Tampa Bay Lightning Win Second Straight Stanley Cup

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning are back-to-back Stanley Cup champs -- and they did it in a nine-month span.

Tampa Bay defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 to close out the series 4-1 on Wednesday at home, becoming the first team to repeat as champion since the 2016 and 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Conn Smythe Trophy and recorded his fifth straight shutout in a series-clinching game.

"This group, no matter what happens from here on out, this group is going to be etched in history forever, and that's pretty F'ing special," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "I'm so proud of the guys. You can't soak it in yet. It's so fresh. It's so new. You don't even realize what's going to happen. We won the Stanley Cup, and we still have the Stanley Cup. That's just amazing."

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With the Game 5 win, the Lightning improved to 15-0 immediately following a loss over the past two postseasons, the longest such streak in NHL history. Defeating Montreal is the 15th series win for the Lightning since 2015. In that span, no other team has won more than nine series.

The Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars in September to win the Cup in the bubble in Edmonton, Alberta. The franchise's only other Cup title came in 2004.