Winterhawks down Prince George 4-1 to take lead in Western Conference finals series

PORTLAND — Marcus Nguyen’s hat-trick and 30 saves by goalie Jan Špunar led to a 4-1 win for the Portland Winterhawks over the Prince George Cougars on Monday in Game 3 of the Western Hockey League Western Conference Championship series.

Portland now holds a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven series heading into Games 4 and 5 on Wednesday and Thursday at Memorial Coliseum.

Portland raced out to an early lead through Nguyen’s first two goals of the game.

Nate Danielson set up both, first at 1:13 with a wraparound feed to Nguyen at the back post, then a centering pass for a one-timer six minutes later.

Marek Alscher continued the onslaught with a top-shelf wrister off the rush — also set up by Danielson in the neutral zone — that ended the night for Cougars’ goalie Josh Ravensbergen.

The Hawks carried a 3-0 lead through the second period, with Špunar standing tall in their crease.

Looking to extend the lead in the third, Nguyen capped off his hat-trick on a power play at 1:47 to make it 4-0.

Carlin Dezainde eventually broke the shutout bid for top-seed Prince George.