Hurricanes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run started with pair of losses

The NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs are well underway, but 10 years ago they were just beginning for the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Canes hosted the Montreal Canadiens on April 22, 2006, in the opening game of their Eastern Conference series. The parking lots filled hours before the game as “Caniacs” consumed grilled foods and an assortment of beverages. Inside the arena, then called the RBC Center, was a Carolina team that had won 52 games in the regular season, that had won the Southeast Division, that believed it was good enough, tough enough, deep enough to win the Stanley Cup.

“The feeling in our group was it was ours, that we had the players and the team that could go out and get the job done,” said former forward Erik Cole, reflecting back 10 years.

Cole was not in the lineup that April night against the Canadiens. He had suffered a broken neck in early March after being rammed into the boards by Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, missing the rest of the regular season.

Like the 18,812 fans who filled the building, Cole could only watch. Not until the playoffs were almost over would he finally play.

For the Canes, it would be a night that started well and ended poorly. For Carolina, as we all now know, the Stanley Cup playoffs started poorly – horribly, in fact – but ended perfectly, with the Cup being lifted and a championship celebrated.

Just 50 seconds into Game 1, the Canes had a 1-0 lead. Captain Rod Brind’Amour separated the Habs’ Chris Higgins from the puck with a big neutral-zone hit and the Canes’ Matt Cullen swept in to score as the arena thundered like it was 2002.

It was the first playoff game for Carolina in four years, since a 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the the 2002 Stanley Cup finals that clinched the Cup for the Wings. After Cullen’s goal, it was as if the crowd settled back into their seats, expecting another victory over a team the Canes had swept in the regular season.

No one expected the Canadiens to go on to a 6-1 victory. No one could foresee the Canes then losing the second game at home 6-5, in double overtime, suddenly facing an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-seven series and headed to Montreal for two games with a goaltending quandary.

“It was almost over before it began,” said Rod Brind’Amour, the Canes captain in 2006. “We kind of got punched in the face.

“That happens when you have a team that rolls through the season. We never got tested. We were ready but not ready – not playoff ready.”

Nor were they a team that panicked. There were too many veterans in the Canes room — Brind’Amour, Cullen, Ray Whitney, Cory Stillman, Glen Wesley, Bret Hedican … a long list.

“We obviously were concerned,” Whitney said. “But we knew we hadn’t played well enough defensively as a team. We said we had to tighten up and play better. It was a matter of our team ‘D’ getting better and getting Cam in there and him getting hot.”

Cam Ward, that is. A rookie goaltender that season, Ward began the playoffs realizing Martin Gerber should get the brunt of the work, but knowing there was an undercurrent of concern for Canes coach Peter Laviolette.

Gerber hadn’t played well late in the season. The Swiss goalie didn’t feel well.

Gerber, a fitness freak, was the type to push himself in practice and off the ice. He asked Laviolette to play the last five games of the regular season to prepare for the playoff grind, but his energy level appeared low once the playoffs began.

Gerber had never played more than 32 games in an NHL season. Going into the 2006 playoffs, he had played 60.

Shaky from the start against Montreal, Gerber was lifted for Ward in the first period of Game 2. While Gerber was needed again in the playoffs – shutting out Buffalo 4-0 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals – it would be Ward who became Laviolette’s best option in net, and became the surprise star of the playoff run.

“When were were down 0-2, you need great goaltending and Cam came in and really supplied that for us,” Laviolette said in an interview this season.

The Canes won the next two games in Montreal, then another two to clinch the series. Their playoff motto – “Whatever It Takes” – meant getting out of an 0-2 hole at the start, winning the first series.

In 2002, the Canes reached the Stanley Cup finals but were beaten by a Red Wings team filled with future Hall of Famers. In 2006, they would not be denied, even with the two early losses to the Canadiens at home in April.

“The first two games were a bit of a whirlwind and a wakeup call,” said Cole, who returned to play the last two games of the Stanley Cup finals against the Edmonton Oilers. “From that point on, the guys played unbelievable. It was a group that won the ultimate prize, one you can hold on to forever.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Hurricanes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run started with pair of losses."