Top 20 Cup Final games since 2000: No. 13

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 2004 Final between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames, which was on 12 ballots and received 105 points.

2004 Game 7: Tampa Bay Lightning 2, Calgary Flames 1

Ruslan Fedotenko and the Lightning made the most of their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.
After forward Martin St. Louis, whose contract was bought out by the Flames four years earlier, scored in the second overtime of Game 6 in Calgary for a 3-2 victory to send the series back to Tampa, Fedotenko scored twice in Game 7 to help the Lightning win their first NHL championship.
The Ukraine-born forward gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 13:31 of the first period when he scored off a rebound, then made it 2-0 at 14:38 of the second with a wrist shot from just outside the left face-off circle. Fedotenko finished with 12 goals in 22 Stanley Cup Playoff games after scoring 17 in 77 regular-season games.
Flames forward Craig Conroy made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 9:21 of the third, but Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin made nine saves in the period after he faced seven shots over the first 40 minutes.
Brad Richards was voted winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs. Seven of the Lightning forward's 12 postseason goals were game-winners.

They said it: "It's sweet, regardless that I started in Calgary. It's just an awesome feeling. You fight for this for your career and you finally get one for Dave [Andreychuk] and all of us. We're very happy."-- Lightning forward Martin St. Louis
Historical significance: The team that scored first won all seven games for the first time since 1945, when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs. … It was the second season in a row the Cup Final required all seven games (the New Jersey Devils defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003), and the third time in four. … Khabibulin became the first Russia-born goalie to win the Cup. … The victory ended the Lightning's record of 13 games alternating wins and losses. … Had it won Game 7 in Tampa, Calgary would have been the first Cup champion with a losing record at home (5-7). … The Lightning joined the 2001 Colorado Avalanche as the teams over a 33-year span who rallied to win the Cup Final after trailing 3-2 in the series.

Iconic moment:The crowd erupted when Andreychuk, the 40-year-old Lightning captain, hoisted the Cup over his head for the first time after playing 1,758 NHL games.
Telling stat:The Lightning held Flames forward Jarome Iginla, who led the NHL with 13 playoff goals, without a shot over the last six periods of the series.