It took 20 shots in 15 overtime minutes for the Kelowna Rockets to put the puck past Adin Hill.
When Tyson Baillie finally did, Kelowna moved to the brink of a spot in the Western Hockey League finals.
Baillie’s shot through traffic from the slot 14:55 into overtime was the difference in a 2-1 win for the host Rockets that gives Kelowna a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference finals.
Game 6 is at 5 p.m. Sunday at Moda Center in Portland. If Portland wins on Sunday, Game 7 would be Tuesday night in Kelowna.
The deciding play started with Baillie winning a faceoff. Dillon Dube spun off the wall and fed Ballie in the high slot for a shot through traffic.
Nic Petan scored for Portland with only 3:33 left in the third period to force the overtime. Given some time in the left circle, Petan’s low shot beat goalie Jackson Whistle, who was screened by Portland’s Miles Koules.
Petan has registered a point in all 16 playoff games this season and on Friday tied the WHL record for career playoff games at 87.
Kelowna scored the game’s first goal for the first time in the series. It came late in the first period as Nick Merkley circled behind the net and found Riley Stadel wide open in front of Hill for the finish.
Whistle finished with 42 saves as Portland outshot Kelowna 39-29 in regulation. The Rockets’ goalie kept the Winterhawks from scoring for more than four full periods between the middle of Game 4 and Petan’s tying tally late in Game 5.
Perhaps Whistle’s biggest save came on a short-handed breakaway for Oliver Bjorkstrand in the second period. The goalie also came up big late in the third period as Chase De Leo, Anton Cederholm and Dominic Turgeon had close-range shots on one sequence.
Hill’s heroics came in overtime as the Rockets came at him in waves. Among his 19 saves in the period were several phenomenal stops on plays that had the Rockets starting to celebrate. In addition to Hill’s 19 saves, Kelowna hit the post three times and missed the net on a couple high-quality chances in overtime.
Portland managed only four shots on goal in overtime, but Whistle made a strong pad save on a Miles Koules’ chance.
Brandon clinches East — Brandon beat Calgary 8-2 to clinch the WHL’s Eastern Conference championship.
