Halifax Hurricanes trounce Saint John Mill Rats, advance to NBL final

Canadian basketball fans may be all abuzz that the Toronto Raptors are making their first trip to the NBA Eastern Conference final, but closer to home, the Halifax Hurricanes have swept the playoffs and are on their way to the NBL finals.

"It's a great feat to have this much success in this first year, but the guys have worked extremely hard to accomplish this goal," said Andre Levingston, the team's general manager.

• Halifax Hurricanes hope playoff success will put fans in seats

"Butthere's a lot more basketball left to play and our goal is definitely bigger than just winning the division title."

On Saturday, the Hurricanes won their fourth and final game in the best-of-seven series against theSaint John Mill Rats in the Atlantic Conference Championship.

The team will face the winner of the WindsorExpress vs. London Lightening series, which goes into game 6 on Friday.

A completely different team

"It gives us some time to kind of let the guys heal a little bit and get prepared for whichever team will be coming out of that series," Levingston said.

This is the Hurricanes' first season with the NBL. The team was completely rebranded from the old days of the Halifax Rainmen, and only one player on this year's team played for the Rainmen last year.

Levingston says the Hurricanes are a completely different team from the Rainmen.

"They've been successful all year. We ended the season with the best record in the league at 29-11 and thus far, we've swept both rounds of the playoffs, which in itself is a great feat."

The Hurricanes endedthe regular season as the top team in the league, but the team is still struggling to find a consistent fan base.

Levingstonsays he's hoping the finals will help motivate basketball fans to fill the stadium in support of the team.

"Let's just pack the house, let's support these guys and let's bring the championship to Halifax. It's a long time coming," he said.