Former Bulldogs Help Tampa Bay Achieve Third Consecutive Stanley Cup Finals Appearance

Big Rapids, Mich. - For the third consecutive year, a pair of individuals with close ties to the Ferris State University men's ice hockey program helped the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup Finals as Big Rapids native Brian Garlock and former FSU assistant coach Derek Lalonde reached professional hockey's biggest stage once again.

Tampa Bay, which captured each of the previous two Stanley Cups, fell to Colorado in Sunday evening's game six, dropping the series to the Avalanche 4-2. The Lightning's trip to the finals for the third-straight year represented the first time in which the feat had been accomplished in the salary cap era.

This season, Tampa Bay became the first team to make three consecutive appearances in the Cup Final since Edmonton did it from 1983-85. The Lightning had not dropped a playoff series since 2019 prior to the setback in the finals.

Earlier this year in February, Garlock, a former Ferris State University ice arena employee, brought the Stanley Cup home to Big Rapids to celebrate his second consecutive National Hockey League (NHL) Championship that the organization claimed last fall. Lalonde joined him for the celebration in Big Rapids along with Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper.

Garlock, who remains close with Bulldog Hockey and the FSU coaching staff, helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win the cup for the second-straight year last summer and currently serves as the franchise's video coach and just finished his ninth season on the staff.

A Big Rapids native who began his career at FSU's Ewigleben Ice Arena before continuing his path in professional hockey, Garlock has followed Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper nearly every step of the way. The 2003 Big Rapids High School graduate attended Ferris State and met Cooper when he was the head coach for the Texarkana Bandits of the North American Hockey League and held his Bandits' camp in Big Rapids.

Since that time, Garlock has followed Cooper from St. Louis, where the Texarkana franchise relocated, to the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) along with stops in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch and the Norfolk Admirals. He's been with Tampa Bay since Cooper was hired prior to the 2013-14 campaign. Formerly, he was a zamboni driver for the Ewigleben Ice Arena and worked hockey camps after playing prep hockey for Big Rapids High School.

Along with Garlock, Lalonde, who now serves as Tampa Bay's assistant coach under Cooper, also helped lead the Lightning to the Stanley Cup Championship for the second-straight campaign in 2021. Both Lalonde and Garlock also played key roles the previous year when Tampa Bay first hoisted the Stanley Cup Trophy.

In last year's Stanley Cup finals, Tampa Bay defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a 4-1 series' count. Tampa Bay reached the Stanley Cup finals by beating the New York Islanders in seven games to capture the Price of Wales Trophy and became only the second team in the NHL's salary-cap era to win back-to-back Stanley Cups. The series' win over the Islanders in the Eastern Conference finals came against former Bulldog Hockey standout and New York assistant coach John Gruden.

Over the past three campaigns, Lalonde and Garlock helped lead Tampa Bay to the the most wins in the NHL. Lalonde, a New York native, was behind the Bulldog bench from 2003-2006 under FSU head coach Bob Daniels before moving on to work for the Denver University Pioneers, where he helped lead them to the NCAA Tournament four times. Lalonde also served as head coach for the ECHL's Toledo Walleye and with the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League (AHL) before joining Cooper's staff.

In 2020, the duo become the first with ties to Ferris State Hockey to claim the Stanley Cup Championship since former standout Chris Kunitz claimed four during his memorable and storied NHL career. Kunitz won Stanley Cups with Anaheim in 2007 along with Pittsburgh in 2009, 2016 and 2017). He played with Tampa Bay under Cooper in 2017-18 before concluding his career with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018-19.