Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov said, "I keep telling him he's the MVP, he's the guy, he's the best. He was on his head today. He kept us in the game. Another shutout by him. Remarkable."
Colton tapped in a pass from defenseman David Savard to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 13:27 of the second period. Neither Colton nor Savard won the Cup last season; Colton is a rookie, and Savard was acquired in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 10.
Tampa Bay is the ninth team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, the first since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
Carey Price made 29 saves for Montreal, which was playing in the Cup Final for the first time since 1993.
"At the end of the day, I just don't think I played well enough at the start of the series," Price said.
Canadiens captain Shea Weber said, "I don't think that's the case at all. To be honest, I think that we weren't good enough in front of Carey. Give them credit. They're a heck of a team. They're here for a reason and they were better than us in the end."
Montreal, which finished fourth in the Scotia North Division and had the fewest points of any playoff team (59), rallied against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round to start an unlikely run.
"I'm proud of this group," said Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme, who missed six games, including the first two of the Cup Final, after testing positive for COVID-19 on June 18. "I told the guys after the game, there's a period we had to go through a lot of things. You talk about practice. You talk about injuries, scheduling, COVID. Even through the playoffs, being down, being up, many things and we kept moving forward and kept getting better. So we grew as a team a lot. We've got to use that the right way and we want to make it back here with a different result."
Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said, "Every single guy gave everything they had every single night. You look at our group and, obviously, there's a lot more talented teams and there's a lot of teams that do a lot of things, but there's no team that's stronger as a group and the resiliency that we showed. Just a good team to be a part of."
Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon has won the Cup three straight seasons (2019 with St. Louis Blues).
"I was kind of getting emotional with like 1:40 left," Maroon said. "I had to keep it together because obviously I'm not out there. But watching these guys block shots and just muck it up and do everything they can just to [have] an opportunity to win, I've been very fortunate. I'm very blessed to be a part of three runs and three very good teams. You may not see me on the score sheet, but I try to bring a different element to the room and chip in when I can and just kind of relax the team a little bit."
NOTES: Kucherov became the sixth player in NHL history to lead the postseason in points without a tie in consecutive seasons, the first since Mario Lemieux for the Penguins in 1991 and 1992. Kucherov scored 32 points (eight goals, 24 assists) in 23 games this season after scoring 34 (seven goals, 27 assists) in 25 games last season. ... Tampa Bay forward Brayden Point became the sixth player in NHL history to lead the playoffs in goals without a tie in consecutive seasons (14 goals in 23 games each season), the first since Jari Kurri for the Edmonton Oilers in 1987 and 1988. Point did not score a goal in the Cup Final. … The Lightning were 15-0 in games following a loss in the 2020 and 2021 postseason. ... Tampa Bay forward Alex Killorn broke the fibula in his left leg blocking a shot in Game 1 on June 28 and had surgery to insert a rod last week.
