Two weeks ago between the end of the Olympics and the return of the NHL, UNC tipped off against Louisville in a big ACC Matchup. The stands were stuffed with UNC fans, students, alumni, and dignitaries.
And right there a couple of rows behind the scorer’s table, in clear camera view, sat several members of the Carolina Hurricanes.
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It can be difficult to recognize the players without their jerseys on, but of course as the rest of the crowd was wearing either white or Carolina Blue it wasn’t that difficult to spot Alexander Nikishin, Andrei Svechnikov, Nikolaj Ehlers, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Mike Riley, and in the middle wearing team-provided gear was Logan Stankoven.
The Hurricanes have been in North Carolina since 1997 and in Raleigh since 1999, but between the fact that basketball plays their schedule at the same time as hockey, and nights off are extremely valuable to hockey players there really hasn’t been an instance before where this group of players had been visible at a UNC Basketball game—or any game that wasn’t NC State for that matter. This also happened a few days after Svechnikov and Nikishin went to see the home state Charlotte Hornets play.
As a UNC alumnus and Hurricanes fan I was curious about how this happened. After morning skate of the Detroit game, I was able to speak with Stankoven for a few minutes about the trip. I asked how it came about:
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“Honestly…one of our team services..Mallory Wilmoth, she actually used to go to school there and work there as well. So she kind of has that connection to them. She had kind of mentioned, ‘hey I can get you guys hooked up with tickets to go to their game.’ And there were a bunch of us that were willing to go and just check it out.”
It’s funny that Stankoven would single out Wilmoth on this day because later on, after the win, Rod Brind’Amour would also single her out with one of the coveted post-victory t-shirts.
She’s clearly someone who’s made a connection in the locker room to the point she’s picked up a nickname, and hearing that there was a team connection to UNC made me a little more curious about how this came about. So, I reached out to Madison White, the Manager of Communications, to ask if she could put me in touch with Mallory. Within a couple of days we were chatting.
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The conversation reveals how White has one of the more under appreciated jobs with with Hurricanes and why the players are such fans of hers. Her job is Team Operations Assistant, and on top of the other items she is basically the ticket master. If a player wants to go to a game—be it State, Duke, Carolina, Hornets—her job is to reach out to the various folks in charge and arrange to get them in the door. As fans you always wonder how random players will show up at other sporting events, and the answer is it’s someone’s job to make it happen.
That said, it seemed odd that a group of hockey players that are from Illinois, Canada, Finland, Denmark, and Russia would have a real desire to go to a college basketball game. Was this just something that popped up or part of Mallory’s job to try and give the team something to do during a long off time before the season kicked back into gear?
The answer is a little bit of everything.
“So, [Vice President of Communications] Mike Sundheim..and [Head Athletic Trainer] Doug Bennett both mentioned that they were going to the game. They had gotten tickets…and they were taking Jordan Staal and my boss [Manager of Team Services] Mike Brown…and I was like ‘this could be cool to see if any other guys want to go since Jordo’s going…so I texted [UNC Director of Operations Eric] Hoots, and was just like ‘Hey I think I”m going to see if we can get some guys together to come to this game. I know it’s going to be a good one. I just wanted to see what the availability is.‘ Hoots goes ‘say the word and we’ll take care of you.‘ So I just went around the locker and just asked all the guys.“
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The reason that Wilmoth was able to easily text Hoots was her bond to the UNC basketball program. She grew up as a UNC fan herself, and her freshman year at Carolina was the 2016-17 National Championship year. She would get involved as a student manager, rising to be on the varsity for one season in 2019-20. Being a team manager at UNC, especially the work it takes to get onto the varsity program, creates a bond just as strong as amongst the players. It was the assistant coach at the time, Steve Robinson, who recommended her going to Florida State for graduate school to work in sports. Once done there, a friend sent her the opening with the Hurricanes. That bond with UNC helped her get her current spot,
“Mike…was the one who hired me and he actually knew Eric Hoots, which brings it back full circle to UNC. That was my reference. I was happy to be closer to home, and turn our guys into Tar Heels.”
I also asked earlier if she was a fan of the team or if working with the Canes had turned her more into a fan. “I definitely feel confident in my hockey knowledge now compared to when I started. I definitely have great friends in the area who were huge Caniacs before, and when I got this job, they, of course, were delighted and picked my brain any chance they got…I didn’t even know what a power play was, I didn’t know what forecheck meant. There were just things that I had no idea because I was just so locked in on basketball for my whole life. It’s amazing, now, I’m into hockey and I have it on all the time and I’ve got my parents, my sisters, all my family into it…It was just a really funny way to go from zero to 100.”
Considering where the Hurricanes were as a team between the time she entered college in 2016 and when she returned to the area, it’s understandable it wasn’t on her radar. Now, though, they’ve become a team that can unite the area and the state.
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At least until tip off.
