For the third season in a row, the Portland Winterhawks and the Edmonton Oil Kings will meet in the Western Hockey League championship series.

"I think both teams are familiar with each other through those playoffs," Hawks coach and general manager Mike Johnston said Sunday. "We don't see each other much during the season."

Last season, the Hawks beat the Oil Kings to earn a spot in the Memorial Cup tournament. In 2012, Edmonton took out Portland and capped its season by capturing the Ed Chynoweth trophy.

To get to this season's league championship series, the Hawks beat the the Kelowna Rockets 7-3 on Friday to win the Western Conference series 4-1.

On the opposite side of the bracket, the Oil Kings beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-3 Saturday to win the Eastern Conference series 4-1.

Portland finished the regular season as the higher seed, and will play host to Edmonton on Saturday and Sunday at the Moda Center.

Saturday's game begins at 7 p.m., Sunday's game begins at 5 p.m. The series then shifts to Rexall Place in Edmonton for games on Tuesday and Wednesday, both at 6 p.m.

The Hawks have home-ice advantage in the series and finished the regular season 54-13-2-3 and won playoff series' against Vancouver (4-0) and Victoria (4-1) before eliminating Kelowna.

Edmonton finished the regular season 50-19-2-1 and won series' against the Prince Albert Raiders (4-0) and the Brandon Wheat Kings (4-1) before eliminating the Tigers.

The Oil Kings beat the Hawks in their only regular-season meeting 5-4 in a shootout at Rexall Place on Dec. 6.

But as far as the matchup goes at playoff time, Johnston said it's hard to predict.

"We only had that one game, and it went to a shootout," Johnston said. "It'll be close. There's not a lot room between both teams, player to player, line to line and it will come down to the little details, power plays, penalty kills, goaltending."

Johnston said that the teams are similar in philosophy, building their programs through good listing and good drafting.

"They've just established a winning program there," he said.