We start East, where Edmonton played two games in Winnipeg and then had the next three in Edmonton. Edmonton had split the series, so Winnipeg hoped to grab at least one win. Following the two losses by the ICE in Winnipeg, their backs were against the wall if they wanted to bring the series back to Winnipeg. It appears they didn’t.
Though they would score just one powerplay goal in the game as their last goal of the game, they exploded for four goals in just over ten minutes in the first period. Alexander Gage gave up four goals on just nine shots before making way for Daniel Houser, who gave up three goals on 28 shots. The Oil Kings held court with a 37-20 shot advantage and blanked Winnipeg on three tries while going one of four on the powerplay.
With that, Edmonton moves to the WHL final to play either Kamloops or Winnipeg.
Kamloops went up 3-2 in their series with a 4-3 overtime win over the Thunderbirds in Kamloops. Connor Roulette started things off just 1:51 into the game, with Kamloops tying it up just under five minutes later by Matthew Seminoff. The game remained that way until the second period when Seattle took the lead just two minutes into the frame. Lukas Svejkovsky put Seattle up, only to see Kamloops Daylan Kuffler tie it up just under six minutes later.
Kamloops took the lead as Conner Levies scored before the five-minute mark but saw Kevin Kornichiski tie it up just past the ten-minute mark and sent the game to overtime.
Daylan Kuffler scored for Kamloops just over five minutes into overtime to give the Blazers the win and a 3-2 series lead heading back to Seattle.
Kamloops took the lead just past the twelve-minute mark as Kobe Verbicky shot just inside the right post and held that lead through the period.
Seattle tied it up with Jared Davidson, finishing a pass by the faceoff dot. Seattle took the lead with Lukas Svejkovski using back and forth to try and fake out Dylan Garand and flipped his backhand shot over a prone Garand. Despite taking Garand out of the net with just under two minutes remaining, they couldn’t find the equalizer. Seattle wins 2-1 and ties the series with it, returning to Kamloops for game seven.
The winner awaits a travel to Edmonton on Friday and Saturday to start the WHL final.
Unlike the previous matches, the WHL final can use a plane if both teams agree and pay for it.
Kamloops and Seattle will have just four days of rest before they battle the Oil Kings, who have proven their toughness with a 4-1 series win over the Scotty Munro champions Winnipeg ICE.
Kamloops did receive some news that they will be preparing for right away. Kamloops has been awarded the Memorial Cup for 2023, furthering the heavily speculated trade of Connor Bedard from the Regina Pats. Kamloops has a could first round picks and would be looking at a heavy package price if they want to land Bedard. He scored 100 points this past season in just 62 games and 28 points in 15 games a season ago.
The seventh game with Kamloops and Seattle will go on Monday, and as has been the typical matchup with these two teams are looking at it to be a defensive battle with Thomas Milic and Dylan Garand being the backstops.
In Ontario, Flint Firebirds scored a 6-3 win over the Windsor Spitfires to put the series at 3-2 with Windsor leading and the series heading back to Flint, MI, on Tuesday with a seventh game possible in Windsor a day later.
In Quebec, with a five-game series in this round, Quebec Remparts picked up a crucial 3-2 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes and hold a 2-1 lead in the series. The Remparts scored twice in the first period, with Shainingin doing the same in the second period.
Quebec scored a powerplay goal late in the second period to take the lead. The 28-26 shots and 1-1 on the powerplay for Quebec versus 0-1 for Shawinigan shows how tight this game was.
The Charlottetown Islanders battled the Sherbrooke Phoenix with a 3-2 win and took a 2-1 lead in their series. Charlottetown led in shots 33-30 and scored twice on their five powerplays while blanking Sherbrooke on their five tries.
Games will be Monday for game six and possibly Wednesday for game seven.
