Conn Smythe Trophy

Patrick Roy, Montreal Canadiens, 1986 The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup as this rookie sensation racked up a 1.92 goals-against average and won 15 of 20 playoff games. His best game was a 1-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames in Game 4 of the Cup Finals. Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche, 2001 Selected by many as the best NHL goalie ever, Roy earned four shutouts and 16 playoff victories, including two shutouts in the Finals against the Devils. He had a 1.58 goals-against average in 23 games.

Here's what we're talking about after Game 5 in Chicago, heading into Game 6 on Wednesday night at the Wachovia Center: -- Game 6: When you have a sixth game, you have a potential winner. When you have a sixth game, you have real pressure. Inside the Wachovia Center on Wednesday night, under heavy, uniformed guard, will be the glorious Stanley Cup, there for the presenting. The players on both sides know the Cup will be in the house and will feel more pressure than they have faced so far in the series.

Goalie Mike Vernon, who backstopped the Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings to Stanley Cup titles, retired yesterday after a 19-year NHL career. Vernon, 39, went 385-273-92 with Calgary, Detroit, San Jose and Florida. He also had 27 career shutouts with a 2.98 goals-against average. Vernon, a Calgary native, led the Flames to the 1989 Stanley Cup and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1997 when the Red Wings won the championship. "I have a lot of great memories that I can look back on," Vernon said in a statement.

They sat side by side in the visitors' locker room at the Spectrum, talking about the job they share. Brian Hayward, cherubic and congenial, was the Montreal Canadiens' goalie in 37 regular-season games after coming over from Winnipeg in an August trade. Patrick Roy, at 6-0, 165, is 2 inches taller and 10 pounds leaner than Hayward. As a rookie last year, Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP) and led the Canadiens to their 23rd Stanley Cup. This season he played in 46 regular-season games.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The Boston Bruins had waited 39 long years for another drink from the Stanley Cup, and Tim Thomas was awfully thirsty. When the Bruins and their brilliant goalie barged into a hostile Canadian rink surrounded by another 100,000 screaming fans outside for Game 7, they emerged with the championship they wanted. Thomas made 37 saves in the second shutout of his landmark Stanley Cup Finals performance; Patrice Bergeron and rookie Brad Marchand scored two goals apiece; and the Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0, Wednesday night for their first championship since 1972.

The New Jersey Devils' quest to defend their Stanley Cup championship successfully appeared in serious jeopardy Saturday night in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Colorado Avalanche held a lead of two games to one in the best-of-seven series and a 2-1 edge with less than 12 minutes remaining in the third period. Angst filled the Continental Airlines Arena as the Devils pressed and Colorado goalie Patrick Roy confidently turned away shot after shot. Then Roy, 35, a three-time Cup winner who someday will enter the Hall of Fame with a reputation as one of the game's great clutch performers, made a critical lapse of judgment.

Stars center Joe Nieuwendyk - the victim of a nasty, unpenalized cross-check Saturday from New Jersey's Randy McKay that drove him face first into the Reunion Arena boards - stood alongside the bench tugging at his front teeth while a Dallas trainer peered into his mouth. Nieuwendyk nodded. The teeth were still in place. But the same could not be said for the 34-year-old veteran's scoring touch, the one that earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring, when he had 11 goals and 10 assists and tied the NHL record for game-winning playoff goals (six)

For more than five hours, they played as if they would never allow a goal, and by the time the third overtime rolled around, everybody else had faded into the background. Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals Monday night belonged to Patrick Roy and John Vanbiesbrouck. Roy, the goaltender for the Colorado Avalanche, and Vanbiesbrouck, the goalie for the Florida Panthers, engaged in one of the NHL's greatest netminding duels at Miami Arena as the Avalanche nipped the Panthers, 1-0, to win their first Stanley Cup. Colorado's Joe Sakic, with six game-winning goals, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.

Patrick Roy's hair stands at attention, like that of the cartoon character Tweety Bird. It's straight up. Perpetually. Small wonder. Roy spends his nights in goal for the Montreal Canadiens, under fire, the last line of defense against a whizzing blur of shots. When he's not on the ice, it's even worse. He's got to face the voracious fans in one of the world's toughest hockey towns. Roy dodges the enormous pressure by not doing certain things. By not reading the local newspapers.

Traditionally, the captain of the Stanley Cup team is supposed to hoist the Stanley Cup above his head, alone, before anybody else. But after the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Calgary Flames at the Olympic Saddledome on Saturday night for their 23d Stanley Cup championship, it was two guys who had their hands on the Cup: captain Bob Gainey and Larry Robinson. On a team with a rookie coach, Jean Perron, and with eight rookies on the playoff roster, it seemed fitting that the only two remaining active carryovers from the Canadiens' past glories would take the first bows.

VANCOUVER - Tim Thomas grabbed the Conn Smythe Trophy and took it for a long skate. The Boston Bruins goalie, maligned for his wandering ways and demoted last year as he struggled with a hip injury, was named the most valuable player of the NHL postseason last night with a spectacular run to his first Stanley Cup title. "It still hasn't kicked in, if I'm completely honest," the 37-year-old goalie said after shutting out the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0, to win Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and help the Bruins earn their first title since 1972.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The Boston Bruins had waited 39 long years for another drink from the Stanley Cup, and Tim Thomas was awfully thirsty. When the Bruins and their brilliant goalie barged into a hostile Canadian rink surrounded by another 100,000 screaming fans outside for Game 7, they emerged with the championship they wanted. Thomas made 37 saves in the second shutout of his landmark Stanley Cup Finals performance; Patrice Bergeron and rookie Brad Marchand scored two goals apiece; and the Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0, Wednesday night for their first championship since 1972.

CROUCHED ON the ice with one knee in the air, Michael Leighton looked behind him and his heart sank. At first, Leighton wasn't sure of the puck's location. Having watched Patrick Kane's perfectly placed shot go under his stick, Leighton thought the puck may have been under his pads. But when he turned around and saw the puck wedged in between the base of the net and the twine - long before the referee had signaled a goal and the Flyers' worst fears had been confirmed - Leighton knew the Flyers' dream season had ended.

Here's what we're talking about after Game 5 in Chicago, heading into Game 6 on Wednesday night at the Wachovia Center: -- Game 6: When you have a sixth game, you have a potential winner. When you have a sixth game, you have real pressure. Inside the Wachovia Center on Wednesday night, under heavy, uniformed guard, will be the glorious Stanley Cup, there for the presenting. The players on both sides know the Cup will be in the house and will feel more pressure than they have faced so far in the series.

Patrick Roy, Montreal Canadiens, 1986 The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup as this rookie sensation racked up a 1.92 goals-against average and won 15 of 20 playoff games. His best game was a 1-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames in Game 4 of the Cup Finals. Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche, 2001 Selected by many as the best NHL goalie ever, Roy earned four shutouts and 16 playoff victories, including two shutouts in the Finals against the Devils. He had a 1.58 goals-against average in 23 games.

HISTORY ALREADY has been made, but the final chapter of the Flyers' relentless storybook pursuit of Lord Stanley's cup has yet to be written. Four wins from ending the franchise's 35-year championship drought and achieving immortality, the only team standing in the Flyers' way of capturing the Stanley Cup, spraying expensive champagne in the locker room and having a surreal parade in front of millions in the City of Brotherly Love is the Chicago...

Goalie Mike Vernon, who backstopped the Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings to Stanley Cup titles, retired yesterday after a 19-year NHL career. Vernon, 39, went 385-273-92 with Calgary, Detroit, San Jose and Florida. He also had 27 career shutouts with a 2.98 goals-against average. Vernon, a Calgary native, led the Flames to the 1989 Stanley Cup and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 1997 when the Red Wings won the championship. "I have a lot of great memories that I can look back on," Vernon said in a statement.

The New Jersey Devils' quest to defend their Stanley Cup championship successfully appeared in serious jeopardy Saturday night in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Colorado Avalanche held a lead of two games to one in the best-of-seven series and a 2-1 edge with less than 12 minutes remaining in the third period. Angst filled the Continental Airlines Arena as the Devils pressed and Colorado goalie Patrick Roy confidently turned away shot after shot. Then Roy, 35, a three-time Cup winner who someday will enter the Hall of Fame with a reputation as one of the game's great clutch performers, made a critical lapse of judgment.

The size of Scott Stevens' smile, as he accepted the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman early yesterday morning in Dallas, did not reveal the effort it cost the New Jersey Devils' captain to swing sport's most cherished trophy over his head. "It is heavy and I got a bad shoulder, so it was tough to lift it up," Stevens told reporters after the Devils' 2-1 Game 6 victory, achieved 8 minutes, 20 seconds into the second overtime, around 12:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Their battered arms wrapped around the Stanley Cup, clinging to it with all their might, the defending champion Dallas Stars weren't about to relinquish it to New Jersey. No, the Devils would have to sweat and strain and take it from them over their aging, weary bodies. And that's what the Devils did last night at Reunion Arena. Jason Arnott, who had to have six teeth in his bridge replaced after they were knocked out earlier in the series, jammed in a sweet pass from Patrik Elias at 8 minutes, 20 seconds of the second overtime to give the Devils a thrilling 2-1 victory over the Stars and their second Stanley Cup in six years.