A new era on ice ushered in as more than 18,000 watch the Hurricanes’ first home game

Editor’s note: This story first ran in the News & Observer on Saturday, Oct. 4, 1997.

GREENSBORO — About 18,000 people went to see an NHL game in the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday night, a number that has to have the Carolina Hurricanes smiling.

And that’s good, because the game — a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins — didn’t give the ‘Canes much to be happy about.

The Hurricanes can only hope those fans remember the third peri-od of their first ever regular-season game in North Carolina and not the second period.

In the third period, a gutty Hurricanes team rallied for two goals and nearly came back on the visiting Penguins. It was something worth coming back to see again.

But in the second period, the Hurricanes cost;themselves a chance at a win with critical mistakes that led to a three-goal Pengu@ms flurry. It wasn’t worth the long drive from Raleigh.

The announced crowd of 18,661 could about the comeback The players were only concerned about the loss, which drops the team to 0-2 in their first season in the new market.

“That’s the only positive we can draw from tonight, it was a much better performance in the third period,” center Keith Primeau said. “But 20 minutes doesn’ t win hockey games.”

“It’s still a loss,” goalie Sean Burke said, “and there aren’t a lot of positives about that.

The Penguins scored three second-period goals in a span of just over five minutes and looked ready to blow the game open. All three were the result of defensive breakdowns by the home team.

But the Hurricanes scored twice in the first 5:05 of the second period to make it close.

Right winger Nelson Emerson was the catalyst He intercepted a clearing pass along the boards and caught Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso out of his net with a quick shot 27 seconds into the third period.

Then, 4 1/2 minutes later, Emerson started a scoring play on the power play. He passed to Glen Wesley, whose hard shot bounced off Barrasso and was lifted into the net by Primeau.

That made it 4-3 and kept the crowd - which seemed divided in their support of three teams, the Penguins,Hurricanes and Hartford Whalers - in the stands.

“We made our comeback too’ late,” Burke said. “We had our chances, but unfortunitely,our breakdowns hurt us and that wasthe difference in the game.”

All three of Pittsburgh second-period goals came on odd-man rushes - a breakdown in the Hur-ricanes defense when the team is outnumbered as the opponents charges in on the net.

Tyler Wright slapped a shot past goalie Sean Burke on a two-on-one at 13:44 of the period. Less than two minutes later on another two-on-one, Ed Olcyzk bounced a shot off the post which ricochetted of Burke and into the net.

And three minutes after that a costly mix-up at center ice led to a two-on-none - leaving Olczyk and center Ron Francis with just Burke to beat. Burke managed to stop Olczyk, but Francis scored on the rebound to shock the crowd.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to quit,” captain Kevin Dineen, ‘but close isn’t enough in this game. We’ve been close two games in a row, and now we’ve got to put it in gear and get on the other end of one of those.”

Dineen, who struggled with a bruised tailbone in the second peri-od, blamed himself for two of the goals. He missed the entire third period.

“I ended up getting scored on twice,” Dineen said. “When you’re the direct cause of two goals, youdon’t want to embarrass yourself anymore.”

Dineen might be “taking one for the team,” but the Hurricanesalso were missing three of their key defensemen. Two, Jeff Brown and Curtis Leschyshyn, were on the injured list, and another, Steve Chi-asson, serving a game misconduct for a first-period fight.

That left the Hurricanes with just five defenseman, including minor-league Steve Halko and enforcer Enrico Ciccone. Those are two guys who normally wouldn’t log a lot of ice time.

The start isn’t good, but the play-ers aren’t panicking.

“There’s a lot of hockey left,” Burke said, “and we can play a lot better.”

There’s no time to linger on this loss. The Hurricanes traveled to Ottawa immediately after the loss for a 7:30 p.m. game against the Senators.