The Carolina Hurricanes are halfway to the first Stanley Cup in franchise history after Wednesday's 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers are hoping a return to Rexall Place for Game 3 Saturday night will give them a spark.
2:20 -- Ice time for Carolina defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky, the only newcomer to the Game 2 lineup for the Hurricanes. Carolina dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards. The other 17 skaters ranged between 13:47 (Andrew Ladd) and 22:22 (Rod Brind'Amour) of ice time.
3 -- Wins, and losses, by the Oilers in six previous Game 3s in the Final. Edmonton won Game 3 in 1984, 1985 and 1988, but lost in 1983, 1987 and 1990.
4 -- Power-play goals allowed by the Oilers in the first two games of the Final, in 15 attempts. That's more PPGs than the Oilers allowed in their entire Western Conference semifinal series against San Jose (2-35) and conference final series against Anaheim (3-39).
5 -- Number of goals scored by the Hurricanes in each of the first two games of the Final. Carolina is the first team in history to score five goals in each of the first two games of the final round. The last team to score more than 10 goals in the first two games of the Final was the 1996 Colorado Avalanche, which got 11 while beating Florida 3-1 and 8-1. The last team to score five or more goals in each of the first two games of the Final was the 1982 New York Islanders, who scored six in each of the first two games against Vancouver after doing the same thing in 1981 against Minnesota.
7 -- Consecutive playoff years in which there has been at least one shutout in the Stanley Cup Final. The last Final without a shutout was 1998, when Detroit swept Washington.
7-0 -- Carolina's won-lost record in the playoffs when leading after both the first and second periods.
10 -- Number of shutouts in this year's playoffs after Carolina's Cam Ward blanked Edmonton 5-0 in Game 2. That's down from 23 in 2004. Goaltenders in all 10 shutouts this season have faced between 21 and 29 shots; Ward stopped 25.
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| Ray Whitney and the Hurricanes are a perfect 7-0 in the playoffs when leading after both the first and second periods.
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13 -- Home games won by the Oilers in 17 tries in the Final. Edmonton is 13-2 since losing its first two Final games to the New York Islanders in 1983.
15 -- Number of times in their 19 playoff games that the Oilers have been out-shot. They are 9-6 in those games, including Wednesday night's loss to Carolina in which the Hurricanes had a 26-25 margin.
15 -- More goals scored than allowed in the third period by the Hurricanes (24-9) during this year's playoffs, including a 2-0 margin in Game 2 of the Final against Edmonton. The 'Canes are minus-1 (36-37) in the first two periods.
19.2 -- Shooting percentage by the Hurricanes in each of the first two games of the Final (10 goals on 52 shots). Not counting empty-net goals, the Oilers had limited opponents to a 6.9 shooting percentage before the Finals (41 goals on 595 shots).
24 -- Blocked shots by the Hurricanes in Game 2, only one less than the Oilers managed to get on goal against Cam Ward. Ten of the 17 skaters who saw more than 3:00 of ice time blocked at least one shot; the Oilers as a team had only seven blocks.
45 -- Years since a goaltender made his first playoff start in the Final, as Edmonton's Jussi Markkanen did in Game 2. Hank Bassen, who replaced an injured Terry Sawchuk for Detroit in Game 1 of the 1961 Final, started and won Game 2.
50 -- Percent of faceoffs won by both Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour (10-20) and Edmonton's Shawn Horcoff (8-16) in Game 2. That was a major change from Game 1, when Brind'Amour was 28-6 and Horcoff was 9-18, including 3-18 against Brind'Amour. Horcoff was 6-4 against Brind'Amour in Game 2.
