The city of Burlington, Vt., turned out in droves on Saturday, Sept. 3, to celebrate University of Vermont alumnus Tim Thomas, as the Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy winner brought the Stanley Cup to town.

Thomas became the second member of his class of 1997 to bring the Cup back to Burlington, following in the footsteps of Martin St. Louis in 2004.

Thomas paraded the Cup and his other pieces of hardware, the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Vezina Trophy, up Church Street. An estimated crowd of between 5,000-10,000 lined the pedestrian walkway in downtown Burlington to get a glimpse of the Stanley Cup Playoff MVP.

"The two most fun things I've experienced since winning the Cup are the parade in Boston and now this parade in Burlington," said Thomas.

At the end of the parade route, Thomas and other officials said a few remarks. Thomas and his wife Melissa, also a UVM grad and native of Essex Junction, Vt., were presented with the United States and Green Mountain battle flags, by the Vermont National Guard. The flags flew over Afghanistan on the day the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

Thomas was also presented with the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award by the UVM Alumni Association.

Thomas, St. Lawrence alum Rich Peverley and former Harvard players in the front office Peter Chiarelli, Don Sweeney and John Weisbrod will all have their names etched on the Stanley Cup. Earlier this summer several of Peverley's St. Lawrence teammates joined him for his day with the Cup.

Despite the trials he’s faced and mileage he’s logged since his time at Gutterson Field House, Thomas traces a lot of his success to those storied Vermont teams of the mid-1990s.

"The transition to college was more mental than physical," Thomas has said. "My time at UVM taught me that I had to perform at a high level every night if I wanted to be successful. It also instilled in me the confidence that I could play at hockey's highest level.

“That was my first time away from home," he added, indeed the first time East of Niagara Falls for the Flint, Mich., native. “All of a sudden there are no curfews and mom and dad aren’t setting the rules for you. College was a big step.”