Mike Hominuck scored three goals as the Portland LumberJax sent the San Jose Stealth to its fifth straight loss Friday night, 9-6.

Hominuck's hat trick included a very timely score midway through the fourth quarter, ending a five-goal run in which the Stealth pulled to within 6-5.

If that sounds a little incongruous, thank Dallas Eliuk, who has appeared for much of the season to be seeking flashes of his past excellence.

That's not to say he's had a bad season; far from it, in fact, with a 6-3 record and a reasonable 12.19 goals-against average.

Friday night, the ageless Eliuk (he's 41 these days) found something new in his bag of tricks: 35 minutes, 30 seconds of motionless mesh, carrying the LumberJax through one of their worst offensive performances this season.

In a quiet first quarter, Richard Morgan scored early and Ryan Sharp struck late as the LumberJax sprung to a 2-0 advantage.

In an equally quiet second quarter, Luke Forget netted a goal at the three-minute mark and Hominuck scored his first of the night almost eleven minutes later.

Halftime score: LumberJax 4, Stealth 0.

Zero. Zip. Zilch.

Nada.

Rien.

For Eliuk, it amounted to eighteen saves on eighteen shots faced.

And there was more where that came from, as Sharp and Hominuck scored early in the third quarter for a 6-0 lead.

The shutout held up for another 25 seconds, until Luke Wiles found rope at 5:30.

Wiles, it should be noted, almost became Eliuk's teammate in Philadelphia, but the goalie's trade request last fall ended that possibility; the rookie then got traded to San Jose a month ago.

Somehow, Wiles' goal got the Stealth rolling for a bit, as Ryan Boyle scored twice and Cam Sedgwick once by the end of the third quarter, with San Jose moving to within 6-4.

Kevin Fines then made it a one-goal game by scoring just less than three minutes into the fourth quarter.

Faced with the prospect of completely wasting its impressive 6-0 lead, Portland buckled down, with Hominuck completing his hat trick at 7:23.

The relief of a two-goal advantage was short-lived, as Chad Thompson (another "woulda been" Eliuk teammate) buried a Boyle feed at 9:40.

This time, Bruce Alexander provided the insurance goal, three and a half minutes later, and Brodie Merrill ended any last-minute threat with an empty-netter at 14:36.

Eliuk finished with 39 saves on 45 shots faced, a superb outing made even more special in light of Portland's lowest goal total in two months. Anthony Cosmo was the hard-luck loser, recording 34 saves on 42 shots faced.

With the win, Portland inches ahead in the race for the Western Division title. The LumberJax are now 9-5, a half-game up on Calgary and Colorado. San Jose falls to 5-9, and must win twice next week to reach the playoffs.