The Vegas Golden Knights have won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history with a monster 9-3 victory in Game 5, which had the NHL world celebrating.
If there was ever any doubt that the Vegas Golden Knights were the better team in the Stanley Cup Final — which there shouldn’t have been — they put it to rest early in Game 5 against the Florida Panthers.
With goals from Mark Stone and defenseman Nicolas Hague in the first period, the Golden Knights took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Then they really poured it on with a Happy Meal four-piece in the second period. Though they conceded one goal to the Panthers, the result was never in doubt, allowing for a 20-minute victory lap in the final period.
When the dust settled, the Vegas Golden Knights secured a wild and dominant 9-3 victory in Game 5 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, taking the series in emphatic 4-1 fashion…a gentleman’s sweep that felt quite ungentlemanly with a nine-goal finale.
But no one in Sin City cares about that as the home crowd was able to witness history with the franchise’s first-ever title.
HOME MEANS NEVADA FOR LORD STANLEY’S CUP!!!! #UKnightTheRealm pic.twitter.com/cFC6Rr4scG
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 14, 2023
Vegas Golden Knights win Stanley Cup, franchise’s first: Best memes and tweets
The NHL world was buzzing after the Golden Knights’ historic victory and had plenty to say on social media with a bevy of highly entertaining memes and tweets.
https://twitter.com/RedditCFB/status/1668812362999279616
THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS FINALLY WIN THE CUP!
— Iain MacMillan (@IainMacBets) June 14, 2023
The fans are going BANANAS with excitement! Who could blame them after DECADES of heartbreak!? pic.twitter.com/puKIPQWJUP
I say this in extremely complimentary fashion: The Vegas Golden Knights had an extremely boring Stanley Cup championship run. Almost no real chaos. Showed up pretty much every night and just took care of business up and down the lineup. Not overly sexy. Just consistent as hell.
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) June 14, 2023
https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1668814508754890754
https://twitter.com/TheSportsHernia/status/1668817923064967170
Congratulations to the lifelong fans of the Vegas Golden Knights on their first ever Stanley Cup.
— Schlasser (@UrinatingTree) June 14, 2023
They've waited a long time for this moment. Well done.
Sergei Bobrovsky trying to stop the Golden Knights offensepic.twitter.com/CqATGRjfwU
— BetRivers Sportsbook (@BetRivers) June 14, 2023
POV: You are watching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers pic.twitter.com/r3e5AqcBhz
— Clutchy (@mrclxtchy) June 14, 2023
Don’t let the @GoldenKnights first ever Cup victory distract you from the fact that the @MapleLeafs haven’t won the @StanleyCup in 56 years. #LeafsForever
— Since Leafs Last Cup (@LeafsIastCup) June 14, 2023
Golden Knights admin thinking about how annoying they’re going to be pic.twitter.com/SexreHLtEq
— I Rink You Should Leave (@nhlleave) June 14, 2023
It’s been a wild and torrid brief history for the Golden Knights, who joined the NHL in the 2017 as an expansion franchise and made it to the Stanley Cup Final, shockingly, in their first season. They lost to the Washington Capitals.
They hadn’t been back since, though, but were dominant in their run through the Western Conference and then the Panthers. It wasn’t flashy or overly dramatic, but they played their brand of hockey and did so to elite effect.
Of course, fans of the Maple Leafs and many other Canadian franchises are surely a bit peeved that an organization that has existed for less than a decade won the Stanley Cup before they did. But no one in Vegas right now surely cares about that.