Carolina Hurricanes Tickets

The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional ice hockey team playing in the National Hockey League (NHL), and are based in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. They are the city's only major professional sports team. Until 1997, they were known as the Hartford Whalers. The Hurricanes are the current Stanley Cup Champions, winning in the 2005-2006 NHL hockey season. They are the second consecutive Southeast Division team to do so, after the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-2004 who, like the Hurricanes, defeated a team from the Northwest Division. As it was one of the most stable of the WHA teams, it was one of the four franchises admitted to the NHL when the rival leagues merged in 1979. Because the NHL already had a team in the New England area, the Boston Bruins, the former WHA team was renamed the Hartford Whalers. Unfortunately, the team was never as successful in the NHL as they had been in the WHA, only recording three winning seasons. In March 1997, 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 the new Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh, become the Carolina Hurricanes, and change their team colors to red and black. Due to the relatively short time frame for the move, Karmanos himself thought of and decided upon the new name for the club, rather than holding a contest as is sometimes done. 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 Devils. However, 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.