Carolina's Scott Walker should've been on top of the world last spring. For the first time in his 14-season NHL career, he was on a team making a run in the playoffs.

But Walker's world was rocked when his wife Julie was diagnosed with cervical cancer in May while his Hurricanes were battling the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

"It was Scott's longest run in the playoffs," Julie told Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada. "So I was more concerned about interfering with that. I was so upset that I was raining on the parade."

It might have been the toughest few days of Scott Walker's life. He was playing in Game 4 against the Bruins while waiting for confirmation that his wife had cancer, and lashed out by sucker-punching Boston's Aaron Ward.

"The day the doctor sat us down was the actual day of my hearing with [NHL disciplinarian] Colin Campbell. … She was having trouble [and] she said 'I know it's not good.'"

Walker avoided punishment for the punch, and the story gets brighter from here. A few days after that news, Walker scored the biggest goal of his life, winning the series against Boston in overtime of Game 7.

"You want good things to happen to good people," teammate Rod Brind'Amour said. "Sometimes, you sit in your stall and think 'Who do you want to get a goal like that?' He's played a long time, had a great career, and probably that's his defining moment.

"His family came to the airport at two in the morning when we landed [after the game], and to see them hugging, it's what it's all about. That's one of the reasons you play this game."

Julie Walker agrees. "I think that would definitely be the moment that I'll always remember," she said.

Better news came later as doctors caught the cancer early enough to treat it. She's now in full health, sounded the siren at a Hurricanes home game last week.

While the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative is in full swing this month, Julie has two messages for people facing cancer:

"Stay off the internet. … The first thing you want to do when you hear the news is go home and get all the information they can. That's great, but take it in stride because a lot of it is not factual. I think that scared me a lot.

"[And] I would just like to urge all women to never let a year go by without seeing their doctor for their yearly test. I feel like it saved my life, and I know it can save others."