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Tipped Off
04-05-2005, 11:29 AM
From the Seattle Times:

It's status quo for Everett in Game 7

By Jim Riley
With everything on the line for the Everett Silvertips, coach Kevin Constantine doesn't plan to change a thing.

The Silvertips play Game 7 of their first-round Western Hockey League playoff series with the Portland Winter Hawks tonight at 7 at the Rose Garden.

"It's Game 7, the last game of the series, potentially the last game for some guys, but the formula we use to try to create success won't change because of the circumstances," Constantine said.

The winner advances to the second round to play the Kootenay Ice. The loser's season is finished.

Though just in their second season, the Silvertips have some experience in a deciding game. Last year the Silvertips won in Kelowna, 2-1 in overtime of Game 7, to win the WHL's Western Conference championship.

Everett captain Mitch Love, who at 20 is in his last season of WHL eligibility, said the team's leaders will draw on that experience.

"The guys who were a part of that last year need to bring that valuable experience to this game," Love said. "Everybody needs to stay on an even keel. We're just going to go down to a building where we've had some success this year and try to pull out a huge win for this organization."

Everett won three times in Portland during the regular season but is 1-2 at the Rose Garden in the playoffs.

"It doesn't bother us at all that Game 7 is being played there," Constantine said. "Except for January, we've been a good road team all year."

Portland won the first game of the series, Everett won the next three and Portland has won two in a row to avoid elimination.

In any of the last four games either team could have been the winner easy enough," Constantine said. "The game of hockey is still a game where there are probably more bounces than any other sport because the puck isn't round."

Tipped Off
04-05-2005, 11:30 AM
From the Oregonian:

Hawks try to keep their season alive

Portland's players want to continue their memorable run with a Game 7 playoff win over Everett tonight

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

PAUL BUKER

Portland Winter Hawks players who have graduated to the NHL will tell you their major-junior hockey days were some of the greatest of their young lives.

There is something about being part of a close-knit team, something about sharing the emotional highs and lows of a grinding 72-game season and hopefully a long run in the playoffs, that makes the shared experience unforgettable.

Just ask Adam Deadmarsh or Brenden Morrow or Andrew Ference. They all say they never will forget what happened in Portland and the bond they had with their teammates.

So there was excitement, anticipation, nervousness and just a little bit of reflection in the Hawks' locker room Monday before the team practiced for tonight's Game 7 of a first-round playoff series at the Rose Garden against the Everett Silvertips.

Win or lose, it will be 60 minutes -- or more -- they will carry with them and always remember.

Defenseman Braydon Coburn, who has known the disappointment of Game 7 losses to Seattle and Spokane, realizes it could be his last game wearing his No. 27 Portland uniform.

"I've kind of been feeling that a little bit." Coburn said. "I'm really trying to relish it . . . take it all in."

Coburn probably will be playing with the NHL Atlanta Thrashers or skating with the Thrashers' top farm team next season after signing a three-year, $1.24 million contract. Hawks president and general manager Ken Hodge calls the 6-foot-5, 224-pound Coburn the Portland franchise's poster boy, on and off the ice.

Portland coach Mike Williamson said it is no surprise that Coburn has elevated his game in the playoffs and helped the Hawks survive two elimination games after falling behind three games to one in the seven-game series.

"He took another step in this series. That's definitely what we expected and needed of him," Williamson said. "He's made some other players around him better, and done a great job."

Coburn usually is a stay-at-home defenseman who takes few chances, but he's been aggressively carrying the puck on the rush against the Silvertips.

"He's doing it intelligently," Williamson said. "He's put a little more responsibility on his shoulders to help us with offense, but he's doing it when there's opportunities, not trying to force things. . . . If there's a chance to jump into the rush and he sees a hole, he's jumping."

The Hawks could see a huge hole after four games against an Everett team coached by former NHL coach Kevin Constantine. But the Silvertips' amazing 6-0 record in playoff overtimes now is 6-1. Darrell May's dramatic goal for the Winter Hawks in Game 6 on Saturday night at the Everett Events Center squared the series 3-3.

"One of the most exciting moments for us in the series," Coburn said.

Cody McLeod, the Hawks' 20-year-old left wing, also was part of the gut-wrenching Game 7 losses to Seattle in 2002 and Spokane in 2003. Like Coburn, he also might be one game away from stowing his Hawks uniform for good, so he's cherishing the Game 6 victory.

"It kind of sticks with you all summer," McLeod said.

If the Hawks win tonight, they will advance to the second round against the top-seeded Kootenay Ice, a team that won 47 games in the regular season. But Williamson said it would be foolish to think that far ahead.

"I'm proud of the way our guys battled last weekend to give ourselves the opportunity to play a Game 7," he said. "But that's all we've done. We haven't accomplished anything yet."

Tipped Off
04-05-2005, 11:31 AM
From the Everett Herald:

Do-or-die for Tips
Everett plays at Portland in Game 7

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer


EVERETT - It all comes down to this. One game, do-or-die, winner takes all.

There's nothing quite like Game 7.

When the Everett Silvertips take the ice tonight against the Portland Winter Hawks in Game 7 of their Western Hockey League playoff series at the Rose Garden, they do so knowing that if they win, their season will continue, and if they lose, they're going home.

"It's the most exciting thing in sports, at least that's what any hockey player would tell you," Everett center Torrie Wheat said about Game 7. "Seventh games are special. The rivalry's so heavy and it's do or die for both teams. It always ends up being a good show."

In a Game-7 situation where both teams' season is on the line, tension levels increase just that much more and the significance of every goal, every penalty, every play is amplified.

"It is a little tense, but you've got to go out there and have the approach that you're going to grab it for yourselves," Everett captain Mitch Love said. "You can't wait for the other team to make a mistake or let them capitalize. You have to earn it yourself."

The Tips were hoping it wouldn't get to this point. Everett had a commanding 3-1 series lead, but a late game-winning goal in Game 5 by Brian Woolger and an overtime winner in Game 6 by Darrell May helped the Winter Hawks twice stave off elimination.

But the Tips are trying not to let those lost opportunities affect their morale.

"After Game 6 everyone was pretty disappointed," Wheat said. "It was probably the most disappointing loss of my career so far. But our coaches came in and did a good job of getting us ready, trying to get that off our mind and get us excited for Game 7. I think that's the main thing. If we're excited to play and we really want to play and really want to win, I think we'll do all right."

If there's one thing the Tips can take heart from, it's the way the quality of their performances have improved as the series has progressed. Given Portland's domination in the first four games, Everett felt lucky to lead the series 3-1. The Tips picked up their play and matched the Winter Hawks in Games 5 and 6, but the key bounces fell Portland's way, much like they fell to Everett earlier in the series.

Therefore, Everett doesn't feel any need to change its approach in Game 7.

"You can't change anything," Love said. "I think we played two of our best games of the series the last two and haven't been given the results. So you've just got to hope for a good bounce and work our way towards that with some hard work."

One thing the Tips do need to do is come out of the chute a little faster. Everett has generally been outplayed in the early going of periods, and at times that's proven costly to the Tips. It becomes all the more crucial when one considers that the team that's scored first in each game has gone on to win.

"I think starts of periods haven't been great, meaning the first few shifts of each period," Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. "For example, in Game 5 they scored in the first two minutes and then they scored in the first minute of the third period the other night. So if you look at the first three or four minutes of periods they've been a little better than us."

Portland has the advantage of being at home, meaning the Winter Hawks will have both crowd support and the final say on line matchups after stoppages.

But Everett can draw upon its experience, both of having won four games in Portland this season during the regular season and playoffs, and also from having won its only other Game 7 in franchise history, last season in the Western Conference finals at Kelowna.

"For the guys who were a part of that last year, we have to bring that valuable experience to the lineup tomorrow," Love said. "With the addition of all the younger guys this year on our hockey club, it's a good chance for them to see what a Game 7, do or die, is all about. The other guys have to lead the way and hopefully they'll follow suit."

Everett has been banged up throughout the series, but the Tips should be near full strength for tonight's game. Love, who suffered a bruised knee in Game 3 and sat out Games 4 and 5, fought through the pain in Game 6 and will give it a go again tonight. The only likely scratch among Everett's regulars is left wing Tyler Dietrich, who has only played in Game 3 as he continues to recover from a fractured ankle.

Everett made one addition to its roster for Game 7. Center/defenseman Derek Lewis, who played in 40 games for the Tips before being reassigned to Penticton of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, has rejoined the team.