RALEIGH, N.C. — The gap-toothed grins of Jason Smith, Chris Pronger and Ryan Smyth that were so omnipresent and popular across Canada in the Edmonton Oilers' improbable run to the Stanley Cup final were stopped from smiling one final time.
The Carolina Hurricanes were able to employ home ice and a hyped-up crowd of 18,978 at the RBC Center to their advantage to defeat the Oilers 3-1 in the seventh and deciding game and win the Stanley Cup last night.
The Hurricanes' clutch performance gave the franchise its first National Hockey League championship, and for the second time in a row, a Sunbelt team was able to stop a team from Alberta. In 2004, the previous time the NHL had a Stanley Cup final, the Tampa Bay Lightning enjoyed a 2-1 win against the Calgary Flames in the seventh game of the final.
The Oilers finished 14th overall in the regular season and needed a final-week collapse from the Vancouver Canucks just to make the playoffs. But they came together this spring and were hoping to give Canada its first Stanley Cup title since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens and the first for Edmonton in 16 years and to become the first team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to overcome a 3-1 disadvantage to win the final.
Captain Rod Brind'Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates with the Stanley Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 2006 NHL Stanley Cup finals at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday. (Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
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But the Oilers never demonstrated that enthusiastic game they exhibited in winning back-to-back games to force the seventh game.
“To grind the way we did and get this far is still a tribute to the type of people we have in our dressing room,” an emotional Smith said.
The Hurricanes enjoyed a 2-0 lead entering the final period of the frantic-paced game, after defenceman Aaron Ward scored on a screen shot early in the game and Frantisek Kaberle scored on a power play in the second. But Oilers forward Fernando Pisani, who scored his league-leading 14th of the playoffs, made things tense for the home side when he banged in a rebound 63 seconds into the third period.
Pisani had a golden opportunity to tie the score with less than four minutes remaining, but couldn't corral a rebound off a Rem Murray shot, and then Justin Williams scored an empty-net goal for Carolina.
The Hurricanes' faithful may not know hockey the way fans do in Canada and the game's hotbeds in Philadelphia and Detroit, but they sure enjoyed the ride this spring.
Peter Karmanos Jr. purchased the Hartford Whalers franchise 12 years ago and moved the club to North Carolina for the 1997-98 season. The Hurricanes played the first two seasons in Greensboro 90 minutes away before new home was ready in Raleigh. Long-time general manager Jim Rutherford engineered trades to bring in key players, such as Rod Brind'Amour, Justin Williams, Doug Weight and Mark Recchi, and brought in free agent Cory Stillman, who won back-to-back Stanley Cups after leaving the Lightning to sign with the Hurricanes.
Chief scout Sheldon Ferguson and his staff made three high draft picks count with Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Andrew Ladd.
Ward won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player and became first rookie since Patrick Roy in 1986 to win the Stanley Cup. Ward also joined Frank McCool and Ken Dryden as other rookie goaltenders to celebrate a league championship.
This was the Hurricanes' second trip to the final in four years. They didn't deserve to be on the same ice as the Oilers in the sixth game with a listless performance. But a stirring speech from captain Rod Brind'Amour about sticking together like “glue” after the debacle last Saturday put the Hurricanes on the right track for the deciding match.
The Hurricanes exhibited their playoff motto last night: Whatever it takes.
“That's exactly right,” Brind'Amour said. He and veterans Bret Hedican, Ray Whitney, Glen Wesley and Doug Weight finally won their first Stanley Cup.
“There was just no way we were going to get beat in this one. No way.”
Weight, who spent nine seasons with the Oilers earlier in his career, took the morning skate in the hopes that he would be able to overcome the pain of his third-degree separated shoulder that he suffered in the third period of the fifth game last Wednesday. But the throbbing was too much.
Whitney was one of 11 Canadians on the Hurricanes and one of four Albertans. He also played for the Oilers, was stick boy in the club's glory days and his father, Floyd, was a practice goaltender for Edmonton when Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier played there.
“We really had to earn that one,” Ray Whitney said. “This is an unbelievable feeling. I had the opportunity to watch this back in the '80s.”
