2002 Miracle Run (8-seed to Stanley Cup Finals)

Lore & Background

The Hurricanes finished the regular season with 91 points, clinching the Southeast Division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference. They defeated the New Jersey Devils in six games in the first round, the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens in six games in the second round, and the fourth-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach the Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Red Wings finished with the league's best record at 116 points, winning the Presidents' Trophy. After losing the first two games at home to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, they won 16 of their next 21 games en route to the Cup. They defeated the St. Louis Blues in five games in the second round and the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the Western Conference Finals.

In Their Own Story

The air in the arena hummed with a low, sustained roar—the kind that builds in your chest before you realize you're on your feet. The ice was scarred from a hundred battles, the boards dented, the glass fogged with breath. A Carolina player, stick still raised, skated backward toward the net while the crowd's noise swelled into something almost physical. The puck dropped. For a few seconds the world narrowed to the sound of blades carving frozen water, the thud of a stick on a puck, and the muffled thump of a glove catching a shot that should have gone in. Then the horn. Then the roar. And somewhere in the tunnel, a captain in a Carolina jersey pressed his stick against the ice and simply nodded, as if to say: *one more shift, one more game, one more impossible thing.*

Reader's Guide

The Hurricanes stunned the Red Wings in Game 1 on Ron Francis's overtime goal, but the Red Wings won four straight, including a triple-overtime win in Game 3. The Cup win was the first for goaltender Dominik Hasek, forward Luc Robitaille, and defencemen Steve Duchesne and Fredrik Olausson. It was the second Cup win for Chris Chelios, 16 years after his first with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986. The series was televised in Canada on CBC and in the United States on ESPN (first two games) and ABC (rest of the series).

Did You Know?

• The 25-point differential between the Red Wings (116 points) and Hurricanes (91 points) was the largest between two teams in a Stanley Cup Final since 1994.
• The Red Wings became the first team in NHL history to win the Cup after starting the playoffs with two losses at home.
• Scotty Bowman won his ninth Cup as a head coach, surpassing the mark he held jointly with Toe Blake, and retired immediately after Game 5.
• This was the last Detroit championship to feature members of the Russian Five, as Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov were still with the team.
• The Hurricanes became the first team from North Carolina to ever play for a major professional sports championship.