VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The Tri-City Americans helped themselves to a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series with Vancouver on Tuesday night, putting the Giants on the brink of elimination in the first round for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
Adam Hughesman scored a pair of power-play goals and Drew Owsley finished with 22 saves for his first shutout in the playoffs as the Americans beat the Giants 4-0 before a crowd of 7,157 at Pacific Coliseum.
"We know Vancouver has their back to the wall," said Tri-City coach Jim Hiller, whose team can close out the series tonight. "The games have been close, and it's been a good series."
The Giants, who lost the Western Conference title to the Americans last year, know they are on the ropes.
"We have life," said Vancouver forward Brendan Gallagher. "We're on our last life, but we have a game left and all we have to do is find a way to win a hockey game and then find a way to win the next. I could give you every clich, but we just have to win a hockey game."
The game was scoreless until late in the second when the Americans made good on their second power play of the period.
With Darren Bestland in the penalty box for hooking, the Americans needed just 11 seconds to find the net as Brendan Shinnimin fed Hughesman the puck down low on the goal line to the left of Giants goalie Mark Segal.
Hughesman pulled the puck toward the net, and with Segal protecting the post, lifted the puck over the goalie's shoulder at 17:57.
Hughesman, who missed the last 12 games of the regular season and the first two of the playoffs, was unavailable for comment after the game as he had to meet with officials for a mandatory drug test.
The Giants had two power plays in the first five minutes of the second, but had a hard time getting the puck on net, finishing with just a combined two shots on goal.
It was all Tri-City in the third.
Rookie Connor Rankin gave the Americans a 2-0 lead at 2:10, sweeping the puck in the net as he went down to the ice.
"It was fun to get my first playoff goal in my hometown," said Rankin, who hails from North Vancouver. "It was a pretty important goal. I lost myself there for a minute."
Hughesman, who had 20 power-play goals during the regular season, scored his second of the night from the top of the crease at 8:49 as the Americans were working on a 5-on-3 power play.
"Somebody's got to score those," Hiller said. "They look easy, but they aren't. There is an art to that. It's nice to have him back. We pulled him back a little 5-on-5, but on the power play, he's money."
Justin Feser finished the scoring with a a power play goal at 18:13. Tri-City was 3-for-6 on the man advantage, while Vancouver was 0-for-4.
A scoreless first period ended with each team clanking pucks off the post and both goalies making a couple of dandy saves.
Segal was tested early as Americans defenseman Brock Sutherland drove the right lane and was looking for a bit of room beside the goalie at 4:45, but Segal gobbled the puck up in his glove.
Neal Prokop tried his luck four minutes later in the slot, but Segal again denied the Americans.
"It was pretty tight for 37 minutes," said Segal, who has 3.32 goals against average and an .892 save percentage in the series. "Tri was able to convert on the power play. When you can do that, it gives you a boost."
The Giants didn't have any shots on goal the last eight minutes of the first, but Gallagher did put a shot off the bottom of the left post at 16:42. The puck slid back out in the crease, where Owsley covered it.
"I have good memories here," Owsley said. "I knew it would be a tight defensive game. We buried a few in the third to make it look like we beat them worse than we did. I don't expect them to fold their tent. I expect them to come out hard (today)."
From Segal's end of the ice, he said the Giants weren't able to get any second chances.
"He's a good goalie," Segal said of Owsley. "He did a good job with the rebounds and their defense was there to clear and deny us a second shot. The series is 3-0, not 4-0. We just have to get more pucks to the net."
