Hurricanes Roll

2002 Playoffs

"Just playing this game is a lot of fun," said Weekes. "I remember as a 6-year-old, the first book I wrote was saying that I wanted to play in the National Hockey League. It's something I've been able to achieve and every day I live a dream. I'm a rink rat at heart."

Weekes was the backup goalie for the Hurricanes until he took the starting job from struggling Arturs Irbe in the first round of the playoffs.

Ron Francis and Erik Cole scored for Carolina to the delight of the standing-room-only crowd of 18,809.

"I thought we might be here a while tonight before somebody got one," Francis said. "It was certainly nice to get the first one to break the ice."

Early in the first period Carolina's Jeff O'Neill took a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for checking Montreal defenseman Sheldon Souray from behind. Souray broke his hand in the collision.

"It was a little deflating losing Jeff like that, but fortunately we made some key blocks and Kevin made some big saves, taking away most of their second and third chances," Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said. "We tried to stay as aggressive as possible, just try to take away their time and space."