Dwight Helminen has played in the last four games for the Hurricanes, all victories, since being called up from the Albany River Rats. The fourth-line center, he hasn't gotten a lot of ice time but you won't hear him complaining about it, either.
A spot on the Canes' bench, healthy and eager to play, is a far better place than where he found himself in the early morning hours of Feb. 19.
Helminen remembers dozing on and off in the back of the River Rats team bus as it sped down the Massachusetts Turnpike after an AHL game in Lowell. He remembers the helpless feeling of the bus first beginning to fish-tail a little, then a lot, losing control and sliding off the snowy, icy highway.
"It was a little bit of a sinking feeling," he said. "It was really scary. I was thinking, 'I hope we're all still in one piece when this is over.'"
