Stanley Cup champ Tampa Bay also big winner at NHL banquet

TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Lightning have a few more awards to go with their Stanley Cup.

Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella won coach of the year, Brad Richards was saluted as most gentlemanly player and Martin St. Louis took home the biggest prize as league MVP at the NHL awards banquet Thursday night.

St. Louis also was presented with the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion and, earlier in the day, he won the Lester B. Pearson Award as most outstanding player as selected by his peers.

“It’s going to be a tough year to top,” said St. Louis, who became the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1987 to win the Hart, Ross and Stanley Cup in the same season.

He’s only the eighth player in NHL history to complete the triple.

Tampa Bay beat Calgary in Game 7 of finals on Monday.

St. Louis was first on 97 of 105 ballots and amassed 1,016 points, while runner-up Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames was second with two firsts and 253 points.

“We’ve got a lot of guys on our team who deserve credit,” said St. Louis, a 5-foot-8 dynamo who was one of the smallest men ever to win the scoring title. “You can’t do all this with just two or three guys.”

Tortorella was the first U.S.-born coach to win the Adams Award. San Jose’s Ron Wilson was second and Calgary’s Darryl Sutter was third in the voting.

Actor Russell Crowe read out Richards’ name as the winner of the Lady Byng Trophy. Richards spent only 12 minutes in penalty boxes last season.