RALEIGH — Carolina Hurricanes center Brandon Sutter has agreed to terms on a three-year contract with the team that will pay him $1.5 million in 2011-12, $2 million in 2012-13 and $2.7 million in 2013-14.

"I'm pretty excited to get this done," Sutter said today. "With this done, I can just concentrate on my play and nothing else and continue to work to develop my game."

Sutter, 22, established career highs in games played (82), penalty minutes (25) and plus/minus rating (+13) last season, his third with the Hurricanes.

RecZone, the Raleigh ice rink that was foreclosed upon last month, has closed.

John Biedermann, whose family has owned the facility since 2000, said he found out Monday that BB&T Bank wanted the rink closed down earlier than he had expected. Biedermann had hoped to keep the facility open through June 15.

BB&T has appointed Liberty Solutions of Charlotte to manage the property. A bank spokesman said last month that BB&T would make a decision about the property's future soon.

Biedermann said he hopes that someone will buy the facility from the bank and quickly reopen it.

“There is absolutely a lot of need here in this town,” he said. “If it isn’t opened again, it’s really going to hurt.”

The RecZone's closing will displace hundreds of skaters and hockey players, and will also make it harder to schedule ice time at other rinks.

On average, more than 1,200 people used the facility each week.

Trailing the New York Rangers by two points for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot, the Carolina Hurricanes face a lot of 'ifs' in their playoff hunt with two games remaining.

Let's not get into all the different permutations calculating the different ways  Carolina can sneak past the Ranger with one or two wins in their final pair of regular-season games.

Just know that if the Canes and Rangers end their regular-seasons Saturday night with the same number of points, the following tiebreakers come into play:

The NHL All-Star weekend generated an estimated $11.4 million in direct spending in Raleigh and Wake County, according to figures released by the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau this morning.

The figure represents new money coming into the local economy, not money spent by locals during the Jan. 28-Jan 30 festivities.

The bureau also says the weekend produced $49 million in "media value" for the area.

That figure was calculated by Meltwater News, a monitoring and analytics firm based in San Francisco.

Meltwater used readership data from Nielsen to come up with the number.

The All-Star weekend brought an estimated 18,900 visitors from outside of the Triangle to the area and generated 10,551 hotel room nights.
 

Pioneers of Television (8pm, UNC-TV) - The second season episodes have ended, but this is a really good repeat from Season 1 focusing on late night television. Segments on Steve Allen, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson, and interviews with Regis Philbin, Dick Cavett, and Arsenio Hall. Highly recommend.

Biggest Loser: Couples (8pm, NBC) - Tonight's show features a segment taped at the North Carolina Food Bank in Raleigh as part of a national Pound for Pound Challenge. That segment features members of the Carolina Hurricanes volunteering at the Food Bank and stuffing backpacks for the Backpack Program.

Glee (8pm, Fox) - Brittany tries to help Rachel into McKinley High's social scene, and Sue suffers from depression following the Cheerios' loss. The music of Justin Bieber is featured. Take that, Esperanza Spalding!

Raising Hope (9pm, Fox) - The Chances' new obsession with cleanliness leads to a discovery via old home movies of the secret behind the family's history of good health.

Parenthood (10pm, NBC) - Max has a birthday party hosted by a man (Michael Emerson from 'Lost,' right) with Asperger's syndrome.

Southland (10pm, TNT) - Lydia gets suspended and makes a connection with a hurt witness, John tries to improve a neighborhood, and Chickie is bothered by memories of a high-speed chase.

The Game (10pm, BET) - Malik is pushed to the limit in rehab, and Kelly tries to stay involved with the Sunbeams.

The Good Wife (10pm, CBS) - Diane represents a young internet billionaire who sues a film studio for allegedly defaming in him a movie. Meanwhile , Alicia confronts Will about the message he left on her voicemail months earlier. Rita Wilson and F. Murray Abraham guest star.

Love/Lust (10pm, Sundance) - This series, which looks at the history behind fashion staples. tonight examines the bikini. Featured: Raquel Welch, Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Halle Berry, and Britney Spears.

Heaps of snow in the northeast caused airline delays and cancellations at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but most flight schedules returned to normal in the afternoon.

The snow forced the Carolina Hurricanes to spend the night on Long Island after their 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders Wednesday.

But they won’t be late to their own party – the NHL All-Star Game scheduled Sunday in the Canes’ RBC Center.  The team’s charter plane left Long Island's Republic Airport for RDU late Thursday morning.

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins aren't nearly as menacing or dangerous without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the lineup.

But the Penguins still know how to win.

The Pens found a way Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Getting a goal late in the second period from Dustin Jeffrey, then scores from Mark Letestu and Pascal Dupuis in the third, Pittsburgh notched a 3-2 victory at Consol Energy Center.

RALEIGH — Carolina rookie Jeff Skinner keeps keeping the points coming.

And Carolina foward Jussi Jokinen keeps keeping the goals coming.

Skinner's work on a big even-strength assist plus a late goal and Jokinen's sixth goal in six games — a power play goal — helped the Canes to a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers at the RBC Center Thursday.

RALEIGH —  The Carolina Hurricanes missed a golden opportunity to pay back the Boston Bruins at the RBC Center Tuesday.

The Bruins (26-13-7) made off with a 3-2 road win a day after thumping the Hurricanes 7-0 in Boston.

The Hurricanes failed to take advantage of several scoring chances in the second period and failed to capitalize on a 45-28 shots advantage over the Bruins.

"Rock You Like a Hurricane" has been around for more than a quarter-century, in which time it has turned up in a lot of different places -- including the on-ice theme song for our Carolina Hurricanes hockey team. But it's hard to imagine "Hurricane" being used as bridal-entrance music for a wedding. Until now. You can cross that one off the list because it happened  Saturday afternoon. Read all about it here. And yes, there's a photo gallery, too.