dondo
04-04-2010, 11:58 PM
Last night it was Gally, tonight it was Cunner and he was unlucky not to get the hat as he was all over the ice and always looking dangerous. Wright and Vincour had great tilts and Bouma and Henry were also solid. Breitkreuz left early in the game with possible flu symptoms an annoyance currently rolling through the dressing room. Musil put up his first WHL playoff tally and quietly adding an assist putting up a +3 outing. Manning who was set-up machine in game one, was the only minus other than Breitkreuz in this game. A couple of crazy games and the offense the Giants have been exhibiting have been truly surprising me. It should as the boys have been doing it for most of the season and if they could take back those 8-10 games they let slip after having the lead this season, others might be believing this too. For now coming in under the radar with an average goalie and at times suspect D suits me just fine as they continue to put up decisive wins. This is a team built and coached for the playoffs and its becoming more evident with each passing game.
Giants Gun Winterhawks
Rnd 2 Game 2: Vancouver 7 Portland 4
Don Robinson
The Giants allowed a goal in the first couple of minutes of the game as a wiffle ball drifted past their netminder. Regrouping they replied with 4 of their own before the end of the frame. Portland got one back on the PP early in the second, before the Giants replied with two more. The Winterhawks got those two back before the end of the middle period, scoring another PP tally in the process. The third was fairly tightly played, but as they did last night the Winterhawks out shot the Giants in the period. Also as they did last night the Giants did not give up the lead once they had it and despite slipping a bit never fell back. The Giants added an EN goal late in the third to salt away the victory. The Winterhawks still have yet to win a game at home during these playoffs and could find a better territory for their psyches in Vancouver for the three possible games.
Mark Segal is the only goalie in these playoffs with a 6-0 record and tonight actually put together a plus .900 game, but he also has some of the ugliest wins in franchise history and has been anything but solid between the pipes. The best part of this story is that his boys score enough to make his occasional bad goal nowhere near as important as it could have been. Mac Carruth looked like a Giant killer coming out of the Spokane series, but was anything but in the past two tilts. Portland opened the scoring as Oliver Gabriel got a soft wrist shot to drift past Segal. It took until just past the mid-way mark of the period for James Wright to tie it up off of some great work by Tomas Vincour. Craig Cunningham got his first of two a few minutes later, taking a Lance Bouma feed and putting it past Carruth. James Henry pushed the lead to two goals when the work of Milan Kytnar and Vincour sprung him loose. Cunningham closed out the period with the Giants only PP tally of the game. A fairly chippy tilt, but not the kind of brouhaha which ended the game last night. The Winterhawks looked pretty lacklustre in the first and despite getting the first goal on their second shot of the game the Giants handily dominated them in the stanza.
Eric Doyle scored his first of the playoffs, putting another puck Segal would want back, into the net on the PP. The Giants replied at 7:42 of the period with David Musil’s first WHL playoff marker. JT Barnett and Vincour got the assists on the play. Milan Kytnar got one to go a couple of minutes later, getting some great work from Henry and Brent Henke and pushing the Giants lead to four with the goal. Portland replied about five minutes later as Chris Francis, who can’t be kept off the score sheet for long, put home a puck past a screened Segal. Troy Rutkowski scored a PP marker late in the period, giving his team a chance going into the third. The Winterhawks played a pretty decent third, but it was mostly uneventful and Segal made the stops he needed to make with the Giants keeping shots to the outside. It was a good period for Segal to play though, turning aside 16 shots and hopefully gaining a bit of confidence going back to his own barn. Preferred or not at this point by the majority of fans he is the guy and its up to him to find a better focused game in Vancouver. Bouma put home an empty netter with a minute left in the period to give the Giants another victory in Portland.
The Giants out shot the Winterhawks 50-48, allowing more shots on goal than they usually like to do. The G-Men went 1 for 4 on the PP, while allowing the Winterhawks a 50% night with 2 for 4. Craig Cunningham was once again a force, scoring two goals and dangerous all over the ice. Skilled tough guy Brad Ross was given two separate 10 min misconducts in the game. Once again there were a lot of 4 on 4 chances as the refs preferred to hand out coincidentals over tagging one player or the other for a single penalty. Last night the teams scored 4, 4 on 4 markers and tonight there were 2 – it’s an interesting stat. Tomas Vincour had a very good set-up night, getting three nice assists in the game and was all over the ice and unlucky not to get one to go himself. Carruth was pulled after 4 goals this time and Ian Curtis managed to turn away 27 of 29 in relief and could get the nod for game 3. For now though it seems as if it doesn’t matter who the Winterhawks put between the pipes as the Giants are on a roll offensively. As a reference, the Chiefs scored 21 goals on the Portland squad in a 7 game series and after two games the Giants have now scored 16 goals. I expect the nature of the game will change come Wednesday and that the Winterhawks will be busy poring over video to see how to stop the Giants juggernaut, but so will the Giants and whatever the ‘hawks bring will probably be ready to go come puck drop. Speaking of pucks dropping, the puck for game 3 drops at 7pm PDT on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum.
Three Stars
1. Craig Cunningham
2. Tomas Vincour
3. Ty Rattie
Giants Gun Winterhawks
Rnd 2 Game 2: Vancouver 7 Portland 4
Don Robinson
The Giants allowed a goal in the first couple of minutes of the game as a wiffle ball drifted past their netminder. Regrouping they replied with 4 of their own before the end of the frame. Portland got one back on the PP early in the second, before the Giants replied with two more. The Winterhawks got those two back before the end of the middle period, scoring another PP tally in the process. The third was fairly tightly played, but as they did last night the Winterhawks out shot the Giants in the period. Also as they did last night the Giants did not give up the lead once they had it and despite slipping a bit never fell back. The Giants added an EN goal late in the third to salt away the victory. The Winterhawks still have yet to win a game at home during these playoffs and could find a better territory for their psyches in Vancouver for the three possible games.
Mark Segal is the only goalie in these playoffs with a 6-0 record and tonight actually put together a plus .900 game, but he also has some of the ugliest wins in franchise history and has been anything but solid between the pipes. The best part of this story is that his boys score enough to make his occasional bad goal nowhere near as important as it could have been. Mac Carruth looked like a Giant killer coming out of the Spokane series, but was anything but in the past two tilts. Portland opened the scoring as Oliver Gabriel got a soft wrist shot to drift past Segal. It took until just past the mid-way mark of the period for James Wright to tie it up off of some great work by Tomas Vincour. Craig Cunningham got his first of two a few minutes later, taking a Lance Bouma feed and putting it past Carruth. James Henry pushed the lead to two goals when the work of Milan Kytnar and Vincour sprung him loose. Cunningham closed out the period with the Giants only PP tally of the game. A fairly chippy tilt, but not the kind of brouhaha which ended the game last night. The Winterhawks looked pretty lacklustre in the first and despite getting the first goal on their second shot of the game the Giants handily dominated them in the stanza.
Eric Doyle scored his first of the playoffs, putting another puck Segal would want back, into the net on the PP. The Giants replied at 7:42 of the period with David Musil’s first WHL playoff marker. JT Barnett and Vincour got the assists on the play. Milan Kytnar got one to go a couple of minutes later, getting some great work from Henry and Brent Henke and pushing the Giants lead to four with the goal. Portland replied about five minutes later as Chris Francis, who can’t be kept off the score sheet for long, put home a puck past a screened Segal. Troy Rutkowski scored a PP marker late in the period, giving his team a chance going into the third. The Winterhawks played a pretty decent third, but it was mostly uneventful and Segal made the stops he needed to make with the Giants keeping shots to the outside. It was a good period for Segal to play though, turning aside 16 shots and hopefully gaining a bit of confidence going back to his own barn. Preferred or not at this point by the majority of fans he is the guy and its up to him to find a better focused game in Vancouver. Bouma put home an empty netter with a minute left in the period to give the Giants another victory in Portland.
The Giants out shot the Winterhawks 50-48, allowing more shots on goal than they usually like to do. The G-Men went 1 for 4 on the PP, while allowing the Winterhawks a 50% night with 2 for 4. Craig Cunningham was once again a force, scoring two goals and dangerous all over the ice. Skilled tough guy Brad Ross was given two separate 10 min misconducts in the game. Once again there were a lot of 4 on 4 chances as the refs preferred to hand out coincidentals over tagging one player or the other for a single penalty. Last night the teams scored 4, 4 on 4 markers and tonight there were 2 – it’s an interesting stat. Tomas Vincour had a very good set-up night, getting three nice assists in the game and was all over the ice and unlucky not to get one to go himself. Carruth was pulled after 4 goals this time and Ian Curtis managed to turn away 27 of 29 in relief and could get the nod for game 3. For now though it seems as if it doesn’t matter who the Winterhawks put between the pipes as the Giants are on a roll offensively. As a reference, the Chiefs scored 21 goals on the Portland squad in a 7 game series and after two games the Giants have now scored 16 goals. I expect the nature of the game will change come Wednesday and that the Winterhawks will be busy poring over video to see how to stop the Giants juggernaut, but so will the Giants and whatever the ‘hawks bring will probably be ready to go come puck drop. Speaking of pucks dropping, the puck for game 3 drops at 7pm PDT on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum.
Three Stars
1. Craig Cunningham
2. Tomas Vincour
3. Ty Rattie