The Boston Bruins have won their first Stanley Cup since 1972, beating a frustrated Vancouver Canucks team that, despite many shots, had few chances to score.
And when Vancouver did fire a shot at net, Bruins goalie Tim Thomas was there to stop it. At 37, the seemingly ageless netminder stopped all 37 shots against him.
The final score was a decisive 4-0 victory. It's the Bruins' sixth Cup victory in the team's history.
Thomas, who finished with a .967 save percentage in the finals, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
The Bruins got two goals each from Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Defenceman Dennis Seidenberg added two assists.
Boston went up 3-0 with 2:25 left in the second period when Bergeron scored on a shorthanded breakaway, and the Canucks never looked the same again.
Bergeron was hauled down but his momentum carried the puck into the net, and after a video review, it was deemed a good goal.
The sold-out Rogers Arena, boisterous throughout the game, was silenced after the call.
Earlier in the second, Marchand snuck in a wraparound goal that just trickled in over the line.
The Nova Scotia-born rookie added an empty netter late in the third to make it 4-0.
The Bruins opened the scoring in the first period on forward Bergeron's one-timer goal from the top of the crease.
Bergeron's goal came on a pass from Marchand on a broken play in Vancouver's end that took Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo by surprise.
It was Bergeron's first goal in 10 games.
The Canucks outshot the Bruins 37-20. Vancouver didn't score on either of its power play opportunities.
Bruins forward Mark Recchi, 43, won his third Stanley Cup -- his first as a Bruin. He promised to retire from the NHL if the Bruins won. He finished with an assist in Game 7 and seven points in the finals.
Unlike the tense 1994 Game 7, in which the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers 3-2, Vancouver never seemed to be able to find its stride in Game 7.
Vancouver had few scoring chances, but one shot in the second period did beat goalie Thomas only to be blocked by the behemoth body of defenceman Zdeno Chara.
The Canucks' gifted forwards, particularly the Sedin twins, had few opportunities and for much of the game they seemed invisible.
The Sedins each finished -4 in Game 7.
There will also be criticism pointed towards Luongo, who was pulled in two games in the Cup finals.
While he never made any egregious gaffes in Game 7, he probably would like the second and third goals back. In comparison to Thomas, he was simply outclassed.
It's a disappointing end to the Canucks' best season in their history. They won the President's Trophy as the league's top regular season team and defeated the Stanley Cup defending champions, the Chicago Blackhawks, in the first round of the playoffs.
Before Wednesday night's game, injured Bruins forward Nathan Horton added a little Boston water from a squeeze bottle to Vancouver's ice surface at the Rogers Arena for good luck.
Vancouver has not won the Cup in its 41-year history. The Bruins last lifted Lord Stanley's mug when Bobby Orr was their star player, in 1972.
