Stanley Cup Final: Lightning win Stanley Cup, beat Canadiens 1-0 in Game 5 (2024)

The Lightning are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Tampa beat the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in Game 5 to win their Stanley Cup Final series 4-1. The Lightning's closeout win was a strong defensive performance where Tampa allowed 22 shots on goal.

Last season the Lightning won the Cup in the NHL’s bubble so they didn’t have a chance to celebrate with their fans. Tonight, Amalie Arena's capacity was 18,300 so it will be a special moment for all involved. The Canadiens were trying to be the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since 1993, but it wasn't meant to be.

The Athletic’s Josh Cooper and Charlie O’Connor gave insights throughout the game in our live blog below. It's in reverse chronological order.

Here's some relevant series reading:

» Stanley Cup Final picks, odds: Expert selections for Game 5 between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning

» ‘He never stopped believing in us’: When Dominique Ducharme led a QMJHL team back from a 3-0 series deficit

» Lightning Stanley Cup notes: Why Ryan McDonagh has been team’s ‘best defenseman’ in playoff run

» Lightning can blame their power play — not a politician — for Game 4 OT loss

» Canadiens’ Stanley Cup Final appearance gives Jeff Petry and Dan Petry a championship-level bonding moment

» Best arena? Smartest GM? Coolest uniforms? Vote in The Athletic’s national NHL fan survey

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Pool Photo /USA TODAY Sports)

That’s it for the 2020-21 NHL season. The Lightning proved that they’re the best and deepest team in hockey – a group of stars and role players who all bought in – with their second straight Stanley Cup.

The Montreal Canadiens showed that in today’s NHL, underdogs can make a real run – remember, this postseason they beat a Golden Knights team that was tied with the Colorado Avalanche for most points (82) in the 56-game regular season. They also beat a Maple Leafs team that had more points than the Lightning (77 to 75), albeit in the North Division.

In the Cup Final, the Habs just couldn't match Tampa, but then again, they were in good company. A lot of other teams haven't been able to beat the Lightning last two years in the postseason.

Make sure to pay attention to The Athletic’s NHL coverage throughout the offseason and thanks for checking out our live blog. Enjoy the summer.

(Photo: Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports)

Ryan McDonagh took his lap with the Stanley Cup and then gave it to Patrick Maroon who hoisted it above his head.

Maroon won his first Cup with the Blues in 2019, then last season with the Lightning and now this Cup. He is fourth player in NHL history and the first since 1964 to win three straight Cups for two different teams.

Watching Maroon’s celebrations the last two years has been one of the most enjoyable parts of his teams’ Cup runs. Can’t wait to see what he does for his third victory.

Andrei Vasilevskiy nabs the Conn Smythe for most valuable player in the playoffs. He earned a shutout in every single clinching game for Tampa in the playoffs. Nikita Kucherov had an incredible postseason as well, finishing with 32 points in 22 games, but Vasilevskiy certainly earned the award with his stellar work in goal.

(Photo: Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports)

The Tampa Bay Lightning have won the 2021 Stanley Cup, via the 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5.

Perfectly replicated the stylistic formula that earned them their win over the New York Islanders in Game 7 of the last round. Total lockdown performance, and Andrei Vasilevskiy was there on the rare instances when they faltered even a bit. Just a fantastic all-around performance by Tampa.

Barclay Goodrow just blocked a 101.6 mph shot (data shown by Sportsnet) by Shea Weber, who had time and space to really step into that one.

Goodrow is one of the Lightning's guys, acquired at the trade deadline a year ago, who have improved their "hard to play against" mentality. Getting in front of a shot taken by a guy with one of the hardest in NHL history takes a lot of courage. Goodrow is still in the game, miraculously.

Give a shoutout to Carey Price as well, regardless of how the rest of this game plays out. He had essentially no chance on Tampa's only goal, and he's the only reason the Canadiens are just one Tampa mistake away with 10 minutes remaining of forcing overtime.

He's made 27 saves on 28 shots, one goal allowed on 1.99 worth of expected goals per Natural Stat Trick.

He got off to a slow start in this series, but over these past two games, he's been stellar. And it still might not be enough on this night.

Right after that excellent point made by Charlie, the Canadiens looked like they were about to have a chance with a rush down the left side of the ice. But Josh Anderson’s attempt came from a wide angle on Andrei Vasilevskiy who made the easy save. So Charlie was 100 percent right in how well Tampa’s D is playing right now.

If those are the types of opportunities Tampa’s going to give up the rest of this game, they should be able to close this series out. In this period, the Lightning are holding a 73.68 five-on-five CF percentage.

The Habs are supposed to be the more desperate team, but the Lightning are playing airtight hockey at the moment. This is a championship-level gear being found by Tampa

Tampa is just giving Montreal no space out there in the third. Aside from that one breakaway chance by Anderson – which was via a home run stretch pass – they've allowed the Habs no time to make plays, particularly on and right after entries into the Lightning zone.

They're putting on a tight-checking clinic right now, as one would expect from a team that has two years worth of experience closing out these kinds of games in the playoffs.

According to the Sportsnet broadcast, Josh Anderson was traveling 35.5 kilometers per hour when his midsection hit the goal post on his partial breakaway. That's about 22.06 miles per hour.

Anderson had to leave the game after that play after being down on the ice. He's now back but that looked incredibly painful.

And now we're getting "We want the Cup" chants here at Amalie Arena. Still over 15 minutes to go until they can get to that point, Lightning faithful.

(Photo: Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports)

High drama here in Tampa in the few minutes following an underwhelming Lightning power play. Tampa nearly buried Montreal with an onslaught of offense, but Ondrej Palat couldn't elevate the puck to beat Carey Price.

Then, Josh Anderson barely stayed onside and earned himself a breakaway via a stretch pass, but Vasilevskiy (yet again) was up to the task. Anderson fell hard into the post after being stymied, and headed to the locker room to be checked out. It's only been four minutes, but this has been the most exciting stretch of the entire contest. Tampa wants to finish this; Montreal knows they're running out of time.

Josh: I say the Lightning score one more goal, get an empty-netter and then win 3-0. Championship teams have that closeout swagger and they seem to have it going this game.

Charlie: I said the game was going to end 3-1 Tampa and I'm sticking with it!

The sequence of events Charlie pointed out – the save by Andrei Vasilevskiy and then Brayden Point drawing a late second period penalty with his speed – was just Tampa doing Tampa things.

They can beat you so many ways – with defense, goaltending, skating, scoring – and as the opposition, if you make a mistake or don’t cash in on one of your limited chances, then Tampa will likely find a way to turn the game in their favor.

At this point I think Vasilevskiy is my Conn Smythe favorite. Those games I referred to earlier in the blog, where Montreal would hang around and then pounce, all happened against netminders who simply aren’t Vasilevskiy.

Jack Campbell, Connor Hellebuyck, Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner are all excellent. But Vasilevskiy is showing why he’s the NHL’s most dynamic goaltender.

Vasilevskiy has a 1.99 goals-against average and .935 save percentage this playoff, but the numbers can’t tell explain confidence he’s able to give the Tampa skaters or how many big game-changing saves he's made. To me, he has been the MVP of the playoffs.

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Oh man, there could be a potential turning point if Tampa can score on this power play. Vasilevskiy just absolutely robbed Artturi Lehkonen, and then seconds later, Brayden Point blasts down the ice and draws a penalty on a dangerous rush.

Montreal could have entered the second intermission with the score tied 1-1, and now they'll have to kill 1:23 of PP time to start the third period just to have a chance to tie things up in the final period. Just a huge end-of-period sequence of events.

What a pass by David Savard there – not a guy known for his offensive acumen. But that was a beautiful read to find Ross Colton to put the Lightning up 1-0. He's had a quietly strong postseason for Tampa, mostly alongside Mikhail Sergachev.

Tampa's big trade deadline add just paid dividends in what could be their biggest game of the year.

(Photo: Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports)