In Toronto, the New York Islanders rallied for two goals in the latter half of the third period Tuesday night to force over time with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Fortunately. for the Flyers, Scott Laughton struck for the game-winner in the extra session to rescue Philadelphia and force a Game 6.
“One of the bigger goals of my career to score,” Laughton said. “Obviously a nice feeling, did a good job of getting to the net and tried to get my stick on it. Was really excited, but at the same time we’re still down in the series and we have a lot of work to do.”
Carter Hart made 29 saves to get the win as the Flyers cut the Isles series lead to 3-2.
“I’ve always said Scotty is one of our character players,” Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “He cares, he wants to do well. He especially wants the team to do well. When [Couturier] wasn’t able to come back, I looked at our options and how certain guys were playing and I thought he’d be the best fit with [Giroux and Voracek].”
Josh Bailey gave the Isles an early 1-0.
“Obviously we would have liked to have closed it out tonight,” Bailey said. “It’s not the case. It’s a long playoff and you’re going to have to deal with adversity and find a way through, so we’ll come back and make sure we’re ready to go next game.”
The Flyers responded with three straight goals for a 3-1 lead.
Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk and Matt Niskanen were the Flyers strikers in regulation.
“You want to produce, you want to be able to help the team,” Giroux said. “I was able to get a stick on it. Got a few chances in the first, couldn’t find the back of the net. When that one went it in it felt pretty good.”
For Giroux, it was his first post season goal.
Brock Nelson and Derick Brassard scored in the third period rally for New York; the two goals came in a span of 93 seconds.
“We just started to get chances,” New York’s Jordan Eberle said. “We got pucks in, we started to play the way we know we can play. We started to get a lot of chances. [Bailey] made a great play to [Nelson] and we found one and then we found the one from [Brassard], who’s been stepping up lately. So that’s just the character in our team. There’s no quit in us.”
Game 6 is set for Thursday.
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Flyers highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves in the loss.
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