East since 2016, with the St. Louis Blues the only Western Conference team to win the Cup in that span.
The Lightning closed out their title run with a 2-0 victory over the Dallas Stars in Game 6 to win their second-ever Stanley Cup and their first since 2004.
Brayden Point produced what turned out to be the series-clinching goal in the first period of Game 6.
Point finished the postseason with 14 goals, with five coming in the six-game title clash with Dallas, while Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman were involved in a plethora of key scoring opportunities too. However, the most important Lighting player in Game 6 was Andrei Vasilevskiy, who produced his first shutout of the postseason.
Prior to Monday, Vasilevskiy had conceded at least two goals in each of the five Stanley Cup contests. The shutout was his first as a starter in the postseason after doing so twice in a backup role in 2015 and 2016.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos hoisted the Stanley Cup, but he was not much of a factor across the six games. Stamkos made a single appearance in Game 3, but he was able to net one of his team's five goals.
Game 3 marked the first part of a two-game run in which the Lightning scored five goals in back-to-back games. The back end of that run was solidified by Kevin Shattenkirk's game-winning goal in overtime of a nine-goal shootout in Game 4.
Although the Stars ended up on the wrong end of the series scoreline, they produced a handful of memorable moments over six games.
In Game 5, Corey Perry kept the series alive with his second tally of the contest in double overtime, during a game on the second day of a back-to-back that saw the teams play nine periods in total.
Dallas' only other victory occurred at the start of the series, when Anton Khudobin turned away 35 of the 36 shots sent in by Tampa Bay. From Game 3 of the Western Conference Final to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Khudobin made 139 saves and conceded six goals in four wins.
Unfortunately, the goalie's form dried up after Game 1, and Tampa Bay ended up scoring 17 goals in the last five games.
Dallas did walk away from Rogers Place with one significant milestone, as Joe Pavelski became the highest-scoring American in postseason history.
The 36-year-old center recorded the most goals of any Dallas player (four) and tied John Klingberg and Tyler Seguin for the most points on the Stars roster with five.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
Statistics obtained from Hockey Reference.