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Tipped Off
04-13-2006, 09:10 AM
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It's a close one, but Hawks lose
Portland falls 4-3 in overtime, a departure from previous close playoff games, which the Winter Hawks won

FACTBOX
• The Winter Hawks

Thursday, April 13, 2006
MOLLY BLUE
Throughout the playoffs, the Portland Winter Hawks won close games, and lost in blow-out style.

On Wednesday, they finally lost a close one, when Gilbert Brule's breakaway goal in overtime was the game-winner as the Vancouver Giants beat the Hawks 4-3 before 6,129 fans at the Rose Garden on Wednesday.

Vancouver defenseman Paul Albers set up Brule with a long pass up the middle. Brule, who started this season with the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, beat Portland goaltender Kurtis Mucha, swooping in from the blue line, slipping the puck into the net over Mucha's glove.

"I was at the blue line and I saw Albers with the puck," Brule said. "He got me the puck, and I didn't have to beat anyone but the goaltender."

All five Hawks wins in the playoffs -- starting with the first-round series against Seattle -- have come by one-goal margins. It's Portland's first one-goal loss in the playoffs. The Hawks haven't lost a one-goal game in regulation since Dec. 3; they were 9-0-0-3 in their last 12 one-goal games in the regular season.

"We scored three goals, and had the lead. We played well for the most part," Portland coach Mike Williamson said. "You can't give that team those opportunities.

The Hawks led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 in regulation, but for every lead, Vancouver had an answer.

Portland took a 1-0 lead in the first period, when center Brandon Dubinsky won a face-off in the Giants' end and slid the puck across the goalmouth to Jannik Hansen, who beat Vancouver goaltender Dustin Slade with a shot before Slade could slide over to cover, at 18 minutes, 7 seconds, less than two minutes before the first intermission.

Vancouver tied the game at 10:20 in the second, when forwards Kyle Lamb and Michal Repik got through Portland's defense on an up-ice rush. Lamb kept the puck, used Repik as a decoy and wristed the puck past Mucha.

The Hawks took the lead again at 18:17 in the second, when defenseman Max Gordichuk, a former Giant, pushed the puck into an open corner in the defensive zone. Portland forward Jon Bubnick picked up at the face-off circle, raced down the right wing and fired a shot from the face-off circle in the offensive end, which bounced off Slade's pad and into the net, scoring in a four-on-four situation.

The Giants wasted little time in the third, tying the game 2-2 when Lamb scored his second goal of the game off a relentless forecheck, punching a rebound past Mucha at 1:17.

About four minutes later, Portland took its last lead in regulation, on a counterattack set up by Hansen, who made a cross-ice pass to Bubnick, just coming in. Bubnick passed back to Hansen, who beat Slade on a long slapshot at 5:29.

Vancouver defenseman Cody Franson sent the game to overtime when his shot on the power play slipped through the space between Mucha's left shoulder and the crossbar at 7:01 in the third period.

Note:

Defensemen Jordie Fike, who missed the first two games of the semifinals, and Michael Funk, who has been out since the first two games of the Seattle series, both played.

Molly Blue: 503-221-8161; mollyblue@news.oregonian.com