Former Warriors Captain Scores Stanley Cup Winning Goal

After two months of isolation in a bubble at Edmonton’s Rogers Centre former Moose Jaw Warrior Brayden Point was able to hoist the Stanley Cup as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars 2 - 0 in game six of the Stanley Cup final.

Played in a closed arena - where fans were not allowed to attend - due to the COVID - 19 pandemic Point made his presence felt scoring a first period powerplay goal which proved to be the eventual Stanley Cup winner at 12:23 of the opening period.

Point was fed a pass by Nikita Kusherov and then skated in taking an initial shot that was stopped but scoring with a wrist hand shot on the rebound. Victor Hedman also assisted on the goal after going deep into the Lightning’s zone and then passing it to Kusherov.

The goal was Point’s career high 14th playoff goal. He also had 19 assists during the playoffs for 33 points. Additionally he had the most goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The shutout was recorded by Andrei Vasilevskiy who stopped 22 shots.

In a post game interview Point credited the win to a great team effort and his play being part of that effort. Point was one of the contenders for the Conn Smythe Trophy awarded to the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup Palyoffs. The Conn Smyhte went to teammate Victor Hedman.

“Well I think the beauty of our team is everyone was chipping in,” Point said. “We had tremendous depth. We got contributions from everyone at different times and that is what makes this win so special.”

Asked about the series against the Columbus Blue Jackets and if it had made up for last season’s playoff sweep he said it was not on the Lightning’s minds.

“We had a lot of confidence in our group and we just worked so hard and played our system well,” Point said, adding “we were not thinking about anything but the game ahead of us and that is like I said is a special group and I am proud of our guys for sure.”

In addition to scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal Point would also score in the fifth overtime period to defeat the Blue Jackets 3 - 2 in game one of their first round series. The Lightning would go on to win the series 4 - 1.

When questioned if he had now proven his detractors wrong that he was too small to succeed at hockey Point once again emphasized the team effort.

“As I said I just try to play the game and help out the team. All I have to say is I cannot be more proud of our group. We battled so hard and it took everyone and man what a great effort by us.”

The 24 year old Calgary born Point would not commit to bring the Stanley Cup to Moose Jaw as he was just thinking about the moment of winning the Cup. Each player is allowed to have the Stanley Cup for one day and may take it almost wherever they please.

Point played five seasons with the Moose Jaw Warriors starting with just five games in 2011 - 2012 finishing up in 2015 - 2016 as the team’s captain.