Richards claims MVP Trophy

TAMPA, Fla. — Brad Richards can finally forget about last year’s playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward had a miserable introduction to the postseason in 2003, but he bounced back in record-setting fashion the second time around to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP on Monday night.

Richards assisted on the first of Ruslan Fedotenko’s two goals, giving him a playoff-best 26 points and sending the Lightning on their way to a 2-1 victory in Game 7 and the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

He picked up the trophy and did a partial spin near center ice.

“It’s unbelievable, I can’t really explain it,” he said.

Richards finished the playoffs with 12 goals, including an NHL-record seven game-winners. The MVP award capped off a perfect night at the end of a perfect season for Richards and the champion Lightning.

Tampa Bay went 31-0-2 this season, including 9-0 in the playoffs, when the 24-year-old notched a goal. The Lightning didn’t get a chance to test that out in the postseason last year as Richards had only five assists in 11 playoff games.

“I really wanted to try to help the team because I didn’t last year,” Richards said earlier in the finals. “Maybe I could’ve helped a little more and done something else.”

No one is complaining now about Richards, a third-round pick of the Lightning in the 1998 draft.

Richards made Monday night’s deciding game necessary by scoring two power-play goals two nights earlier in Calgary when the Lightning faced elimination.

He didn’t let up with the Stanley Cup on the line and many friends and family members in attendance.

Richards fired a shot that was kicked out by Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, right to Fedotenko, who gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with 6:29 left in the first period.

But it was his uncanny ability to score the goals that counted the most in Tampa Bay’s run to the Cup that had everyone talking about the guy from Prince Edward Island.

Everyone that is except Richards, who chalked up his winning touch to good fortune.

Richards started his winning ways in Game 3 of the first round against the New York Islanders. He then netted the deciding goals in Games 3 and 4 of the second-round sweep of Montreal and Games 1 and 5 versus Philadelphia in the Lightning’s first trip to the conference finals.

He tied Joe Sakic’s record of six winning goals in the Lightning’s 4-1 victory in Game 2. He broke the mark two games later in a 1-0 win at Calgary.