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Improbable postseason run Hurricanes proud, but disappointed with final resultPosted: Friday June 14, 2002 4:32 AMDETROIT (AP) -- Paul Maurice had no speech rehearsed for his team. The Carolina coach took a deep breath and swallowed hard before opening the dressing room door after the 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. "I certainly didn't do anything to try to make them feel better," said Maurice, at 35 the NHL's youngest coach. "I think they should absolutely feel as bad as they can when you expect to win and you believe.
The Hurricanes, a big underdog, won the hearts of many hockey fans. But their season ended with yet another close game against a team that has won the title three of the last six years. Many around the NHL mocked the Hurricanes and their defensive style entering the Cup finals, but Carolina threw a scare into this collection of all-stars. The Red Wings lost Game 1 in overtime on home ice, had to take Game 3 into triple overtime before pulling it out and scored just 14 goals in the series. "Down the stretch we were that good," Maurice said. "So, when you lose you feel it. You feel it just like you came in as the heavyweight contender and you expected to win." How well did Carolina's close-checking system work? Well, the Red Wings, with perhaps nine Hall of Famers, became the first team since 1952 to win the Stanley Cup and not have at least one four-goal game in the finals. When Jeff O'Neill scored his eighth goal of the playoffs with 1:10 left in the second, the goal closed Detroit's lead to 2-1 and sent all five of the games into the third period either tied or with one team ahead by one. O'Neill's goal also broke Carolina's power-play drought, which was 1-for-21 coming in, and broke its scoreless streak of 166 minutes against Dominik Hasek, who didn't give the Hurricanes much after losing the opening game 3-2 in overtime. The goal allowed the Hurricanes to settle into their defensive system for the third period and wait for an opportunity to send the game into overtime and delay Detroit's party. But there was to be no more extra hockey for the Hurricanes this time despite a brilliant final stand by goalie Arturs Irbe. "He quietly stopped a lot of pucks he shouldn't have," Maurice said. "He made some great saves, and he will tell you he would like to have the ones that beat him back, just like he always does." Detroit scored less than 10 seconds after Irbe was pulled for an extra attacker as Sean Hill fell and stayed on his back for 10 seconds as the Red Wings celebrated nearby. "You guys all think we should just be satisfied and content with what we accomplished," said rookie Erik Cole, his eyes red from crying. "But we still felt that we could beat Detroit, and it just makes it that much tougher to accept the fact that it's over." After winning the opener in the series, Carolina dropped four straight. It was just the second four-game losing streak of the season. The other came in late November when Maurice's job was on the line. That won't be the case anytime soon. Maurice's contract is up, but owner Peter Karmanos said after the game his young coach was in Carolina to stay. "Paul is a very special coach and it was especially rewarding to see him develop the way he did through this entire run," Karmanos said. "You can often tell a person's character when you put him into tremendously stressful situations and he didn't even come close to cracking. In fact, he started to blossom." |
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