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The Carolina Hurricanes, a professional Ice Hockey club, is a National Hockey League (NHL) team based in Raleigh , the capital of North Carolina , and is the city's only Major League Team . CURRENT (UPDATE AS OF MONDAY, MAY 1ST , 2006 ) Series: Carolina leads best of 7 series 3-2 against the Montreal Canadiens . Last Game: Carolina wins 2-1. Next Game: May 2, 2006, 7:00 PM EDT, Bell Centre in Montreal . Series Schedule & Results Game 1: 6-1 Montreal Game 2: 6-5 Montreal (2OT) Game 3: 2-1 Carolina (OT) Game 4: 3-2 Carolina Game 5: 2-1 Carolina Game 6: Tuesday, May 2nd 7:00 PM Carolina at Montreal Game 7: Thursday, May 4th 7:00 PM Montreal at Carolina (if necessary) FACTS :Founded: 1972-1973 as a World Hockey Association (WHA) franchise (awarded November 1971 ) :Former League(s): WHA ( 1972 - 1979 ) :Formerly Known As: '''New England Whalers''' ( 1972-1973 ), ''' Hartford Whalers ''' ( 1979 - 1997 ) :Arena: RBC Center (capacity 18,731) ::Former Home Arena: Greensboro Coliseum (1997-1999) :Uniform colors: red, black, white, grey :Logo design: a stylized Hurricane Symbol engulfing a hockey puck :Alternate logo: a red storm flag on a hockey stick as an impromptu flagpost :''', lost to Detroit Red Wings , 4-1). :Conference championships: 1 ( Eastern - 2002 ) :Division championships: 3 ( Southeast - 1999 , 2002 , 2006 ) :Mascot: Stormy the Ice Hog. :Local Televison: FSN South FRANCHISE HISTORY In March 1997, Hartford Whalers owner Peter Karmanos announced that his team would leave Connecticut after the 1996-97 Season due to the team's inability to negotiate a satisfactory construction and lease package for a new arena in Hartford. In July, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and Raleigh's new Entertainment And Sports Arena , become the Carolina Hurricanes, and change their team colors to red and black. Unfortunately, the ESA wouldn't be complete for two more years, and the only other hockey building in the Triangle was Dorton Arena , a 5,100-seat, 45-year-old building completely unsuitable for NHL hockey. Thus, the Hurricanes were forced to play home games ninety minutes away at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro for their first two seasons in North Carolina, displacing the AHL's Carolina Monarchs and temporarily putting them in the highest-capacity arena in the NHL for 1997-98 . Due to the distance from the nominal home city of Raleigh, the initially lackluster level of play, and general disinterest in Greensboro (whose fans had already rebelled once over ticket price hikes when the Monarchs moved from the ECHL to the AHL in 1995), the Hurricanes pulled in fewer fans than they did in Hartford. Attendance numbers were inflated due to "2 for 1" deals where seats sold were counted, despite no fans in them. Sports Illustrated ran a story named "Natural Disaster", and ESPN talking heads mocked the " Green Acres " of empty seats in Greensboro. For 1998-99 , in an attempt to create artificial scarcity in the ticket market, the Hurricanes curtained off most of the upper deck, lowering capacity to about 12,000, but attendance continued to lag behind league standards. On the ice, the 'Canes were out of the doldrums; led by the return of longtime Whalers captain Ron Francis , Keith Primeau 's 30 goals and Gary Roberts 's 178 Penalty minutes, they won the new Southeast Division by eight points and made the playoffs for the first time since 1992. Tragedy struck when, at the end of their lost first-round playoff series with the Boston Bruins , Defenseman Steve Chiasson was killed in an auto accident driving home from a players' end-of-season party. Despite their move to the brand-new ESA, the Canes played lackluster hockey in knocked star rookie Shane Willis and captain Ron Francis out of the series with vicious (if debatably legal) hits. The Canes made national waves for the first time in the 2002 playoffs. They survived a late charge from the Washington Capitals to win the division, but expectations were low entering the first round against the defending Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Devils . Arturs Irbe and Kevin Weekes were solid in goal, and two games were won by the Canes in overtime as they put away the Devils in six games. The second round matchup was against the Canadiens, who were riding a wave of emotion after Saku Koivu 's return from cancer treatment. In the third period of game 4 in Montreal, the Hurricanes were down 2-1 in games and 3-0 in score, before the Hurricanes rebounded to win 4-3 on Niclas Wallin 's overtime winner. The game became known to Hurricanes fans as the 'Miracle at Molson '; Carolina easily won the next two games over the dejected Habs to win the series. The conference final was against the heavily-favored Toronto Maple Leafs . In game 6 in Toronto, the Leafs' Mats Sundin tied the game with 22 seconds remaining to send it to Overtime , but Carolina's Martin Gélinas scored in overtime to send them to their first Stanley Cup final, against the Detroit Red Wings , thought to be the prohibitive favorite all year. After the first game of the final, where Ron Francis scored in the first minute of Overtime , Detroit stormed back to win the next four games in a row to win the Stanley Cup. Game 3 in Raleigh featured a triple-overtime thriller (won by the Red Wings 3-2 on a goal by Igor Larionov ), which sportscasters called one of the best Stanley Cup Finals games in history. Despite the 4-1 finals loss, it was by far the most successful season in franchise history. The next two seasons ( 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons)saw the Canes drop into the cellar of the NHL rankings; the new fans attracted to the team (and to hockey itself) during the 2002 playoff run lost interest and attendance declined. One of the few positive results of these losing years was the team's drafting rising star Eric Staal in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft . The outcome of the as the Hartford Whalers. On March 31 , 2006 , the Hurricanes won their third Southeast Division championship by defeating the Florida Panthers 3-2. In the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, after losing the first two Eastern Conference Quarterfinal games at home against the Montreal Canadiens, Carolina went to Montreal and won both games to tie up the playoff series before returning home and taking Game 5 to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 advantage in the series. SEASON-BY-SEASON RECORD ''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes'' :1 Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL Lockout . NOTABLE PLAYERS Current squad ''As of April 3 , 2006 '' {Link without Title} Hall Of Famers ''none'' Team captains ''Note: This list of team Captains does not include captains from the Hartford Whalers ( NHL ) and New England Whalers ( WHA ).''
Retired numbers
The Whalers also retired the number 2 of Rick Ley (D, 1972-81) and the number 19 of John McKenzie (RW, 1977-79), but these numbers have been restored to circulation by the Hurricanes. Franchise scoring leaders These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers franchise in the NHL. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. ''Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points'' TRIVIA
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