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The Washington Capitals became Stanley Cup champions two years ago today

By Ian Oland

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June 7, 2020 12:00 am

On this day, two years ago, the Washington Capitals beat the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Five of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final to win their first ever Stanley Cup. We cried. Did you?

Game Five was a push-and-pull, heart-in-your-throat, oh-god-oh-god-will-they-actually-do-it, oh-my-god-they’re-actually-doing-it game that Capitals fans will remember for the rest of their lives.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. We covered that night extensively.

Get discounted Capitals Stanley Cup gear here.

Game highlights

After a scoreless first period, Jakub Vrana got the Capitals on the board first, scoring on a breakaway.

On the bench, Alex Ovechkin was pumped.

Former Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt would answer three-minutes and sixteen seconds later to tie. But then (!) Ovi came to the rescue on the powerplay, one-timing a perfect Nicklas Backstrom pass past Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Caps back the lead 2-1.

But the Golden Knights would not go gentle into that good night. Vegas scored consecutive goals to end the period. They took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission. A Game Six at Capital One Arena seemed likely.

Instead, midway through the third period, Devante Smith-Pelly scored his seventh goal of the postseason and the biggest goal of his career, sending the puck past MAF as he was diving to the ice. 3-3.

And then, two minutes and 31 seconds later, Lars Eller found a rebound behind MAF’s pads and potted the game-winner. (Get the poster. Get the shirt.)

Here’s how I so eloquently put it that night.

“omgomgomgomgomggomgogmogmogomgmosaomdfgojkfsdakjlf;lasfjdls;”

And the crowd outside Capital One Arena went wild.

The Capitals would hold on and win their first Stanley Cup.

Here’s the look from the bench.

I got emotional, y’all.

Alex Ovechkin was given the Conn Smythe Trophy…

Which he did not care about at all!

And then the magical moment happened.

We Are The Champions. And we were not suck that year.

It was worth the wait.

RMNB highlights

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