Flyers use OT to defeat Islanders in Game 5, extend Eastern Second Round

Scott Laughton scored at 12:20 of overtime, and the Philadelphia Flyers avoided elimination by defeating the New York Islanders 4-3 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Tuesday.

Laughton scored on a tip of Ivan Provorov's point shot.
"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."
WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Flyers highlights]
Game 6 is in Toronto, the Eastern hub city, on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN TVAS).
Laughton and Claude Giroux each had a goal and an assist, and James van Riemsdyk and Matt Niskanen scored for Philadelphia, the No. 1 seed in the East. Carter Hart made 29 saves, and Travis Konecny had two assists.
Flyers center Sean Couturier did not play in the third period or overtime after colliding with Islanders forward Mathew Barzal with 2:34 remaining in the second period. Philadelphia coach Alain Vigneault did not have an update on Couturier's condition after the game.
Barzal, Brock Nelson and Derick Brassard scored for New York, the No. 6 seed in the East. Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves.

"Obviously we would have liked to have closed it out tonight," said Islanders forward Josh Bailey, who had two assists. "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."
Barzal left the game with 4:47 remaining in the third period after being hit in the face by Giroux's stick. New York coach Barry Trotz said he hoped to have more information Wednesday.
Laughton is tied with Jakub Voracek for the Flyers lead with four goals in the postseason, but his goal in Game 5 was his first since the second game of the round-robin portion of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, and he was scratched from Game 2 of this series. He had two assists in 10 games prior to Tuesday.
"You need a little reset after a tough series against [the] Montreal [Canadiens]," Laughton said of Philadelphia's six-game victory in the first round. "There's no secret I had a tough one. Just trying to contribute the best way I can and be part of the solution here."

Laughton started Tuesday on the third line with van Riemsdyk and Konecny but earned a chance on the top line with Giroux and Voracek after Couturier left the game.
"I've always said Scotty is one of our character players," 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]."
Trailing 3-1 late in the third period, the Islanders rallied with two goals in 1:33 to force overtime.
Nelson made it 3-2 with a one-timer with 4:14 remaining in the period, and Brassard tied it 3-3 with 2:41 left.
"We just started to get chances," Islanders forward 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."
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 1:20 of the second period on a power-play goal by Barzal, who had a shot by Bailey bounce off him and past Hart. The goal was upheld after Vigneault challenged for goaltender interference.
Bailey has 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) this postseason, the most by a New York player since Ray Ferraro (20) and Steve Thomas (17) in 1993.
Giroux tied it 1-1 at 15:45 of the second when he deflected a point shot by Philippe Myers between Varlamov's pads.
Van Riemsdyk put Philadelphia ahead 2-1 with 1:42 remaining in the second when he finished a 3-on-1 rush.

It was the first goal of the season for each player. Vigneault had said his top players, including Giroux and van Riemsdyk, needed to "put the big-boy pants on."
Giroux's goal was the 25th of his NHL postseason career but his second in his past 27 postseason games dating to 2014. He has 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in 18 games when the Flyers are facing elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"You want to produce, you want to be able to help the team," he 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."
Niskanen made it 3-1 at 4:32 of the third on a play that started with Kevin Hayes intercepting the puck at the top of the New York zone.
NHL.com deputy managing editor Brian Compton and staff writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report