NEW ROCHELLE, NY — New Rochelle native Kevin Shattenkirk, a member of the 2020 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lighting hockey team, brought the Stanley Cup to New Rochelle yesterday.
Shattenkirk, who currently plays for the Anaheim Ducks, won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020. Due to COVID-19, players were not allowed the tradition of making public appearances with the Stanley Cup after the team’s 2020 Championship.
Shattenkirk posed for photographs with Mayor Noam Bramson, and members of the New Rochelle Lightning youth hockey team.
The Shattenkirk family then visited Joe Curtis Five Islands Park, a cherished spot from Kevin’s childhood.
The 2020 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League’s pandemic shortened 2019-2020 season and the culmination of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The series was between the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the Western Conference champion Dallas Stars. The Lightning won the best-of-seven series, four games to two, for their second championship in franchise history.
Shattenkirk was the hero of Game 4 of the finals when his overtime goal through the legs of Dallas defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, his second career playoff overtime goal, secured the win.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire series was played behind closed doors at Rogers Place in Edmonton. The pandemic resulted in the league suspending the regular season on March 12, 2020, and then scheduling a special 24-team playoff format to be held in two neutral “hub cities” (Edmonton and Toronto) that began on August 1 and ended September 28, 2020.
The Lightning had a 42–21–6 record when the regular season was suspended, good for a second place finish in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay placed second in the Round Robin, then defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Boston Bruins and the New York Islanders to advance to the Finals.
In the playoffs, Shattenkirk scored 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in 25 games.
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