I assume just about everyone reading this blog knows what happened in the Hurricanes’ two most recent Game 7s — against Buffalo in the 2006 Eastern Conference finals and Edmonton in the Cup finals — but I asked long-time Hurricanes radio broadcaster Chuck Kaiton for a quick synopsis of the three Game 7s the franchise played as the Hartford Whalers, all three losses, all three played on the road.
April 29, 1986 — Montreal 2, Hartford 1 (OT): “The Whalers had a chance to win it just before Claude Lemieux won it (for Montreal). I remember a two-on-none, kind of a quick-breaking play at the blue line off a turnover. Ray Ferraro had the puck and he was moving in. John Anderson was his winger and he was kind of sliding in behind him thinking (Ferraro) was going to shoot and he’d go for the rebound. Ferraro was trying to draw (Patrick) Roy to him and he thought he could throw it to (Anderson) for an open-net bang-in, but Anderson was behind him and the pass went into the corner.”
April 17, 1990 — Boston 3, Hartford 1: “The Whalers were up 2-1 (in the series) and could have gone up 3-1 but lost Game 4. The two memories I have of that game were, one, (Boston defenseman) Ray Bourque came back from a thigh injury, a Charley horse. There was some suspense before the game. We thought he was going to play. The warm-up, everybody came on the ice and the door shut at the Zamboni (entrance), and then all of a sudden the door reopens and here comes Ray and the crowd goes nuts. That’s the first memory. The second memory, and I don’t know if that outpsyched our team, but the Whalers played a very regular-season kind of game. We played like little lambs. I don’t think we were scared, but we played very inert. It was like Game 1 of this (2009) series.”
May 1, 1992 — Montreal 3, Hartford 2 (2OT): “The ‘92 game was something else. That went into the second overtime and Yvon Corriveau hit the crossbar just before the game-winning goal was scored on Roy. He had a breakway earlier in the game and was stopped. (Devils goalie coach) Jacques Caron was our assistant coach, our goalie coach back then with the Whalers. So he was at that game, too — just a little twist because he’s here tonight. And (Devils center) Bobby Holik played in that game (for Hartford) and (Carolina television broadcaster) John Forslund did color with me. So there’s four of us here tonight who were there.”
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at (919) 829-8947, @LukeDeCock on Twitter or 
