RALEIGH, North Carolina: January 13, 2025, marked milestones for hockey in the state of North Carolina.
The annual Carolina Hurricanes Alumni Game isn’t just a reunion of former Canes, playing hockey once again under the same barn. It isn’t just a celebration of the 2006 Stanley Cup win. It is a celebration of the past and the future all at once.
The alumni team took on the North Carolina State University Icepack, playing in their first game in an NHL arena this year. The Icepack will return to Lenovo Center on February 7, playing against the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Tar Heel hockey program. The Icepack is a self-funded collegiate hockey program, like many others in the American South. Prior to the game, Lenovo Center’s Jumbotron played a promotion video from Icepack captain Zach Herman and senior associate captain Alex James, discussing the program, favorite memories, and the importance of collegiate hockey. Icepack fans traveled in droves for the night’s game, with many fans showing up in both Hurricanes and NC State gear. The NC State University Marching Band — “The Power Sound of the South” — also attended the evening’s game and played “The Star Spangled Banner” to a crowd of approximately 6,000 fans.
The Hurricanes alumni lines consisted of:
Whitney — E. Staal — Williams
Cole — Brind’Amour — LaRose
Battaglia — Sutter — Brent
Boulerice — Stepan — Rice
Commodore — A. Ward
C. Ward — Hedican
Gleason — Hill
Alves
Brind’Amour repeated his former role as captain for the evening. Staal and Williams served as associate captains.
First Period
The first period began like many regular season games do: with great goaltending. This time, it was Icepack goaltender Addison Lawrence. Lawrence kept the favored alumni team off the board for the first six minutes. Assisted by Hurricanes legends Tim Gleason and Derek Stepan, Mike Commodore placed the Carolina Hurricanes alumni on the board with 14:45 left in the first period. Commodore took a slapshot from Gleason.
To place the Icepack on the board, Holden Koufman scored an unassisted goal near the end of the period. On the other end of the ice, Hurricanes alumni goaltender Jorge Alves was briefly honored for being the only person on the ice to be a double-alumni: a Hurricanes alumni and an Icepack alumni. Lawrence and Alves rotated between making improbable saves.
But the story of the period came at the very end of the first. Similarly to the modern-day Hurricanes (affectionately dubbed the “Cardiac Canes” by fans), the Hurricanes alumni scored two back-to-back goals within seconds of each other. Like the days of the late 2000s, the first goal was scored by Eric Staal, who saw his number 12 be raised in the rafters on January 12. Staal’s goal was assisted by Ray Whitney and Erik Cole. The second goal was an unassisted Rod Brind’Amour goal.
The period ended with the alumni leading, 3-1.
Second Period
The second period puck drop began with another Hurricanes alumni goal. Erik Cole, fresh from an assist, scored on a Tim Gleason breakaway. Cole’s goal placed the Hurricanes alumni with a 4-1 lead. Shortly afterwards, Jake Giffords opened the floodgates for the Icepack, scoring with 10:02 left to go. Giffords’s first goal placed the Icepack with a two-goal deficit.
The Icepack adjusted through a goaltending change. Lawrence was swapped for Isaac Tawyer.
Giffords continued his hot streak, scoring again with 8:56 left to go in the period. Capitalizing on his teammate, Tawyer ended the period before the buzzer with three consecutive saves that left Lenovo Center riled up.
Third Period
To start the third period, the Icepack swapped Tawyer for goaltender Dillion Christy. Similarly to the start of the second, the swap gave way to a Hurricanes alumni goal — this time by current UNC Hockey head coach Steve Rice.
The Hurricanes alumni placed themselves in a winning position with ten minutes left to go. Brent Hedican scored the team’s sixth goal, assisted by Stepan and Sean Hill. The Icepack didn’t stay behind for long, with defenseman Ricky Frosch scoring the Icepack’s fourth goal, assisted by Emery Oliver.
The first — and only — call of the game adjusted things. Towards the end of the game, Eric Staal was called for tripping.
As per alumni game rules, penalties are not handled as they would in a traditional NHL game. Instead, the opposing team automatically gets a penalty shot rather than a powerplay. NC State sent freshman forward Daniel Prazma to take the penalty.
Prazma made the shot.
Postgame, Prazma described the experience as “surreal… (you) go in for the starting faceoff and see guys (I) grew up watching. It’s unreal.” As he described the shot, he stated, “It was funny… (I) was winding up and skating up and saw Eric Staal, Rod Brind’Amour, Tim Gleason… (I) just went, ‘What the heck is going on?’ But it was awesome. (I) wasn’t expecting too many penalties in that game, and it worked out in my favor.” (Both Staal and Prazma denied knowing the rule, with Staal saying that “it was running time.”)
For Prazma, who has been a Raleigh resident since the age of three, several of the alumni roster “were why (he) got into hockey and was the spark for why (I) play hockey.”
“It’s hard to put into words.”
With nineteen seconds left to go in the game and the Icepack down a goal, Giffords completed the hat trick for the seventh goal. Afterwards, he stated, “(I) came in here treating it like any other hockey game… (I) didn’t expect to win this one, to be honest.”
Giffords mentioned that Chad LaRose congratulated him on the hat trick.
The game meant more than usual this year for both teams. Describing the process of retirement, Whitney explained, “It’s exciting for us to get back together. We don’t see each other anywhere as much as we’d like, as we should. After everybody retires, they go back to their hometowns and gets into family life. Moments like this, we cherish, because we don’t always know if everybody can come the next time. Obviously, this occasion was special with Eric.”
Continuing, Whitney and reporters reminisced on the nineteen-year anniversary of the Hurricanes’ Cup win. “The other night, when (we) did the (jersey retirement) ceremony for Eric at the Anaheim game… the ovation the Stanley Cup guys got was very special. (You) could feel it, (you’re) proud of it. And with the lower bowl being full, how much they still appreciate us.
“Everybody obviously had a big hand in it, but two twenty-one year old kids were a big big impact in that one. And it’s a lot of fun to see these guys again. It was very family-oriented, and it was probably the tightest group I had in my 23 years playing pro.”
He then chirped, “It’s (my) fault we ended up losing… instead of scoring, I was trying to find Eric. Some things never change… unfortunately, the Icepack’s getting their a– kicked next year because (I’ll) be getting in shape.”
Both teams expressed their gratitude for the local hockey community for showing up. Prazma stated, “It’s extremely good (for the Icepack) to get that attention, especially from the Raleigh area and the area around (us)… any attention is good. (I) hope it grows this program even more.”
“This is a big commitment for (us)”, Prazma continued. “But this is a big part of (our) lives. Any attention, any support (we) get, (we) cherish it.”
“(I) don’t want it to end”, Giffords said. “It’s a lot of fun. And sharing it with these guys… no one can ever take that from us.” Echoing his teammate’s sentiments, Prazma stated, “This is something that all twenty, thirty of us are never going to forget. There’s no words. We’re all going to remember this for the rest of our lives.”
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