OIL KINGS ARE WHL CHAMPIONS

PORTLAND, Ore. (CP) – It took one more day than they would’ve liked, but the Edmonton Oil Kings are Western Hockey League champions for the second time in three seasons.

Four different Oil Kings scored in a decisive second period as Edmonton won Game 7 of the WHL final 4-2 over the Portland Winterhawks Monday evening.

Mitch Moroz, Curtis Lazar, Reid Petryk and Mads Eller all scored in a four-goal second period for the Oil Kings and Goaltender Tristan Jarry stopped 32 shots in victory.

Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brendan Leipsic scored for Portland, which got 29 saves from goalie Brendan Burke.

As the Oil Kings celebrated on the ice after the game at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, they held the No. 26 jersey of Kristians Pelss, a former teammate who drowned last summer at age 20.

“He’s been with us through this whole thing,” said Lazar. “He motivates us to make ourselves better. We know he’s looking over us, we played for him and it showed.”

“They came at us hard for 10 minutes but we weathered the storm,” said Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal, who won a Memorial Cup championship as a player with the Winterhawks in 1983. “I told the guys I won a championship here and I wanted them to do it, too.’

“We talked that the sun was going to come up today and our energy would come up, too,” said Laxdal. “We tried to motivate our guys all day. Our guys were gutsy.”

The Oil Kings are off to the Memorial Cup, which begins Friday in London, Ont.

“It’ll always hang there, that disappointment,” said Portland coach Mike Johnston. “Eventually we’ll look back at our records and conference and division championships, but we were so close to tasting victory.

“We know how hard it is to move on, we’re fortunate to have had some cracks at it the last few years.”