The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars, 2-0, on Sept. 28 in Edmonton more than two months after they entered the pandemic bubble in Toronto, to claim their second Stanley Cup.

The players who scored for the Lightning when they won the Cup were Brayden Point, who scored on a first-period power play, and Blake Coleman, who scored in the second period. The Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs. He led all defensemen this postseason with 10 goals.

A big part of Tampa Bay winning the cup is because of their goalie. Andrei Vasilevskiy played every minute in net for the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals. He set a postseason record for minutes played. Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for his first shutout of the postseason as Tampa Bay won the best-of-seven series.

A new addition to the Lightning this season, leading them to the Cup, is Maroon who came into the playoffs as the only Tampa Bay player with a Stanley Cup ring. On Sept. 28, he lifted the trophy for the second consecutive year after winning with his hometown St. Louis Blues in 2019.

For the Lightning and many of their players, this Stanley Cup puts a weight off of their shoulders. A year ago, they finished the regular season as the NHL’s top team and tied a league record with 62 wins. But they got humiliated by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs, getting swept by the eighth seed.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are as excited as ever winning the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals, with all that is going on in the world. They are the champions of the pandemic bubble.