The Giants had a chance to close out this series, but you wouldn’t know that by how they came out. Their goaltending was suspect tonight and their defensive coverage had its troubles. The Giants did not bring the kind of forecheck they needed in a game like this and allowed the Portland squad to break easily out of their zone. Portland opened the scoring on the PP; they added another soft one before the end of the period. Adding one early in the second took the Giants and the crowd out of the game. The Giants came back in the game though, capitalizing on two PPs and driving hard to the net. They got one just past the mid-mark of the period and then drew penalties with their renewed energy, bringing the crowd with them. With their two PP markers they tied the game, in a three minutes span. Just as quickly the energy was sucked back out of the building when their goalie allowed an awful goal off of a badly controlled rebound. Portland added another goal early in the third, further putting the boots to the home squad. The Giants battled back a bit and managed to get one back, but that’s as close as they would come.

Neither team came out with a lot of jump, but the Portland squad found the twine first off of a rebound goal. Nino Niederreiter put home the loose puck as the Giants had a hard time finding loose pucks in front of their own net tonight. Niederreiter added another one with time ticking down; another awful rebound back out into the slot and a gift for the Swiss sniper. Luke Walker potted one more early in the second, another poor puck control moment for Mark Segal, pushing the Portland lead to 3-0. Tomas Vincour, one the few Giants with jump early on got the Giants first marker bringing the crowd back into the game. Milan Kytnar, who took the body pretty hard tonight, set up Vincour for his third of the playoffs. The goal energized the players as well giving them a boost and getting them to drive harder to the net (as opposed to half-assedly dump in the puck) garnering penalty calls and PP chances in the process.

After squandering a couple of early PP chances the Giants changed it up a bit and got the puck to go with the man-advantage. Kevin Connauton found the back of the net from the point with the Giants finally sending someone to the front of the net instead of in the high slot. James Henry and Kytnar got the helpers on the play, working the puck well along the boards getting it to Connauton at the point. The Giants drew another penalty on the next shift and this time it was Vincour with his 4th, tipping Neil Manning’s shot past Mac Carruth who was back between pipes for the Winterhawks, Connauton got the other helper. Just over a minute later the Winterhawks got a very weak shot on Segal from the right face-off dot. Segal failed to control the soft shot and allowed yet another bad rebound. Ryan Johansen swooped in and cashed in an incredibly easy goal. That completely killed any momentum the team had and sucked all of the energy out of the building. Had it been a good goal I expect the reaction wouldn’t have been so extreme, but to allow a crap goal like that when your team just got themselves back into a game was completely inexcusable. I’m trying not to put this all on Segal’s doorstep as the coverage around his net was pretty poor, with a bunch of guys standing around, but if you want to be a competitive goalie that is a goal you CANNOT allow - ever!

The Portland team found the back of the net early in the third basically pushing the goalie into the net. Segal had his pads across the goal line and had stopped yet another loose puck in his crease, before his pad was pushed across the line by the Winterhawks. The goal was reviewed and stood. The Giants managed to get one back just before the mid-way mark of the final frame. Craig Cunningham scored an unassisted tally that came from some excellent work by Brendan Gallagher on the forecheck forcing Carruth to the put the puck back up the boards. Cunningham ripped it from the sideboards and found the top corner before Carruth could get back and set. The Giants wasted a PP opportunity just after that goal was scored and then were not able to put great pressure on the Portland team or goal for the rest of the game. Even with the goalie pulled they continued to make sloppy blue-line passes, instead of putting their head down and driving the net with everything and everyone. Icing the puck with seconds ticking down and the goalie pulled was the ultimate fail for the team tonight and they have to be better if they want to finish off this series on top. Despite the score it was not a good loss as they frequently had the puck tapped easily off of their sticks and sat back in the neutral zone instead of pressing the attack. Not much emotion in this one and it needed some.

The Giants barely out shot the Winterhawks in the game 40-39. They went 2 for 7 on the PP, while the Portland squad went 1 for 2. They gave the Winterhawks too many easy goals in the game and got caught flat-footed around their own net. All they needed was solid outing from Mark Segal and they failed to get it. He rarely looks comfortable with the puck and although he did a good job challenging the puck carrier he often leaves himself over-committed and has a hard time resetting for that next shot. With a game they can give if absolutely necessary the Giants should seriously consider inserting 17-year-old Derek Tendler between the pipes for game 6. It could be disastrous, but its possible the highly touted prospect could surprise and in my mind Segal should not be granted another start with the kind of performance he put on tonight. The series returns to Portland a place the Winterhawks have yet to win a single game in these playoffs, losing five straight there so far. The puck drops at Memorial Coliseum at 7pm on Tuesday April 13.

Three Stars

1. Nino Neiderreiter
2. Tomas Vincour
3. Ryan Johansen