CAROLINA HURRICANES (22-35-9-6, 59 pts.)
vs.
LOS ANGELES KINGS (29-33-4-4, 66 pts.)*
Saturday, March 15, 2003, 7 p.m. at RBC Center
* All Los Angeles statistics prior to Friday’s game at Washington *

GAME NIGHT

The Carolina Hurricanes return to the RBC Center Center to play the first game of a two game home stand as the Los Angeles Kings visit Raleigh. The Hurricanes went 1-1-0-0 in their back-to-back road set on Wednesday and Thursday, scoring a 3-2 overtime win at Buffalo and falling 5-3 at Philadelphia. Radim Vrbata made his Hurricanes debut memorable by scoring the extra-attacker, tying goal with 10 seconds remaining in regulation at Buffalo. He added a power-play goal at Philadelphia. Craig Adams added his first NHL overtime goal at Buffalo to seal the win for the Hurricanes.

PRACTICE TIMES

Mar. 15	Saturday	RBC Center	10:30 a.m.
Mar. 16	Sunday	RecZone	TBA
Mar. 17	Monday	RBC Center	11 a.m.
Mar. 18	Tuesday	RBC Center	10:30 a.m.
Mar. 19	Wednesday	RBC Center	noon
Mar. 20	Thursday	RBC Center	11 a.m.
Mar. 21	Friday	RecZone	11 a.m.

ON THE AIR
Television: Fox Sports Net (NC & SC)
Radio: WKIX 102.3 FM (Goldsboro); WKXU 101.1 FM (Raleigh); WDTF 570-AM (Raleigh); WMFD 630-AM (Wilmington); WDLZ 98.3-FM (Murfreesboro); WSJS 600-AM (Winston-Salem); WRUP 97.9-FM (New Bern/Morehead City); WSTK 910-AM (Jacksonville); WNMX 106.1 (Charlotte); WCNC 1240-AM (Elizabeth City); WZBO 1260-AM (Edenton)
Internet: www.nhl.com

CAROLINA NOTES
On March 13 at Philadelphia, on Carolina’s first goal, Hurricanes captain Ron Francis notched his first of two assists that night – his 50th point this season. That moved Francis into a tie with Hall of Famer Gordie Howe as the only players to record 22 consecutive 50-plus point seasons. What’s more remarkable is that Francis achieved the feat despite the shortened 1994-95 season when he recorded 11 goals and 48 assists in just 44 games. Howe never played fewer than 63 games in any of his 22 consecutive 50-plus point seasons.

CAROLINA AT HOME: 12-13-7-3
CAROLINA ON THE ROAD: 10-22-2-3
CAROLINA ON THE POWER PLAY: 55-of-372 (14.8%)
CAROLINA SHORTHANDED: 291-of-355 (82.0%)

CAROLINA INJURY UPDATE
Left wing Jan Hlavac, hand, day-to-day, missed seven games (March 2-13)
Right wing Pavel Brendl, arthroscopic knee surgery, injured reserve, missed nine games (Feb. 26-March 13)
Left wing Jaroslav Svoboda, shoulder, injured reserve, missed 15 games (Feb. 14-March 13)
Right wing Jesse Boulerice, concussion, injured reserve, missed 15 games (Feb. 14- March 13)
Right wing Jeff Heerema, wrist, injured reserve, missed 17 games (Feb. 9-March 13)
Left wing Erik Cole, broken leg, injured reserve, missed 19 games (Feb. 5-March 13)
Center Rod Brind’Amour, hand surgery, injured reserve, missed 24 games (Jan. 22-March 13)

CAROLINA / LOS ANGELES NOTES
The Carolina Hurricanes and Los Angeles Kings meet tonight in the second of two regular-season match ups. Los Angeles handed Carolina its worst defeat of 2002-03, 8-2 on Feb. 7 at Staples Center. Last season the teams split their two-game set with each team winning at home. Carolina downed Los Angeles 3-2 in overtime on Oct. 28, 2001, and the Kings scored a 2-1 win on Feb. 7, 2002, one year ago today. Carolina winger Sami Kapanen led all scorers in last year’s two-game set with a goal and two assists (3 points). The Hurricanes hold a 24-28-7-0 all-time mark against Los Angeles, including a 14-11-4-0 home ice record and 10-17-3-0 road record.

KINGS NOTES
This season 41 different players have appear in at least one game for the Kings. This list includes: 3 goalies (Huet, Potvin, Storr); 11 defensemen (Miller, Zizka, Kuznetsov, Lilja*, Schneider+, Norstrom, Visnovsky, Corvo, Yushkevich**, McAlpine and Modry); and 27 forwards (Rasmussen, Kelly, K.Belanger, Cammalleri, Avery, Smolinski++, Laperriere, Johnson, Frolov, E. Belanger, Bednar*, Deadmarsh, Chartrand, Aulin, Armstrong, Palffy, Brennan, Allison, Eloranta,Flinn, Schmidt, Smithson, Rosa, Heinze, Bekar, Barney and Norton). In addition, two other players have been recalled but have not played for the Kings (Holland and Scott).

SCORING LEADERS AND GOALTENDERS

HURRICANES
	GP	G	A	TP
92 O'Neill	72	28	27	55
10 Francis	72	21	30	51
17 Brind'Amour	48	14	23	37
19 Vrbata	68	13	19	32
Goalies	GP	GAA	W-L-T	SV%
30 DesRochers	6	3.62	1-4-0	.887
80 Weekes	45	2.43	14-20-7	.920
KINGS
	GP	G	A	TP
33 Palffy	64	31	41	72
44 Modry	70	10	23	33
32 Armstrong	54	10	22	32
25 Belanger	50	12	16	28
41 Allison	26	6	22	28
Goalies	GP	GAA	W-L-T	SV%
39 Potvin	42	2.66	17-20-3	.894
1 Storr	34	2.58	11-17-1	.904