The Carolina Hurricanes-Atlanta Thrashers rivalry continued online in the Guardian 30 Match-Up Facebook challenge, with Hurricane fans casting the most votes to meet their team’s new superhero character, The Hurricane. The full unveiling of all 30 Guardian superhero characters will be held in a special presentation during the 2011 NHL® All-Star Game presented by Discover in Raleigh, N.C. on Sunday, January 30 (4 p.m. ET live broadcast on VERSUS in the U.S. and on CBC and RDS in Canada).

The Hurricane will be the first man to back you up in a fight and the first to toast your victory when it’s over. Duty and honor are paramount to him and he doesn’t take kindly to those who show him disrespect. At the same time, the Hurricane carries with him the calculating mind of an intellectual. As such, he fancies himself an inventor and entrepreneur. In short, the Hurricane is a thought-provoking intellectual who can be every bit as devastating as the force of nature from which he takes his name.

"Stan Lee and team have done it again. The Hurricane character is intriguing and perfectly captures the energy that is his namesake. We look forward to seeing him come to life later in the month during the NHL All-Star Game," said Ben Aycock, Director of Marketing & Brand Development for the Carolina Hurricanes.

“A character with the power to create hurricane force winds and rain was a given,” said Tony Chargin, EVP of GME Creative Affairs. “Beyond that, even though he has legs, we wanted him to always travel inside a cyclone or water spout.”

With the highly anticipated unveiling of the 30 individual Guardians within the Guardian Project, the Guardian 30 Match-Up is a Facebook application that enables fans to determine the order in which each team’s Guardian will be unveiled. Launched on December 20, hockey fans determine which team wins each match-up, with a team superhero character revealed daily.

Created and developed by Stan Lee, Chargin, and Jake Shapiro, each Guardian has been derived from its corresponding NHL team, complete with special powers representative of each team and city.

With an initial plan to reach an all-family audience and narrower target demo of tween boys, GME hopes to bring a new audience to the NHL, while engaging the existing, established hockey fan base through a compelling tale of good vs. evil.

Fans can continue to vote for their favorites and learn about the Guardians as they’re unveiled at www.guardianproject30.com and by going to the “GP Vote Now tab of www.facebook.com/NHL.