EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -The Carolina Hurricanes have shown they can cope with injuries.
They'll get another chance to display their powers of resiliency - in the Stanley Cup finals, no less.
The Hurricanes are poised again to win their first cup, but they'll have to play Game 6 Saturday night without center Doug Weight. He was knocked out by a crushing hit from two Edmonton players, which apparently left him with an injured shoulder.
"Weight is a great player and we're going to miss him tremendously," said Eric Staal, Carolina's top scorer during the regular season and in the playoffs. "But we've had other guys go down and other guys step up."
Indeed, Carolina already has shown it can cope with injuries, reaching the finals even though 30-goal scorer Erik Cole went down with a fractured neck in early March and several other players have been banged up.
"I'm not sure that many teams sustained as many injuries as we did," coach Peter Laviolette said. "We had, I think, close to 270 man-games lost through the course of the season, yet we were always able to maintain a winning attitude and record."
The Hurricanes won't get much sympathy from the Edmonton Oilers, who trail 3-2 in the series.
Goalie Dwayne Roloson, after leading the eighth-seeded Oilers to the finals, sustained a series-ending knee injury in the waning minutes of Game 1 when he was knocked into the net during a goal-mouth collision.
The Oilers rallied around third-string goalie Jussi Markkanen, who has played well enough to keep the series going this far, including a 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 that staved off the end of the season.
Carolina is confident it can close out the series without Weight, a 35-year-old center who was acquired from St. Louis in January to provide some depth and leadership on the front line.
But the Hurricanes are clearly hurting, and the Oilers believe their physical play is taking a toll in the series. Raffi Torres, in particular, has been a one-man wrecking crew.
Age could be another factor. Many of Carolina's top players - not just Weight - are in their 30s, including centers Mark Recchi (38) and Rod Brind'Amour (35), left wingers Ray Whitney (34) and Cory Stillman (32), and defensemen Glen Wesley (37), Bret Hedican (35), Aaron Ward (33) and Frantisek Kaberle (32).
"The big thing is that we know they're a little bit older than us," said Ryan Smyth of the Oilers, who turned 30 earlier this year. "If we can continue to be relentless, then great."
