Sleeping Giants No More, Vancouver Rolls over the Winter Hawks

7 – 1 Win, Best-of-Seven Series Now Tied 1-1

Games three and four on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th, are both in the Rose Garden at 7:00 PM.

VANCOUVER, BC - Vancouver broke a 1-1 second period tie with six unanswered goals and the Giants responded from being shutout on Friday night by rolling to a 7-1 win over the Winter Hawks on Saturday night.

Fifteen different players earned points for Vancouver and Mitch Bartley earned the first star of the game with two goals. Jannik Hansen scored his fifth goal of the playoffs for Portland. The best-of-seven Western Conference Semifinal is now tied 1-1. Game three is Wednesday night in the Rose Garden at 7:00 PM.

With an assist on Hansen`s goal, Brandon Dubinsky now has 5 goals and 9 assists and leads the WHL in playoff scoring with three points more than Saskatoon`s Chad Klassen and teammate Jannik Hansen.

The series shifts to Portland for games three and four on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th, both in the Rose Garden at 7:00 PM. The series will return to Vancouver for game five on Sunday, April 16th at 5:00 PM. Game six, if necessary, would be in Portland on Tuesday, April 18th at 7:00 PM. Game seven, if necessary, would be at Pacific Coliseum on Wednesday, April 19th at 7:00 PM.

In the first round series against Seattle, each of the Hawks` four wins were by one goal and all three losses were by three goals. After wining the second round series opener 1-0, the Hawks couldn`t keep up with the talented Giants team and Vancouver halted Portland`s 4-game playoff road win streak. The Hawks, now 4-2 on the road in the 2006 playoffs, set a team record with their four straight road wins through the first round and Friday night`s game one. All five Portland playoff wins this season have been by one goal. Portland is now 14-0-0-3 in one-goal games since February 12th and the Hawks have won 13 straight regulation one-goal games going back to a 3-2 loss to Everett on December 3rd.

In game one of the series, the Winter Hawks set a franchise record for fewest shots on goal with 13, but Portland pulled out a 1-0 win as Kurtis Mucha saved all 41 Giants` shots. The shots continued to come on Saturday night and they were finding the back of the net. Vancouver scored seven goals on 43 shots while Portland scored once on 14 shots. Game two looked more like the regular season when the Giants dominated Portland, winning all five games, outshooting them 194 (38.8 avg.) to 80 (16.0 avg.), and outscoring the Hawks 25-3. Despite getting handily outshot in both the first two games of the series, the Winter Hawks did improve on their scoring chances. The Hawks were outchanced 25-5 in game one`s 1-o win and just 24- 13 in game two`s 7-1 defeat. The second round series is tied 1-1 even though Portland has been outscored 7-2 in two games.

The Winter Hawks held the Giants scoreless in game one and any thoughts of back-to-back shutouts were dismissed when Vancouver scored on the their first power play, just 1:49 into the game. Mitch Bartley gave the Giants a quick lead with his second goal of the playoffs. Portland executed better territorial play in the first period but had nothing to show for it. The Giants continued to dominate in the shots department, outshooting the Hawks 11-4 in the first period.

Portland`s top line of Brandon Dubinsky, Jannik Hansen and Jon Bubnick were in for all four goals in the Hawks 4-3 game seven win over Seattle in the first round and the line had scored 12 of Portland`s last 13 goals prior to Stan Balan`s goal in game one. After relatively quiet game one on Friday night, the line pressured Vancouver right off the face-off in the second period and they were rewarded. Jon Bubnick held the puck in zone and put a shot on Vancouver goalie Dustin Slade and then Jannik Hansen came out of a goal- mouth scramble and rifled the rebound past Slade to tie the game 1-1 just 21 seconds into the second period. Brandon Dubinsky and Jon Bubnick assisted on Hansen`s fifth goal of the playoffs.

The game was tied for four minutes until Mitch Bartley scored his second power play goal of the game on a deflection at 4:22, giving the Giants a 2-1 lead. The Giants expanded their lead when they scored twice in less than two minutes. Brett Parker scored his first goal of the playoffs at 8:35 and then on the power play, Milan Lucic scored with a quick shot from the right circle at 10:31 to give Vancouver a 4-1 lead. The Winter Hawks failed to clear the puck on three different attempts and it proved costly as Tim Kraus filed a loose puck past Kurtis Mucha at 12:16. The Giants continued to penetrate and Mario Bliznak tallied his second of the playoffs at 17:56. Bliznak made it 6-1 with his 6-on-5 delayed penalty goal. In the second period, Vancouver scored five goals on 19 shots and Portland scored one goal on six shots.

The Hawks replaced goaltender Kurtis Mucha to open the third period. Dustin Butler relieved Mucha and made his first appearance of the 2006 playoffs. With Saturday`s game being well out of reach and their fourth game in five nights, Coach Mike Williamson elected to play some of Portland`s younger players for most of the third period. Michal Repik extended Vancouver`s lead to six when he scored with 1:12 remaining in the game. The Giants outshot the Hawks 13-4 in the third period and 43-14 in the game.

The lone goal of game one came on Portland`s power play and the Hawks finished 1-for-5 on the man-advantage while killing all four Vancouver power plays. Portland`s special teams sputtered on Saturday night, going 0-for-9 while Vancouver converted on three out of five power plays.

Portland`s line-up was mostly unchanged from Friday night. Defenseman Michael Funk missed his seventh game of the playoffs with an undisclosed injury. Lenny Thunderchild missed his second full game with an upper body injury. Defenseman Jordie Fike suited up but did not play. Rookie Libor Gazdik was still not available because of visa issues. Goalie Luke Shier was the odd goalie out. Both right wing Nick Hotson (broken wrist) and center Kyle Bailey (broken ankle) are out for the season. Portland called up defenseman Ty Ariss, the Hawks` second round bantam draft pick in 2005, and he played much of the third period. Forward Matt Betker joined the team on Friday night where he played one shift, he also saw more action late in game two.

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