Top 20 Cup Final games since 2000: No. 15

As the NHL prepares for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NHL.com staff selected the best 20 Stanley Cup Final games since 2000. Our 15-writer panel nominated 44 games for consideration before each member voted for his or her favorite 20 from that list. Each favorite game was awarded 20 points, with the selections that followed receiving one fewer point each and so on, down to one point for each 20th-favorite game.Today, we look at Game 7 of the 2011 Final between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, which was on seven ballots and received 79 points.

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2011 Game 7: Boston Bruins 4, Vancouver Canucks 0

Boston goalie Tim Thomas had the first Game 7 road shutout in Stanley Cup Final history, and forwards Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each scored two goals to help the Bruins win their first championship in 39 years.

With two shutouts, and eight goals-against in the series, Thomas was voted winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Canucks won Games 1, 2 and 5 in Vancouver. The Bruins won Games 3, 4 and 6 in Boston before winning Game 7 at Rogers Arena.

Vancouver, having won the Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the regular season with 117 points (54-19-9), was considered the favorite against Boston, which finished seventh in the League and first in the Northeast Division with 103 points (46-25-11).

The Canucks were looking to win the Cup for the first time, having lost in the Cup Final in 1982 to the New York Islanders and in 1994 to the New York Rangers.

Winning the first two games of the series gave Vancouver hope, but the Bruins outscored the Canucks 12-1 in Games 3 and 4.

In the end, Thomas was just a bit better than Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, who also had two shutouts in the Cup Final, winning 1-0 in Game 1 and in Game 5.

They said it: "I never envisioned three Game 7s in one playoff season and still being able to come out on top (also Eastern Conference Final against Tampa Bay Lightning and quarterfinals against Montreal Canadiens). ... I was scared, I won't lie. I had nerves yesterday and today and I faked it as best as I could. I faked it all the way to the Stanley Cup." -- Bruins goalie Tim Thomas

Historical significance: It was Boston's first Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final. ... The win was Boston's first in six trips to the Cup Final since their 1972 championship, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers (1974), Canadiens (1977, 1978) and Edmonton Oilers (1988, 1990).

Iconic moment: Bruins forward Milan Lucic, Boston's leading scorer in the regular season with 62 points (30 goals, 32 assists), joyfully pressed the Stanley Cup overhead in his hometown and was joined on the ice by his parents and two brothers, posing for photos after he'd bear-hugged his mother. It was the second major hockey championship Lucic won in Vancouver. In 2007, he helped host Vancouver of the Western Hockey League defeat Medicine Hat 3-1 in the championship game of the Memorial Cup at Pacific Coliseum.

Telling stat: The Canucks figured to have an advantage on the power play. They were No. 1 in the NHL during the regular season (24.3 percent) and scored 17 power-play goals in 18 games in the first three rounds of the playoffs. But Boston's penalty kill, anchored by defensemen Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, and forwards Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille, killed 31 of Vancouver's 33 power plays during the Cup Final.