Islanders eager for third chance to close out Flyers in East Second Round

The New York Islanders knew it wasn't going to be easy to eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Second Round. But they must be certain of it now.

The Islanders came up short again in their second attempt at finishing off the Flyers, losing 5-4 in double overtime in Game 6 of the best-of-7 series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday.
Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov scored 15:03 into the second overtime Thursday, two days after Scott Laughton's defection at 12:20 of overtime kept the Flyers alive with a 4-3 win in Game 5.
So the Islanders will have to try again Saturday in Game 7 in Toronto, the East hub city (7:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVAS). The winner plays the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.
"We've just got to go through a little adversity," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "One thing that you do as a team is you fight adversity and you grow. You grow as a group. So this is part of our process."
The Flyers also won Game 2 in overtime, pulling out a 4-3 win on defenseman Philippe Myers' goal. But the Islanders looked well on their way to reaching a conference final for the first time since 1993 when their 3-2 win in Game 4 on Sunday extended their series lead.
Teams with a 3-1 lead are 285-29 (90.8 percent) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series, including 7-0 in the first two rounds this season.
But Philadelphia has proven to be resilient with its back against the wall. Now New York will have to be too.
"Obviously, we would have liked to end this thing tonight," Islanders forward Matt Martin said. "We'll just approach this next game [that] obviously, our season's on the line. If we put forth the effort we put out there tonight there tonight, I like our chances."

There was a lot for the Islanders to like about how they played Thursday. They outshot the Flyers 53-31 and after trailing 2-0 battled back to take leads of 3-2 and 4-3.
But New York made enough mistakes to allow Philadelphia to hang around. The Flyers could become the second team to win three straight games in overtime when facing elimination and win a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series. The Vancouver Canucks did so in the 1994 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Calgary Flames.
Islanders' turnovers led to Kevin Hayes' 3-on-2 goal that gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead 10:16 into the first period and James van Riemsdyk's goal that made it 2-0 at 11:52.
Another misplay of the puck by New York defenseman Devon Toews at the offensive blue line at the end of a power play culminated in Laughton's breakaway goal that pulled the Flyers even at 4-4 at 9:53 of the third period.
Then, in what led to Provorov's winning goal. New York defenseman Scott Mayfield's stick broke when he went to pass the puck at the right point in Philadelphia's end.
That allowed Hayes to get the loose puck, skate into the Islanders zone and set up Provorov for a shot from between the circles that beat goalie Semyon Varlamov through a screen.
"That's just playoff hockey," Trotz said. "We have it in their end, we break a stick and they come down and score. Those are stuff that we can't control."
The Islanders were not tested like this in their best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifier series against the Florida Panthers, which they won in four games, or in their first-round series against the Washington Capitals, which they won in five. If they got one bounce in any of the three games that went overtime in this series, they'd be preparing to face the Lightning.
But they can't dwell on that.
"There's nothing we can do," said center Mathew Barzal, whose goal with 30 seconds remaining in the second period gave New York a 4-3 lead. "Game 6 is over now, and we've moved on. It's an unfortunate play there at the end, but it happens and now it's a winner-take-all Game 7. We turned the page in the last 10 minutes or whatever it. Had a nice team talk after the game quickly and move on."