The celebrations were still underway early Thursday morning in Harbour Grace, N.L., after one of their own hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head Wednesday night when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Wings narrowly beat out Sidney Crosby's Penguins 3-2 in Game 6, taking the series four games to two.
As a result, Dan Cleary will become the first Newfoundlander to have his name etched into the illustrious Lord Stanley's Cup.
His former minor hockey coach, Dick Power, took a few minutes out from his celebratory "shed party" that was still going strong on Thursday morning to talk about the win.
"He said, we won everything when we were playing minor hockey but he said this tops everything. What else is there? He said he'll need to win it again!" Pound told CTV's Canada AM.
Cleary scored three points during the playoffs with two goals and an assist, a strong end to a season that saw him miss six weeks due to a broken jaw.
The proud Newfoundlander told reporters he is looking forward to coming home and helping inspire future generations of NHLers.
"I can't wait to bring (the Cup) home so the kids can see it and they can touch it and, you know, if a kid from Riverhead (Harbour Grace) can do it, they can do it," Cleary said at Pittsburgh's Mellon arena, standing with family members.
He can expect a warm welcome when he arrives home, said Harbour Grace Mayor Dan Coombs. He spoke to Canada AM from Harbour Grace, with Cleary's brother Neil also on the line from Pittsburgh.
Cleary said the only question remaining was whether the party in Harbour Grace would outdo the celebrations in Detroit.
"The party's bigger down here and it's not going to stop until he gets back with that cup," promised Coombs. "He made history for us all and we're so proud of him, we're so proud of the whole family and you won't believe it when you get back."
Cleary said it was surreal to be in the arena when the Wings won and his brother had the chance to lift the legendary trophy over his head.
"You're awestruck to be there in the presence and to see what he's accomplished -- all the hard work paying off in such a tremendous way and you're very proud of him, happy for him and proud of what he's done," he said.
In 1963, Alex Faulkner, of Bishop's Falls, N.L. played in the Stanley Cup finals, also with the Red Wings. However, the team lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Cleary is the only other Newfoundlander to have made it to the NHL final.
Nail-biting victory
Brian Rafalski, Valtteri Filppula and Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit in the nail-biting victory that gave the Red Wings the NHL championship.
Pittsburgh's goals were chalked up by Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa.
Detroit's captain, Nicholas Lidstrom, becomes the first European player to lead a Stanley Cup-winning team.
The victory marks Detroit's fourth Stanley Cup win in 11 years. Lidstrom was part of the 1997, 1998, and 2002 championship teams.
While the Wings had 11 players with 24 Stanley Cup wins under their belts, the much less experienced Penguins only had three players with four rings.
Detroit won the first two games in the series -- presenting a difficult obstacle for Pittsburgh to overcome.
The hard-fighting young Penguins wouldn't give up easily, however, coming back to win in Game 3. Detroit won again in Game 4, but Pittsburgh fought back for a victory in triple-overtime in Game 5 to force Game 6, which Detroit won.
