Top 20 Cup Final games since 2000: No. 8

As the NHL prepares for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NHL.com staff selected the best 20 Stanley Cup Final games since 2000. Our 15-writer panel nominated 44 games for consideration before each member voted for his or her favorite 20 from that list. Each favorite game was awarded 20 points, with the selections that followed receiving one fewer point each and so on, down to one point for each 20th-favorite game.Today, we look at Game 5 of the 2018 Final between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights, which was on 10 ballots and received 142 points.

#

2018 Game 5: Washington Capitals 4, Vegas Golden Knights 3

Alex Ovechkin scored, Braden Holtby made 28 saves and the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup for the first time.
Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He scored a League-high 15 goals in 24 games, a Capitals record for a single postseason, passing forward John Druce, who scored 14 goals in 15 postseason games in 1990.
The Capitals lost two one-goal leads during the second period and they went into the third period behind 3-2 after a power-play goal by Vegas forward Reilly Smith with 29 seconds remaining in the second.
Capitals forward
Devante Smith-Pelly
scored his third goal in as many games at 9:52 of the third to tie the game 3-3. Smith-Pelly scored seven goals in 24 playoff games after scoring seven goals in 75 regular-season games.
Washington center Lars Eller scored the game-winning goal at 12:23, making it 4-3 by shoveling the puck into the net from the slot after it got behind Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who had made the initial save on forward Brett Connolly's shot.
Vegas was trying to become the first NHL expansion team to win the Stanley Cup in its inaugural season.

They said it: "Years of heartbreak, years of breaking things down and trying again, breaking things down and trying again. This group never gave up and we finally did it." -- Capitals goalie Braden Holtby
Historical significance:The Capitals won the Stanley Cup for the first time. It came in their 43rd season and their 3,701st game, regular season (3,426) and playoffs (275) combined. … Ovechkin became the first Russia-born captain to win the Stanley Cup. … The Capitals tied an NHL record for most road wins in a postseason (10), joining the 1995 New Jersey Devils, the 2000 Devils, the 2004 Calgary Flames and the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. The St. Louis Blues joined that group in 2019. … Eller became the first Denmark-born player to win the Stanley Cup. … Vegas' inaugural season ended with its first four-game losing streak.
Iconic moment: Ovechkin received the Stanley Cup from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He skated the length of the ice, screaming and kissing the Cup. As he turned to skate back toward his teammates, he loudly called out "Backy," for Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, who was next in the line of players to skate with the Cup. The two held the Stanley Cup together, staring at each other as they did. Ovechkin and Backstrom began playing together in Washington in 2007-08, Backstrom's rookie season and Ovechkin's third in the League.

Telling stat: The Capitals became the third team in NHL history to get all four of their series-clinching wins on the road, joining the Detroit Red Wings in 2008 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. They also became the second team in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup after trailing at some point in all four playoff rounds, joining the 1991 Penguins. The Capitals were down 2-0 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round, 1-0 against the Penguins in the second round, down 3-2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, and down 1-0 against the Golden Knights in the Cup Final.