Tampa Bay beats Dallas to win NHL’s Stanley Cup, claim pandemic’s 1st sports championship

EDMONTON, Alberta —  The Tampa Bay Lightning are the champions of bubble hockey.

Brayden Point scored his playoff-best 14th goal, and the Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 to win the Stanley Cup and finish off the NHL playoffs staged in quarantine during the pandemic.

The clock hitting zeros in an empty arena set off a wild celebration for a group that endured years of playoff heartbreak and two months in isolation.

Goals from Point and Blake Coleman and a 22-save shutout by Andrei Vasilevskiy were enough to power the Lightning to their second championship in franchise history after winning it in 2004.