TAMPA, Fla. - The shimmering Stanley Cup hoisted high over his head, Dave Andreychuk gave the symbol of his life's work a big shake, a couple of pumps, and managed to stop smiling for just a second to pucker his lips.

Done. Sealed with a kiss.

Twenty-two years into a career of reaching for rebounds, and turning loose pucks into potted goals, the 40-year-old Andreychuk Monday night finally had his own pot of gold.

"You dream about this day for a long time,'' said Andreychuk, who fulfilled the role of sentimental favorite to win the Cup, amid Tampa Bay's 3-2 win Monday night over the Calgary Flames in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.

"It's taken me awhile to get to this point, and I don't believe you can put into words the things that are going through your mind.''

Free video At long last After playing an NHL record 1,597 regular season games without winning the Stanley Cup, Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk describes what it was lift the prize for the first time

Similar to Ray Bourque's triumph three springs earlier with the Colorado Avalanche, the towering (6-foot-4) Andreychuk finally had the ultimate proof of his place in the game. Long one of the NHL's most prolific goal scorers, with a wingspan that could stretch from Miami to Manitoba, he now will have his name etched on the Cup.

"This guy wanted this bad,'' said Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella.

"But I want to be clear, too ... you don't need to validate his career with a Stanley Cup. To do the things he's done, he's been a tremendous player for a long time in this league -- but he wanted this bad.''

Originally a Buffalo Sabre, Andreychuk joined the Bolts in the summer of 2001, ready to suit up for his sixth NHL club. There hadn't been a Cup in Buffalo or Toronto, New Jersey or Boston. He left the Bruins with Bourque, in a trade that sent both to Colorado, but he left Denver after his brief stay there in 2000. When Bourque won the Cup with the Avs the following spring, Andreychuk had already wrapped up his one year back with the Sabres, and signed on about a month later in '01 with the struggling Bolts.

By all appearances, Tampa Bay was a place for Andreychuk to play out the string. His old Buffalo pal, Rick Dudley, was Tampa Bay's GM at the time. No one could dream of the Bolts even contending for the Cup, never mind winning it. But with Tortorella's encouragement, he adopted the leadership role, set a tone of expectation in the lockerroom, and soon a group of kids began to take on the look of proven winners.

It's a surprise that the Bolts won the Cup. It will always be considered a surprise. For most of their dozen years in the puck business, they've been more laughing stock than championship stock. But it's no surprise that the experienced Andreychuk, in tandem with veteran Tim Taylor, helped lead the way.

"This is something you dream about,'' said Andreychuk, asked what ran through his mind in the closing moments, the Bolts able to fend off Calgary's late rush. "It has taken me awhile to get there. Obviously, my teammates deserve a lot of credit for why we're here. It's a moment that's gone through my head lots of times. Finally, it happened.''

Prior to Game 6, Andreychuk's old pal Bourque called Taylor to encourage the Bolts not to give up. The year he won it, Bourque reminded Taylor, the Avs fell into a 3-2 deficit vs. New Jersey, and then rallied back to win it. The Bolts could do the same, said Bourque, and he left that message on a voicemail for Taylor. On Friday, before their Game 6 triumph, Taylor played the message for his teammates.

"I think a big turning point was when Ray called Tim,'' said Bolts defenseman Darryl Sydor. "It almost brought tears to my eyes that this guy has been here so long, hasn't been to the finals. To get him the Cup is awesome. This is for Dave Andreychuk.''

Free video High praise Lightning coach John Tortorella was 'really happy' for veteran captain Dave Andreychuk, who won his first Cup after 22 NHL seasons

As it turned out, Taylor was not alone on Bourque's friends-and-family speed dial. Andreychuk said after the win that Bourque called him two or three times in recent days. The Ray Redux plan was a big help, he said.

"I learned a lot from watching him in those (2001) playoffs,'' said Andreychuk. "I learned a lot about not what happens on the ice, but the way that he handled himself. And I couldn't have been more proud of what happened to him. Having known the man and having known the way he approached the game, I am so glad that I finally got to, you know, to put my name on it.''

The Flames desperately could have used a phone calls from one of their Cup alums to give them a jolt. For the most part, they were dead on doublerunners for the last two games of the series. They played three-plus rounds of grinding, aggressive hockey, and injuries began to mount, including a bad ankle injury to rock hard blueliner Robyn Regehr. In Game 7, they could muster only three shots in the first period, four in the second, and then made one late kick with 10 in the third. But the two goals by Ruslan Fedotenko, the Flyer throwaway, were too much for the Bolts to erase.

"In the end, we ran out of gas,'' said Flames coach Darryl Sutter.

"The longer the series went, the tougher it was going to be. I think we tried to summon all we could in terms of energy. In the end, they had more legs than we did.''

Tampa's Brad Richards, who had a postseason record eight game-winning goals, won the Conn Smythe Tropy as the postseason MVP. Had the Flames won the Cup, captain Jarome Iginla would have been the Smythe. But in the end, Iginla was the symbol of the Flames frustration -- he went without a shot in Game 7.

"But let's not forget,'' praised Sutter, "we got beat by a great team.''

Bourque, only days after his Cup-clincher, decided to retire. In recent days, the rumor has been that Andreychuk will do the same.

"I'm going to savor this moment with my teammates and my family,'' said the gentle giant, "and this is going to last a while. Then I will make a decision later, but obviously this is the pinnacle. This is what we play for, and it's taken me a while to get here -- but I'll wait and see what happens.''

Some of that decision, no doubt, will be based on where hockey goes from here. A protracted lockout is expected this fall, upon the Sept. 15 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, and Andreychuk is part of a sizeable group of senior skaters who may have a long job action end their careers. Andreychuk will be 41 by the time training camps are scheduled to open.

A long lockout could convince him that he's got better things to do than wait. He waited forever for last night. Patience indeed my be a virture, but there are only so many good things for those who wait.

"The years that you didn't make the playoffs ... ,'' said Andreychuk, ticking off his bittersweet experiences of two-plus decades, "... all the players that you have played with, and obviously my [current] teammates ... and it happens to be that we win a Stanley Cup in a seventh game in our own building. I tell you, I can't put it into words the way I feel.''