Winterhawks fail to close out West final on home ice, fall 6-1 to Prince George in Game 5

PORTLAND — The Portland Winterhawks could not close out the Western Conference Championship on home ice and will now need a win on the road if they want to play for the Western Hockey League title.

Gabe Klassen scored the game’s opening goal for Portland, but the No. 1 West seed Prince George Cougars rattled off six straight from there to avoid elimination with a 6-1 win in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday at Memorial Coliseum.

Portland, the No. 2 seed in the West, holds a 3-2 series lead and can advance to the WHL Championship with a win Monday in Game 6 at Prince George.

Klassen banked a shot off it off Prince George goalie Josh Ravensbergen for a 1-0 Portland lead at 7:03 in the first period.

Just 2:40 later, PG’s Koehn Ziemmer tied the game and then the Los Angeles Kings prospect scored his second goal just before the break for a 2-1 Cougars lead.

Prince George extended its lead to 3-1 midway through the second period on a power play as Hunter Laing scored his first goal of the postseason.

The Cougars tacked on two more goals in the third period through Ondrej Becher and a Borya Valis penalty shot.

Portland goalie Jan Špunar finished with 31 saves on 37 shots, while Ravensbergen turned aside 25 of 26 in for the visitors.

UP NEXT

Game 6 is 7 p.m. Monday at the CN Centre in Prince George, B.C.

If a Game 7 is necessary, it will be 7 p.m. Tuesday at Prince George.