Carolina Hurricanes
League
Championships 1 - 1973 (WHA)
Conference
Championships 1 - 2002 (Eastern)
Division
Championships 6 - 1973 (Eastern-WHA), 1974 (Eastern-WHA),
1975 (Eastern-WHA), 1987 (Adams), 1999 (Southeast),
2002 (Southeast)
Playoff
Appearances 18 - 1973 (WHA), 1974 (WHA), 1975
(WHA), 1976 (WHA), 1977 (WHA), 1978 (WHA), 1979
(WHA), 1980, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991,
1992, 1999, 2001, 2002
The Hurricanes joined the NHL
as the Hartford Whalers in 1979, moved to South
Carolina in 1997 playing in the Raleigh Entertainment
and Sports Arena ...
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes can trace their history
back to the World Hockey Association (WHA) and
Hartford, Connecticut. The team was founded
in 1971 by Howard Baldwin, Godfrey Wood, William
Barned and John Coburn as the New England Whalers
of the WHA. The team's name was partly derived
from the abbreviation for the league and they
made their debut in 1972 playing out of Boston.
They won the WHA's Avco Wold Trophy in their
inaugural season. The Whalers moved into the
new Hartford Civic center in 1975. In 1977 they
featured three Howes in their lineup; Gordie
along with his soms Mark and Marty. The team
joined the NHL in 1979 and officially changed
its name to the Hartford Whalers.
Their first NHL season was also
Gordie Howe's 32nd in the NHL and he set a record
by scoring his 800th regular season goal. The
Whalers had an aweful road record, but finished
fourth in the Norris Division and made the playoffs.
In that first round they faced off against the
defending Stanley Cup champs, the Montreal Canadiens
and the Habs swept the Whalers. Howe retired
that year and his number "9" was retired
by the Whalers the following season. In that
year's NHL amateur draft Larry Pleau drafted
the eighteen year old Ron Francis fourth overall.
Pleau would end up taking over behind the bench
when Don Blackburn was fired and Francis would
make an impact in his rookie season. The Whalers
had a tough time getting back into the playoffs
for the next five years. The mid-1980s saw the
Whalers continue to add pieces to a core consisting
of Ron Francis. Mike Liut came over in a trade
providing much needed stability in net and rookie
Kevin Dineen added toughness and some much needed
scoring. Hartford would go on to win its first
ever playoff series, defeating the Quebec Nordiques
in three straight but lost in the following
round to the Montreal Canadiens in a seven game
thriller. The next year saw the Whalers capture
the Adams division championship but were bounced
out of the playoffs by Quebec. The story eerily
played out the same way until 1991-92, with
the Whalers unable to get past the division
semis.
And that began a long drought
where the Whalers would find themselves out
of the playoffs for the next few years. In the
summer of 1994 the team was sold to Peter Karmanos
of Compuware, Thomas Thewes and Jim Rutherford
for $47.5 million. Rutherford became general
manager of the franchise and Paul Holmgren was
named as coach. The Whalers continued to wheel
and deal, seeing Chris Pronger, Brendan Shanahan,
Keith Primeau, and Paul Coffey involved in a
set of trades. But at the end the Whalers only
had Primeau to show for the deals. After finishing
the 1996-97 season out of the playoffs and with
support for the team dwindling in Hartford,
Whaler owner Peter Karmanos moved his team to
Carolina.
Now re-named the Carolina Hurricanes,
the team struggled through their first season
in the land of NASCAR and college basketball.
The Hurricanes tried to shake things up on the
ice trading Sean Burke and Geoff Sanderson,
while trying to lure Sergei Federov from Detroit.
The Hurricanes would finish out of the playoffs
again in 1997-98 and would have to wait till
the 1999 postseason to be playing for Lord Stanley's
cup. This was the first time they were in the
playoffs since their days in Hartford. The excitement
was short lived as the Paul Maurice coached
team bowed out in the first round to the Boston
Bruins. After missing the playoffs in 2000,
the Canes were back for more in 2001, losing
to New Jersey in the first round. With the makings
of a solid team behind Ron Francis, Jeff O'Neil
and the goaltending of Arturs Irbe, the Carolina
Hurricanes would make their longest postseaon
run in the spring of 2002. In the first round
they would defeat New Jersey in six and follow
that up by beating Montreal in the same number
of games. The Conference final saw them face
off against a strong Toronto Maple Leafs team,
led by Curtis Joseph, Mats Sundin and ex-Cane
Gary Roberts. The Hurricanes were not to be
intimidated and defeated the Maple Leafs in
yet another six game series. That victory brought
them to the first ever Stanley Cup final berth
for the francshise. They met the Detroit Red
Wings in the finals and surprised them by winning
the first game in overtime. But the Wings were
quick to put to rest Carolina's "Cinderella
run" beating the Hurricanes in the next
four games to take the Cup and the series in
five. A year after their most successful playoff
run, the Carolina Hurricanes hit rock bottom
finishing dead last in the 2002-03 NHL regular
season standings. May 13, 2002: Carolina breaks
or ties 18 franchise records in its 8-2 Game
6 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at the
Molson Center to clinch the Eastern Conference
Semifinals 4-2. The victory marks the first
time the franchise defeats Montreal in a postseason
series
May 28, 2002: Martin Gelinas
scores at 8:05 of overtime to give the Hurricanes
a 2-1 victory against Toronto in Game 6 of the
Eastern Conference Finals at Air Canada Centre.
With the win, Carolina clinches the first conference
championship in franchise history and earns
its first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
June 8-9, 2002: The Hurricanes
host Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals against
Detroit, marking the first Stanley Cup Finals
game at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.
The game goes into triple overtime before the
Red Wings' Igor Larionov scores at the 54:47
mark of overtime.
June 20, 2002: Ron Francis wins the Lady Byng
trophy and King Clancy Trophy at the 2002 NHL
Awards in Toronto.
September 19, 2002: A 20-year
agreement with RBC Centura is announced to rename
the Entertainment & Sports Arena as the
RBC Center.
January 18, 2003: Ron Francis
plays in his 1,616th NHL game, a 5-2 loss at
New Jersey, moving past Larry Murphy (1,615)
and into sole possession of third place on the
NHL's all-time games played list.
March 18, 2003: Danian Surma
scores his first career goal in his first game,
becoming the fifth Hurricane to accomplish that
feat during the 2002-03 season (Jeff Heerema,
Tomas Kurka, Mike Zigomanis, Brad DeFauw). Surma
was the eighth and final Hurricane to score
his first NHL goal during the season.
April 6, 2003: The Hurricanes
set a new single-season attendance record, breaking
the franchise mark set the previous season.
In total, 642,973 fans attend games at the RBC
Center during the 2002-03 hockey season.
CArolinahurricanes.com
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