Electric! What we remember about the night the Lightning won the Stanley Cup

Some of us looked on from the press box high above the rink. Others occupied seats in the auxiliary press box on the 300 level, alongside fans slapping together Thundersticks.

Some of us worked from the newsroom, readying the historic, late-breaking story for print.

Still others watched as fans, from seats inside the arena or on televisions in sports bars or at home, like many of you.

A handful of us were in the locker room afterward, splashed with champagne as it was sprayed on players, coaches, front office executives and other team employees.

Wherever we were, the view was spectacular.

Here is what we remember about June 7, 2004 — the night the Lightning won the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 at the then-St. Pete Times Forum.

(For those of you who missed it, Fox Sports Sun is rebroadcasting the game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 a.m.)

Two old friends

"It was more than two hours after the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in Game 7 at what was then the St. Pete Times Forum, when I went down from the press box to take a last look around at the Lightning locker room. There, sitting next to each other, still in full uniforms, were Vinny Lecavalier and Brad Richards.

"The locker room was a mess, strewn with empty champagne and beer bottles and crumpled paper cups, but was otherwise deserted. But the two old friends were in their own world as they sat and quietly shared the incredible joy of the moment and reinforced the bond they had forged as teammates — first at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, then Rimouski (QMJHL) and then the Lightning.

“Amazingly, they let me sit and listen to the stories, and I will always be grateful. The next day I turned it into one of my favorite stories of that incredible 2003-04 season.”

— Damian Cristodero, former Lightning Reporter

Total exhaustion

"Exhaustion was what I remember about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s win over Calgary in the 2003-04 Stanley Cup finals.

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"Total exhaustion by the players, who poured so much blood sweat and tears onto the ice during the playoffs.

"Exhaustion in the faces of the Lightning fans who took this carnival ride with them.

"Hockey was still relatively new to us then and certainly a deep run in the playoffs hadn’t occurred.

"What you discover is that the Stanley Cup has to be the hardest trophy to win just due the physical and emotional toll paid by the players.

"In Game 3, the Lightning’s Ruslan Fedotenko hit his cheek on the top of the boards after he was checked by Calgary defenseman Robyn Regehr late in the third period. Pavel Kubina took an elbow to the head early in the first period of the same game.

"Both players were scratched for Game 4.

"I remember thinking I would spend about a week in the hospital after those collisions.

"The double-overtime win on Marty St. Louis’ improbable-angle goal set up a Game 7. We had a group of friends watch the final two games with us at home and they weren’t sure their hearts could take the tension.

"Fedotenko scored twice, including the first critical first goal, just as he had done in the conference finals. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin stopped the Flames’ late flurry, including a remarkable save on Jordan Leopold when the net was open.

"There is a picture of the Lightning players gathered around the Stanley Cup shortly after the game. St. Louis has blood still dripping from a cut on his nose. They looked like they had been in a battle.

“They had. And the fans had been through one, too.”

— Rick Stroud, Bucs Reporter

Ruggedly brutal

"The thing I remember most about Game 7 was just how ruggedly brutal that game was. It looked nothing like the hockey we know today. It was wrestling on ice, a steel-cage match. That’s partly the way the game was played then, but it also was the officials not wanting to let penalties decide the Stanley Cup. But for as skilled as the Lightning was with players such as Marty St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and so on, this game also showed just how tough they were — physically and mentally.

“Game 7 was the 23rd game for the Lightning that postseason. That means it was the 105th game that season. The players were running on fumes. Just looking at them celebrating on the ice, they were happy but also looked exhausted and beat up. Their faces were full of cuts and nicks and scrapes — all picked up over the two months it took to win sports’ most grueling tournament. So while we always remember just how talented that team was, I’ll remember them for just how tough and tenacious they were. THAT’s what won them Game 7 and the Stanley Cup.”

— Tom Jones, former Sports Columnist

A big day ... on the Rays beat

"I remember June 7, 2004, as a big day, as well — on the Rays beat.

"It was draft day, and the Rays took Rice pitcher Jeff Niemann with the fourth overall pick, ahead of Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew, among a few other notables. And it also was Bonds Eve: The day before Barry Bonds would play for the first — and only — time at the Trop. We had a little bit of coverage about that.

"The good news was that the Rays were off that Monday night, so even with the draft — which was still an afternoon event — I’d have time to watch the Lightning game.

"Having already had the very cool opportunity to be part of our coverage team for the Bucs’ Super Bowl win in San Diego, catching the Bolts on TV trying to bring home another championship was good enough.

"My recollection is that finishing the Bonds advance and draft coverage took a little longer than I expected, then (my wife) Sue, the kids and I headed down to Ferg’s — the sports bar across from the Trop, where we always seem to end up for big games that I’m not covering.

"Good wings, good friends, a good crowd, a good night.

"And, the next day, a good quote from then-manager Lou Piniella about the prospects of his Devil Rays — who were on the way to a then-franchise-best 70 wins — joining the Bucs, Arena Football League Storm and the Bolts in winning championships.

“I’d say lightning has got to hit here,” Piniella said. “The reason I say that is, we’ve got a ways to go.”

— Marc Topkin, Rays Reporter

The cover shot

"It was game 7 back home in Tampa after being forced to win an elimination Game 6 on the road in Calgary in double overtime, so the atmosphere was as crazy as it could be.

"I was perched at the top of the aisle in the 100 section, looking at the ice with Nikolai Khabibulin to my left and Miikka Kiprusoff to my right in the second period. That was when Vincent Lecavalier appeared to dance with the puck in the corner and attract the attention of two or three Flames players. The double/triple coverage left Ruslan Fedotenko wide open. This is the same Fedotenko who was knocked out cold when he was checked into the boards by Calgary’s Robyn Regehr during the third period of Game 3.

"That was the fun physical game when Lecavalier fought Jarome Iginla. Who can forget that? So, I was covering that game in Calgary, also in the 100 section. When Feds went down, I remember the usher grabbed my arm and yelled at me, ‘MY GOD. I think he is dead!’ Injured and probably concussed, but definitely not dead. I recall seeing Fedotenko on an off day in Calgary outside of the team hotel. He still looked dazed and had a gash above his right eye.

"So, back to Game 7, Vinny with the puck on a string and getting all the attention, passes to Feds, who buries it to score his second of two goals. For me, visually, it was like a dream. He pumped his right fist and raised it to the sky as he skated right at me and into the arms of Pavel Kubina. The instant I made that picture, I knew it could be the cover shot assuming the lead holds. And that is exactly what happened. Electric!

“From there the game flew by. The Bolts had the lead and our photo team had an endgame plan. So in the final minutes of the third period, I left my position and went down to the Zamboni door. From the Zam door I watched the final minutes of history. As the final seconds ticked off I had my arms high above the crowd at the door as I was firing my remote cameras which were pointed at the "Bulin Wall.” The players leaped from the team bench and mobbed (goalie Nikolai) Khabibulin, who was just beyond the glass 20 feet from me.

"Moments later, with confetti falling from everywhere, they opened the zam door and a handful of us filed onto the ice for the handshake line, the center ice photo and the on-ice Stanley Cup celebration. Only a few players were left on the ice celebrating. I rushed down the tunnel and into the now-open Lightning locker room. The floor was soaked, and everything was dripping with champagne. I saw Pavel Kubina waiting the get the Cup at his stall. I squeezed by him and stood on his bench as the Stanley Cup was passed to him.

Again, I felt like he was drinking in slow motion. Champagne was everywhere. I remember licking the back of my champagne-soaked camera in between frames. As the players drank from the Cup, I felt as if if did, too. That was just the beginning of a Cup-crazy summer. Kuby was the first player I contacted to ask about visiting during his Cup day. ‘You come to Czech Republic, Kuby take care of you,’ he said. That was the only invite needed.”

— Dirk Shadd, Staff Photographer

Interminable wait

"I briefly thought the Lightning’s run might be over following a 5-4 loss in Philadelphia in Game 6 of the conference final. Less than two minutes from clinching the series, Tampa Bay watched as Keith Primeau scored the tying goal in regulation and Simon Gagne sent the series back to Tampa for Game 7 with the winner in overtime. It was pandemonium in the Wachovia Center.

"But where I expected chaos in the locker room, I found only calm. Surrounded at his locker by a crush of reporters, Lightning associate captain Tim Taylor was the picture of composure: ‘Any time you get beat, it clears your mind and gets you ready for the next game,’ he said. ‘Here it is. This is our season. We have to take advantage of it, and now we have to go get it.’

“The Lightning got it in Game 7, as Ruslan Fedotenko and Fredrik Modin scored in a 2-1 win that sent Tampa Bay to its first Stanley Cup final. There, it took down the Flames, despite a sea of red-clad Calgary fans that clogged the streets of downtown Tampa while Lightning supporters completed their work days in the hours before Games 1, 2, 5 and 7.

"I remember Vinny Lecavalier sparking the Lightning by fighting Calgary star Jarome Iginla during Game 3. Marty St. Louis’ double-overtime goal to beat Miikka Kiprusoff high on the short side to stave off elimination in Game 6 in Calgary. And the seemingly interminable wait for the clock to tick down with the Lightning clinging to a one-goal lead in the third period of Game 7.

"Screaming and slamming Thundersticks together, the sellout crowd was loud from the start — never more than after Fedotenko scored in the first and second periods to stake the Lightning to a 2-0 lead. Because of my deadline and the need for a phone to send my story, I had to leave the auxiliary pressbox and retreat to a work area in the lower bowels of the arena for the third period.

"There, I heard the groans from the crowd after Calgary’s Craig Conroy scored on the power play midway through the period to trim the Lightning’s lead to a single goal. And the gasps when Nikolai Khabibulin stopped a Jordan Leopold shot later in the period in front of a yawning net.

“When the final buzzer sounded and my story had been sent, I rushed with a handful of co-workers to a corner of the rink, where we watched from behind a curtain as Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk was presented with the Cup after a 22-year wait. It was the culmination of a 2-1/2 month playoff run that took the Lightning from Tampa to Long Island, Montreal, Philadelphia and Calgary before returning, fittingly, to Tampa.”

— Frank Pastor, Assistant Sports Editor

Lords of the rink

"As a Tampa native, there may be nothing more easy in life to remember than the title-winning headlines involving our major pro sports teams. Before 2004, that consisted of all of one: CHAMPS, the Times’ page 1A headline on Jan. 27, 2003, the day after the Bucs won Super Bowl 37.

"That number doubled about 16 months later, June 7, 2004, when the Lightning defeated the Flames in Game 7. That night, I was working the Sports copy desk, which is responsible for, among other things, writing headlines. 1A was going with ELECTRIC! Solid, but Sports, which traditionally has an unspoken competition with those writing 1A headlines, needed to beat it.

"However, on this night, with maybe a half-dozen of us working on the Sports desk, nothing was bowling us over. Lots of ideas as far as what direction to take, lots of suggestions being bantered about out loud. But the wow factor was missing, and the deadline clock, the enemy of any copy desk, was ticking faster and louder.

"Then a phone call, the second enemy of a copy desk on deadline. It was from Ernest Hooper, a Times news columnist, longtime friend and former sportswriter who had a very brief and very undistinguished career on a Sports desk early in his career. He was calling from Four Green Fields, a popular Tampa bar, but especially on this night since it’s within walking distance of the then-St. Pete Times Forum.

"With screaming and celebrating going on in the background at the bar, it was difficult to hear. Then I was able to make out those very familiar opening words, “Hey, AP.” I knew it was Hoop, always a selfless soul when it came to helping bar patrons celebrate.

"And then I hear, “Lords of the rink.” It’s all he needed to say. It sang, it danced, it was a good play on words, and it was topical, since the film series was still extremely popular.

“It was, by far, the best bar phone call I had ever received on deadline.

"Salud!

"That’s all I’m saying.”

— Anthony Perez, Assistant Sports Editor

How did you get in here?

"It was Saturday, May 8, 2004, and the Lightning were preparing to play Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Flyers after advancing past the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0, in the conference semifinal. I was assigned to making features during the pregame warmup, searching the bowels of the then-St. Pete Times Forum (now Amalie Arena) for player features.

"I wandered into the Lightning locker room where, sitting in front of me, was Martin St. Louis. He was alone, and the room was silent except for the sound of his hands smacking and massaging what smelled like medicated muscle rub into his thighs. I remember each of his thighs were as big as both my legs put together.

“St. Louis was surprised. He looked up at me and said, 'How did you get in here? You need to go. If Coach (John Tortorella) sees you in here, he’s gonna lose it! ' I apologized and left the locker room. The Lightning went on to win the series, defeating Philadelphia and advancing to the Stanley Cup final. The Lightning defeated the Western Conference champion Calgary Flames in seven games and were awarded the Stanley Cup.”

— Douglas R. Clifford, Staff Photographer

Electric!

"We planned the page for days.

"That’s the thing about special, commemorative front pages. They get drawn days or weeks in advance and refined again and again. Picked over, really. If you’re designing a page that is going to be made into posters, T-shirts, placards and live in fans’ memories, it has to be perfect.

"I remember the first thing we settled on was the headline.

"Paul Tash, the Times’ CEO and chairman, coined “Electric!” some days before the final game. He said it with a conviction that resonated with me.

"The headline can be the hardest part about these pages. I also designed the poster front page when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2003. That headline, “Champs,” went to the wire.

"Now it was a waiting game for a Game 7 win and the perfect photo.

"The stress of watching Game 7 while trying to finish a poster front page, and many other pages, was unreal. I’m generally calm on deadline, but I’ve been a hockey fan my whole life and there’s nothing bigger than Game 7 playoff hockey. Having my work and favorite sport collide in one night is an overwhelming memory I’ll never forget.

“The poster front page is framed and hangs in my home.”

— Amy Hollyfield, Senior Deputy Editor/News

Watching history

"In 2004, I was 16 years old.

"My dad, from Buffalo N.Y., is a lifelong hockey fan. So my brother grew up on the ice rink instead of on the football or baseball field. But both of us grew up going to Lightning games.

"When the Lightning’s run for the Stanley Cup was really heating up, I was hardly amused. I was a 16-year-old girl who was tired of spending her evenings and weekends at TBSA in Oldsmar for my brother’s hockey tournaments. My dad was, for many years, the team coach. He even started a high school team at my alma mater, River Ridge High School in New Port Richey.

"I wouldn’t appreciate what I got to see firsthand in the old “Ice Palace” until years later. But my dad’s excitement is what I remember most.

"The minutes were dwindling in the third period of the final game, and my dad put his arm around me and reminded me that I was watching history. He’d waited his whole life to witness a championship game like this, with his own eyes.

“I remember the shouts and the chants from celebrating fans as we funneled out into downtown Tampa streets. Copies of the St. Petersburg Times with the Lightning’s win across the front littered the sidewalks. My dad gathered dozens of copies. One of them is framed — with our ticket stubs from that night — in my parents’ house.”

— Justine Griffin, Health Reporter

Couldn’t hear the goal horn

“I was in attendance for that game. I remember the build-up leading to Game 7 and how the plaza (now ‘Thunder Alley’) was packed with more people than I’d ever seen at once. As irony would have it, the section I sat in for Game 7 is the same section I now have season tickets in. My two buddies sat a section over and a few rows behind me.

"When Fedotenko scored both goals, I can’t recall being able to hear the goal horn either time because of how loud it was. I remember watching the post-game on-ice celebration and Stanley Cup presentation, then grabbing a St. Petersburg Times front page outside the arena.”

— Paul Driscoll, Acquisition and Social Media Marketing Specialist

Check it out

More than 15 players, management and coaches from the 2004 team will be on an open Zoom conference for fans on Saturday, May 16 starting at 7 p.m. prior to the FOX Sports Sun re-air of the Cup-clinching Gamy 7 victory at 7:30 p.m.