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EDMONTON - It can be easy to forget these man-sized hockey players are teenagers kids, really when they put on a show as dazzling as the one the Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks have mounted over the last 10 days. Not just the show they staged on Mothers Day at Rexall Place, either, in front of 11,902 screaming fans, a 6-5 overtime heartbreaker for the Oil Kings, who led 3-0 after one period and 5-2 after 40 minutes. Now they must find a way to win Game 7 in Portland, Ore., on Monday night to punch their ticket to a second Memorial Cup appearance in three seasons. And not just this series, either. Yes, it has been a wild, roller-coaster in which Edmonton fell behind 2-0 in the series and was behind 2-0 less than four minutes into Game 3 before they turned that game and the series around, winning the next three games to set the stage for Game 6. Win and the Oil Kings were off to London, Ont., and the Memorial Cup. Lose and ... well, they lost and now must beat the speedy, flashy Winterhawks in Portland to qualify for the Canadian Hockey League championship tournament. No, this whole Edmonton-Portland trilogy is something special, springtime rivals going to the limit, or nearly there, three straight years in the best-of-seven WHL final series. Edmonton fans can only savour this now as the ultimate game goes tonight at Memorial Coliseum. Savour all three springtime classics, while youre at it. Its a rarity. It wont happen again soon. Maybe ever. The Oil Kings exceeded their own expectations in winning a seven-game series in 2012. Last year, the Seth Jones-led Winterhawks won in six games over the Oil Kings, who were without wheelhorse defenceman Griffin Reinhart for the final series. This year, the rubber match, it is down to a seventh game again and hockey, let alone junior hockey, simply does not get more dramatic than this. Of course, these are kids. They dont play flawless hockey or anything close to it. They make mistakes and thats where so much of the excitement comes from. Mistakes by the Winterhawks helped the Oil Kings build a pair of three-goal leads. Thats junior hockey. But resiliency and self-belief also part of junior hockey helped Portland overcome them. Mathew Dumba and Derrick Pouliot, Portlands signature, puck-moving defenceman, led the second- and third-period surges that ultimately carried the Winterhawks past the Oil Kings on Sunday. After the game, Dumba made a point of praising Corbin Boes, who started in goal for Portland, but was pulled after 20 minutes in favour of Brendan Burke, the Winterhawks starter most of the season. During the second intermission, an emotional, flu-weakened Boes stood up and delivered a heartfelt speech to his teammates, exhorting them to stay with it. Just talking about it now gives me chills, Dumba said. I know everyone felt that, and thats all we needed for the third period. Dumba scored twice, once on a laserlike slapshot, once with a surgical snapshot. The smooth-skating, skilled Pouliot scored one goal and assisted on two others as the Winterhawks got five goals in all from their defenceman in what was, for them, their first elimination game this whole playoffs. Theyre both very different. Derricks a quiet leader, he leads by example, said Mike Johnston, the Winterhawks general manager and head coach. Hes been like that since he was 15 with us. He came into the league with no fear and he plays with no fear ... Its unusual to see players who arent afraid of the moment. And when youre not afraid of the moment, then your game picks up and youre ready to seize it and go after it. They both played that way, particularly in the third period and overtime for Portland. Heres the thing: both teams have players like that, players who came into the league with no fear, who want to seize the moment, who want the puck when the game is on the line. The Oil Kings have Curtis Lazar, who was a 15-year-old when he got his first taste of major junior hockey at the tail end of the 2010-11 season, the same year Reinhart played his first season in Edmonton as a 16-year-old. So, it was fitting those two players were the ones who met the media Sunday night following the Oil Kings loss. Lazar scored the goal which made it 4-2 at 13:57 of the middle period. Just 49 seconds later, Edgars Kulda, on a breakaway, skated in and scored to make it 5-2 Edmonton, a safe lead, a Memorial Cup-bound lead. Or so it seemed. It cost the Oil Kings, surely. But they have another chance tonight in the second Game 7, the second single-knockout game for the WHL title to be played between the two powerhouse teams in three seasons. Weve got to hit the reset button here and get ready for (tonight). Its going to be a heckuva hockey game, said Lazar. It will be the ultimate test of resiliency between two great teams that both have displayed oodles of resolve in this series, with no time to fret about what might have been. Right back at it. Yeah, I mean, Game 7, WHL finals, it doesnt get any better than that, Lazar said. Im looking forward to going in there. The adrenalin is going to be pumping and its just a matter of going out there and having fun, enjoying the moment. jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com Twitter.com/@rjmackinnon Check out my blog at edmontonjournal.com/SweatsoxFacebook.com/edmontonjournalsports

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MacKinnon: Hockey doesnt get more dramatic than a Game 7 in the final