CAROLINA HURRICANES (16-16-6-3, 41 pts.)
at
NEW YORK RANGERS (15-21-6-1, 37 pts.)
Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003, 7 p.m. at Madison Square Garden

GAME NIGHT

The defending Eastern Conference champion Carolina Hurricanes travel to New York's Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers in the teams' final matchup of 2002-03. The game will wrap Carolina's 10th set of back-to-back games as the Hurricanes earned a 3-3 tie at Atlanta last night. Tonight is the second matchup between the Hurricanes and Rangers in the past nine days as the blueshirts downed Carolina 2-0 at RBC Center on New Year's Eve.
Hurricanes winger Jeff O’Neill has four goals in the last three games, including two power-play markers and the game-winner at Boston on Saturday. O’Neill leads the team with 16 goals and is tied with Rod Brind'Amour with 32 points. He ranked tied for third among all NHL players with six game-winning goals through Jan. 5.
Captain Ron Francis has 16 points (6g, 10a) in his last 19 games. Francis had a six-game point streak broken against the NY Islanders on Dec. 28. With his assist against the Dallas Stars on Dec. 22, Francis became the second player in NHL history to tally 1,200 career assists. Second-year forward Erik Cole has 17 points (10g, 7a) in the last 23 games.

PRACTICE TIMES

Jan. 8	Wednesday	Madison Square Garden	11:30 a.m.
Jan. 9	Thursday	RecZone	noon
Jan. 10	Friday	RBC Center	10:30 a.m.
Jan. 11	Saturday	RecZone	11:45 a.m.
Jan. 12	Sunday	TBA	TBA
Jan. 13	Monday	RBC Center	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
The Hurricanes complete their 10th set of back-to-back games at Madison Square Garden tonight after scoring a 3-3 tie in Atlanta last night. Carolina completed its ninth of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season by downing Boston 4-2 at FleetCenter on Saturday. Carolina is 9-9-1-0 in back-to-back games with a 5-4-1-0 record in the front half and a 4-5-0-0 record in the back half of back-to-back sets. The Hurricanes were 15-16-3 in back-to-back games in 2000-01, with a record of 8-6-3 in the first games and 7-10-0 in the second games. During the 1999-2000 season, Carolina was 14-18-3 in back-to-back games, with an 8-8-2 record in the first games and 6-10-1 record in the second games. During the 1998-99 season, the team played 17 sets of back-to-back games, posting a 7-7-3 record in the first games and a 6-6-5 mark in the second games.

CAROLINA AT HOME: 8-6-5-2
CAROLINA ON THE ROAD: 8-10-1-1
CAROLINA ON THE POWER PLAY: 40-of-231 (17.4%)
CAROLINA SHORTHANDED: 192-of-225 (85.3%)

CAROLINA INJURY UPDATE
Defenseman Bret Hedican missed the game at Atlanta, Jan. 7, with concussion symptoms.
Defenseman David Tanabe missed the game at Atlanta, Jan. 7, with a shoulder injury.

CAROLINA / NEW YORK NOTES
The Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers meet tonight in the last of four matchups this season. The Rangers defeated Carolina 4-1 at RBC Center in the season opener on Oct. 9, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 25 and on New Year's Eve at RBC Center 2-0. Rod Brind'Amour is Carolina's leading scorer against the Rangers this season, having tallied a goal and an assist. Brind'Amour and Glen Wesley have notched the only goals against the Rangers this season.

RANGERS NOTES
The Rangers are 9-12-3-0 in 24 games at MSG this season; Carolina has posted a 8-10-0-1 in 20 road contests. Bobby Holik (two goals, three assists) is on five-game point scoring streaks. Matthew Barnaby is currently on a career-high four-game assist streak (one goal, four assists over the span). Mike Dunham has posted a career recoerd of 2-2-0 vs. Carolina, along with a 1.77 goals against average.

SCORING LEADERS AND GOALTENDERS

HURRICANES
	GP	G	A	TP
92 O'Neill	41	16	17	33
17 Brind'Amour	41	13	20	33
10 Francis	41	14	15	29
26 Cole	41	12	11	23
Goalies	GP	GAA	W-L-T	SV%
1 Irbe	18	2.80	6-10-2	.896
80 Weekes	25	2.30	10-9-4	.923
RANGERS
	GP	G	A	TP
3 Poti	42	5	26	31
93 Nedved	41	12	14	26
88 Lindros	42	12	14	26
9 Bure	27	14	7	21
Goalies	GP	GAA	W-L-T	SV%
30 Dunham	10	2.78	3-5-2	.910
31 Blackburn	23	3.21	7-10-3	.889