Many people would probably like to forget what happened five years ago in downtown Vancouver. June 15 began with the city getting its second chance at a Game 7 Stanley Cup win, and ended with the city's second ugly hockey riot in 17 years.

By 2011, the lessons of the 1994 riot seemed to have been forgotten. By 2011, a new generation of Metro Vancouver youth seemed anxious to enter the history books. By 2011, somehow, rioting had become cool again.

Today, we tell the story of that night through the words of those who were there.

It was not cool. This time, let's not forget it.

Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini was still processing his team's disappointing Game 7 loss when he left Rogers Arena between 10:30 and 11 p.m., unaware of the violence unfolding outside. (Chris Haylett photo)

Francesco Aquilini was, and still is, the owner of the Vancouver Canucks: Leading up to the finals, I could feel the pulse of the city. I remember driving down Georgia, crossing Granville on the way to the game. Everybody was engaged, stores were shut down, there was a festive mood. People were waiting to see what was going to happen. With Game 7 at home it was a pretty exciting time.

Richard Lam was a photographer working for Getty Images. He ended up taking the iconic ‘Riot Kiss’ photo: People were telling me they were thinking of heading downtown for the Game 7 party and bringing their kids. I advised them strongly not to do it, especially not with kids. The party got little out of control during Game 6 from what I saw and I knew for Game 7, win or loss there was going to be trouble.

A crowd estimated at more than 100,000 fills Georgia Street for Game 7. (Jason Payne photo)

Stephanie Smith is a hockey fan who became a 'citizen journalist' that night, tweeting photos of the chaos to media from a vantage point above the street: When I’d come into the city on the train that day, I’d heard some kids on the train — they didn’t look like the kids you’d see downtown. They were a little bit rougher than normal, talking about how if they lost the game they were going to start destroying the city, which was a bit ominous.

Francesco Aquilini: I was watching the game from the suite with family and friends. There was an energy in the arena I’d never felt or seen before. The tension in the air, the expectation. The Stanley Cup was in the building. Somebody was going to lift that trophy.

David Hawksworth took steps to protect his restaurant before heading to the game. (Arlen Redekop photo)

David Hawksworth is the owner of Hawksworth restaurant at 801 W. Georgia St., right on the edge of the riot zone: I actually went to the game that night. I knew there was potential for trouble so the restaurant and hotel got a full security team outside. There must have been eight or nine of them.

Jay Syverson was a SkyTrain attendant. He's now a TransLink rail supervisor: We had decided at the beginning that between SkyTrain operations and Transit Police, the defence of the infrastructure was most important because we wanted to allow people to have a way out of the city. If people started rioting in the stations we’d have to stop the trains, and that’s the most efficient way of getting people out of the downtown core in a fast manner.

Stephanie Smith watched events transpire from high in a building above the street. (Dave Rigler photo)

Stephanie Smith: I was at the Library Square pub watching the hockey game. The big TV everyone was watching was directly outside. The group that I was with worked for the company that managed the operations and maintenance of the federal government building next to the pub.

Heather Bourke was five months pregnant and received last-minute tickets to see the musical Wicked at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre: We went to a condo right beside the Main Street Skytrain station and watched three quarters of the game, and then left early to go to the play.

Sgt. Ian Morrison was one of many police officers from other cities called in to help the VPD. (Jason Payne photo)

Sgt. Ian Morrison was then a constable with the Port Moody Police Department, and was among those called in to help Vancouver police: Right from the time that the game was on I actually knew we were going to get called. I don’t know how, I just knew it.

Heather Bourke: There's that little balcony on the outside of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and we stood there and watched the crowds while we were waiting for the play to start. That's when we started to get the atmosphere that was building.

Erik Kerasiotis was a VPD officer. He spoke to the Vancouver Sun in 2012: [It] had that feeling — that vibe — that this could turn into a gong show.

Heather Bourke: Then the play started, and so we're locked into a dark room that's soundproof, so we don't know anything's happening.

Rick McKillican was an operations inspector with the Transit Police, stationed at Granville Station: They were entering the third period and [my colleague] looks at me and says, ‘How are you reading this?’ There were hundreds of people coming off the escalators and none of them looked like they were ready to riot. Then we got the call that it had started: A car had been overturned.

Brad Marchand and the rest of the Boston Bruins had to hustle out of the city in the middle of their Stanley Cup celebration. (Gerry Kahrmann photo)

Brad Marchand was, and still is, a forward with the Canucks' Game 7 opponent, the Boston Bruins: We didn't hear anything on the bench, we were too focused on the game. Regardless of what was happening outside, we had to focus on what we were doing in the rink.

Mike Miller is co-owner of Burnaby glass-repair shop Action Auto Glass: I was at home watching the game when my dispatcher called me about 8 o’clock to say he was starting to get calls. He had 10 calls for jobs already, so I came up to the office and took calls. The phone was ringing off the hook.

Francesco Caligiuri owned Da Gino’s Ristorante Italiano at 475 W. Georgia St., and now owns L’Artista in Burnaby: When we walked up Georgia Street from the stadium, things didn't look peaceful at all. We were concerned but not scared yet. Then when cars were lit on fire, we started to get scared and ran off to the restaurant. I had my face painted, thought I could reason with them: 'I'm a Canucks fan, too.' That was a mistake -- it got them even more rowdy, attracted even more attention to the area.

Stephanie Smith: The police knew we had keys to the building and they asked if we could assist in ferrying people through to the other side when the crowd started to crush against the security fence.

Francesco Aquilini: The first five minutes in the dressing room were very quiet. All the players were in the room. It was over. Then, through the tunnel we could hear the Boston Bruins cheering with the Stanley Cup in their hands. I didn’t watch the Stanley Cup going out on the ice. I couldn’t bring myself to.

Blood splatters the street. Darkness had not yet fallen. (Jason Payne photo)

Stephanie Smith: There were little kids, seven or possibly eight years old, who were too young to be in a crowd that rowdy. The police were just trying to get them out of the area for their safety. I remember seeing a lady coming through with that crowd of people and her head was bleeding quite badly. It was still daylight when this happened.

Richard Lam: I knew what was going on outside because the Globe and Mail photographer was getting updates. We knew as soon as the first car went up, but I was stuck watching the slow death of the Vancouver Canucks. I really wanted to be outside where the action was. Unfortunately I was assigned to stay with the Stanley Cup until it left the ice.

Jim Benning was an assistant general manager with the Boston Bruins. He is now the Canucks’ general manager: We had just won the Cup and I was walking down from the press box to get to the ice. I walked by a TV and they had what was going on outside and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s like we’re in a war zone -- how are we going to get to the airport?’

Dr. Eric Grafstein was head of the emergency department at St. Paul’s Hospital: I wasn’t scheduled to work that night. I watched the game at home and then, feeling crushed, went for a walk with my wife. When I got back home and saw what was happening on TV -- the fires, the riot gear and tear gas -- I thought, “This is not good. I’d better get to work.”

Sgt. Ian Morrison: Probably one of the most poignant things for me was I hit that area of Boundary and Hastings -- there’s a decline as you’re going westbound and you can see the city -- and there was three columns of black smoke drifting up from different parts of the downtown core and I just remember it being quite surreal and thinking, “Oh my god, what IS happening down there?” That was my first kind of eye-opener to that night.

Heather Bourke: And then intermission starts. As soon as the curtains closed, a voice came on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to the situation outside, we ask that nobody goes near any windows." None of us knew anything was going on, and so of course everyone runs to the windows.

Richard Lam: Near the CBC there were two police cars on fire and there was a heavy police presence. I was with another photographer and we thought things were winding down, but we ran into a TV cameraman and he said, ‘Hey, did you hear The Bay is on fire?’ The Bay wasn’t really on fire, but it was being looted.

Heather Bourke, then five months pregnant, was trapped inside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. (Rafe Arnott photo)

Heather Bourke: It was pretty chaotic out there. I just remember hearing explosions and smoke everywhere. We couldn't tell why things were exploding. We didn't know what they were. I remember seeing people climb up onto the porta-potties and try to knock them over. I just remember the sounds and the smoke and not knowing what exactly was going on.

Richard Lam: It was pandemonium, it was chaos. Two or three cars were on fire, there was a large crowd and people on top of the Hudson’s Bay awning. One of the windows was broken and people were running in and out, looting. They’re going in with empty hands and coming out with full hands. When I looked through the window it looked like a Boxing Day sale, there were so many people running around in there just grabbing things.

Francesco Caligiuri: Once they started throwing things at the windows, we barricaded ourselves inside [the restaurant]. We got this idea of pushing all the chairs and tables against the windows and doors and just let them do what they wanted. There was no way of us controlling them. It was probably a couple of hours of not knowing what was happening out there — just alarm noises, shattering, things being thrown, rioting and rioting. Is this whole building going to come down? Are we going to find our city after all this?

Dave Deines was a paramedic embedded with police. They were there primarily to assist injured officers, but also helped civilians in crowds who couldn't be reached by ambulance: It felt like the whole city was on fire.

David Hawksworth: People were having nice dinners unaware of what was going on but if I poked my head around the corner I could see people starting to come down Georgia. It was unorganized, dishevelled and people were running around not knowing what they were supposed to do.

Dave Deines: There was flying debris everywhere, including U-shaped metal brackets from a torn down fence and they were throwing them at us. It was a dangerous situation for anyone and definitely not a normal situation for a paramedic. ... I didn’t have time to think about the danger, but anyone who says they weren’t scared is probably not telling the truth. There were hundreds of people running at us with projectiles and pieces of fence.

A rioter uses a fence as a weapon against a police officer on Homer Street. (Jason Payne photo)

Heather Bourke: I remember an old woman standing next to me and she started crying. I remember security having to give first aid to somebody because she was hyperventilating.

Brad Marchand: After we were celebrating for a while, they came in and said we had to leave because there was so much stuff going down outside, and if we wanted to get out at all we had to leave relatively quickly. It all kind of transpired pretty quick, but we were enjoying the moment so it didn't bother us a whole lot.

Heather Bourke: As soon as the play ended, just before the curtain closed, the main actress said, "Good luck getting home." … Immediately that voice came on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to the ongoing situation outside, please remain seated until further notice." Everyone stayed in their seats for at least another half hour, and then finally the voice came on and said, "We're working with the Vancouver police and we've worked out an exit route for you. You must follow the exact route."

Ryan Kesler was then a Canucks forward: We saw it on TV in the locker room and then we weren’t allowed to leave the arena. And when we were allowed, we had to just go straight home, but we went to the Opus Hotel (Yaletown) and they had a banquet room and we just kind of hung out there for the rest of the night.

Jim Benning: We had a police escort to the airport and we got on the plane and got out of here. But when I think back about it, I just couldn’t believe what was actually happening and what was going on. The way the cars were on the fire and the way that it did look like a war zone.

Francesco Aquilini: At about 10:30 or 11:00 I left the building. At that point I didn’t know what was happening outside the arena. A few people had texted me that some stuff was going on, but I didn’t see anything on my way home. I went to bed. I had turned off my phone. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I was alone.

Jay Syverson: We basically started setting up a casual collection point to help the walking wounded. People were scared, they were panicking and they were trying to get out of the city. Every single first-aid kit we had we exhausted and we were bringing in more from the supply room. We had one guy come in unconscious, he was bleeding from his ear and behind his eye. He decided he wanted to go back out and riot.

Dr. Eric Grafstein: We set up a triage outside and the head nurse set up garbage pails of water for those who just had tear gas issues. ... You only need to treat stinging eyes with water, but people were coming in because they were scared. It was frightening for people and the smell of tear gas was everywhere.

Richard Lam: When the horses came in we knew the crowd was going to move, and at that point I wasn’t going to stick my neck out for a shot and get beat up by the police. When the police moved in I ran and they charged the crowd.

The destruction serves as a backdrop for a quick photo. (Jason Payne photo)

Dave Deines: One thing I was amazed at was the amount of people who wouldn’t leave. I’m not talking about those who were involved in criminal activity, but the moms and dads and other regular people who would not normally be involved in anything criminal. It was like they were mesmerized by what was going on and they wouldn’t move. Instead they were trying to capture everything on camera.

Erik Kerasiotis: That was the thing that surprised me the most — you’ve got this huge riot erupting, and families with their children and kids just standing there taking pictures, while the police are firing smoke grenades and getting in physical face-to-face confrontations with people.

An officer uses his baton while trying to control the crowd. (Jason Payne photo)

Richard Lam: They pushed us down Seymour near Robson and when the crowd ran I looked back. It was a surreal scene, not 30 seconds earlier there was a massive crowd, then there was only two people left on an empty street. My first thought was there are two people hurt on the ground and I’m going to shoot tomorrow’s picture. I thought it might be police brutality, so I got the policeman in the picture. I quickly zoomed in on their legs to make sure it was in focus and that’s all I saw.

Stephanie Smith: I don’t think about that night very often, if at all, but it was the first and only time I’ve ever seen someone get hit in the face with a police baton. You could tell the officer had asked the person to leave the area and the person had advanced forward, and was being aggressive, and that’s when the officer used his baton. I understand why it happened, but it was incredibly shocking to see.

Erik Kerasiotis: It would have been so easy to just lose it and go flying into a crowd swinging a stick and just losing control. Every single one of the guys kept control, which probably made the night a whole lot safer than it could have been.

Sgt. Ian Morrison: One of the things that will always stand out clearly for me, interestingly enough, was this poor woman, I believe it was on Granville Street, had a small pizza shop where you buy pizza by the slice or a whole pizza. The entire front of her store was smashed out, the door was hanging off of its hinges, and the owner was inside and she was sweeping up glass. The inside of the establishment was pretty destroyed as well, and there was two young women in their early 20s, dressed in extremely fancy cocktail dresses with high heels on who were extremely intoxicated and they’re screaming obscenities at this woman, wanting pizza. Just a surreal kind of thing. And when we broke off the end of the line to remove them, to ask them to leave -- we gave them the opportunity to go -- and having these two women turn around and start screaming obscenities at us. You know, you think, “What’s infected everyone tonight, what’s happened here?”

Rick McKillican: Once we started pushing people and horses got engaged, it started to dissipate. It was surreal. You’re standing there and you see the damage and you think, "What a regrettable black eye for Vancouver."

Richard Lam: I went back to the rink and gave my (memory) cards to my editors. I was packing up and someone came up and said, 'Nice picture of that couple kissing.’ I was completely confused. I ran back to the editing room to see what they were talking about.

Richard Lam's iconic "Riot Kiss" photo, taken on Seymour Street as Scott Jones was tending to injured girlfriend Alex Thomas. (Richard Lam photo)

Sgt. Ian Morrison: There was no big high fives, there was none of this, you know, kind of big bravado that you might think there might be. I remember very clearly all of us making sure each other was OK, making sure that we weren’t injured and just being thankful that we had come out the other side of this thing all right. Unless you’re standing there on the front line and facing these kinds of people, you actually have no idea how frightening it can be, even to those equipped and trained.

Dr. Eric Grafstein: It was surreal what was happening downtown. But inside the hospital it was a smooth night. I wish more nights could be that smooth. We turned away some physicians that offered to come in and help. We were very well prepared.

Mike Miller: [At London Drugs] every window, every door was broken. We were downtown all night and all the next day. ... As soon as the glass was cut, it was down there. It was about 3 or 4 a.m. when we got their glass in.

Workers collect debris outside The Bay as the riot dies down. (Jason Payne photo)

Jay Syverson: I remember going home and standing outside my apartment and taking all my clothes off. Tear gas crystalizes, it was in all my clothes and my hair. I slipped down to my underwear and bagged everything.

Dave Deines: I must have got home at three or four in the morning. I couldn’t believe that no one had died in that chaos. ... It was the closest thing to urban warfare I can imagine.

Heather Bourke: I was working at Vancouver General and I called in sick for the morning because I didn't sleep that night. I remember being scared all night long.

Richard Lam: I got woken up about 8:30 in the morning with a phone call from NPR asking me about this picture. I was still in a complete fog when they called. It caught me off-guard. After I hung up, the phone just kept on going. I started getting calls from the States and later that night from Australia.

Ryan Kesler: There are theories out there that whether we won our lost, there was going to be a riot, that people were coming in just to start something. I definitely don’t think it was hockey fans. Hockey fans -- who may have had a couple beers at the game -- may have been dragged into it, but I don’t think hockey fans started it.

Sgt. Ian Morrison: We somehow have missed all of those little bits and pieces of valour, if you will, that occurred that day and that night. Police officers at the very beginning, when there were only four of five of them in a little circle fending off hundreds of people, thousands of people -- how do you do that and stay there? I think there’s parts of the story that we missed for sure.

Heather Bourke: I haven't told (this story) in a long time. I don't talk about it much.

Ryan Kesler and the rest of the Canucks were holed up in a banquet room at the Opus Hotel in Yaletown. (Darryl Dyck/AP)

Ryan Kesler: Obviously it was hard to see, with what was my home at the time being burned down. What I really remember about the whole thing is the next day. Watching the news and seeing just how many volunteers took time out of their lives just to clean up their city. Obviously, Vancouver is a city that takes a lot of pride in what the city looks like, because I never thought in a million years that [a riot] would happen. But the community responded, which was awesome to see.

Francesco Aquilini: We did whatever we could. We gave $200,000 to help clean up, and for the store owners we donated a bunch of money, and to help the city. About a week later Henrik Sedin and I went to the Vancouver police department, went down to the building and talked to the officers, telling them what a great job they did handling it. They were quite down at the time. They got a lot of criticism for not handling it right, but in our eyes they really did a great job.

Sgt. Ian Morrison: I hope it never, ever occurs again, but I will tell you I have a great deal of pride that we were able to be there and to help, a great deal of professional and personal pride.

Francesco Aquilini: I think the silver lining is that if it ever happens again, we know how to deal with it. We will be much better prepared and we will manage it better. The other positive thing is how it was dealt with afterward. The rioters were all on tape. They were caught. They were sentenced. It was handled expeditiously. If something like this happens again, people will know they won’t get away with it. It sent a message.

Reporting by Tiffany Crawford, Ben Kuzma, Bethany Lindsay, Wendy McLellan, Brian Morton, Larry Pynn, Matthew Robinson, Denise Ryan, Jennifer Saltman, Randy Shore, Kelly Sinoski, Mia Stainsby and Michael Traikos. Edited by Erik Rolfsen.