By Ira Podell
The Associated Press

CALGARY, Alberta - Brad Richards was a sure thing yet again for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Richards scored two power-play goals Saturday night in the Lightning's 3-2 victory Saturday night in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. Tampa Bay is 31-0-2 this season - including 9-0 in the playoffs - when Richards has a goal.

If that wasn't enough, goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin has shown that he can be counted on when the Lightning need to rebound.

Khabibulin saved the Lightning's season by helping to force a deciding seventh game. He made 31 saves to improve to 7-0 following a Tampa Bay loss in the playoffs, and has posted a 0.95 goals-against average in those victories.

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OVERTIME NUMBERS: Had Calgary scored in overtime of Game 6, the Flames would've been the fourth Stanley Cup champion in nine years to win the title with an extra-session goal.

The Lightning's victory was the 13th won by the road team in overtime in the last 17 games since 1990 that needed extra time.

The Flames took a 3-2 lead in the series by winning in overtime at Tampa on Thursday.

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WINNING FOR DAVE: Dave Andreychuk is in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in his 22 NHL seasons.

And as much as the young members of the Tampa Bay Lightning hope to win for themselves, they really want to make their 40-year-old captain a champion, as well.

"Definitely a lot of motivation for him," 24-year-old Vincent Lecavalier said Saturday before Game 6. "It's a great feeling for everybody just to be here. To win the Cup, it's something everybody wants. But for a guy to be in the league for 22 years and never reach the Stanley Cup finals, it would be really nice to get that for him."

John Tortorella, the 45-year-old coach of the Lightning, said Andreychuk is a great player, Cup or not.

"He's a Hall-of-Famer," Tortorella said. "With some of the young core that he's been with the past few years, I think there's a little bit of sentiment of trying to get it done. But it doesn't override our locker room. Dave Andreychuk will not let it.

"He knows the reason why we're here is because you play as a team. When it's all said and done, that's a nice story. But it's not a story within now."

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SPEAK EASY: Calgary coach Darryl Sutter wasn't looking for any special speeches or moments before the Flames took the ice before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night.

"If the guy wants to address the team, he will address the team," Sutter said when asked if captain Jarome Iginla or any other players would talk before the game. "You are trying to really complicate the issue here. There's lots of other real important things."

The Flames needed just one victory to win their second Stanley Cup and the first for a Canadian team since Montreal in 1993.

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SOME SUPPORT: Chris Dingman is one of the few members of the young Tampa Bay Lightning to have won a Stanley Cup.

He did it three years ago with the Colorado Avalanche. That team, led by Ray Bourque, had to win Game 6 on the road to force a deciding game at home. That is the same predicament the Lightning faced heading into Saturday night's game in Calgary.

Forward Tim Taylor, a teammate of Bourque's in Boston, spoke to him and passed along his message to the Lightning.

"He thought we were a good team and believed in us," Dingman said. "He talked about what he went through and what we went through in Colorado. We were able to do it from being down 3-2, so we just touched on that it can be done."

Taylor was impressed that Bourque, likely to be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame next week, even found him since he has long since changed his phone number.

"For him to track me down on my cell phone was pretty special by him," Taylor said.

Bourque finished his 22-season NHL career with that Game 7 victory over New Jersey that gave him his long-awaited championship.

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SETTLING NERVES: Everyone expects that players on the brink of winning or losing the Stanley Cup will be nervous.

Calgary Flames defenseman Steve Montador has a firm grasp of his unsettled insides because of advice passed down from his father.

"If you're feeling butterflies, just make sure they're flying in formation," Montador said a few hours before Game 6 and his first shot at the Stanley Cup.