Flyers force Game 7 as Ivan Provorov’s goal seals a 5-4 double OT win over Islanders

Hold the Flyers’ obituary.

The return of Oskar Lindblom, cancer survivor, was the inspiration.

The early goals by Kevin Hayes and James van Riemsdyk pointed them in the right direction.

The late-game heroics by Carter Hart, Scott Laughton and Ivan Provorov finished the improbable rally.

Put it all together, and it produced another draining overtime victory that extended the Flyers’ season.

For the second straight game, the Flyers held off elimination, this time with a riveting 5-4 double overtime win against the dazed New York Islanders at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.

“There’s no doubt this wasn’t one of our better games,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team was outshot by a 53-31 margin but dominated the second overtime. “But we found a way to get the job done.”

Provorov scored with 4 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second overtime as the Flyers evened the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals at three wins apiece. All three Flyers wins have come in overtime, the first time in history they have had three OT victories in the same series.

With Isles defenseman Scott Mayfield minus his (broken) stick, Hayes dropped a pass back to Provorov, who jumped into the play and scored on a high drive from the high slot, ending the third-longest game in the Flyers’ history.

“Their forward was sliding into the lane, so I shot it into the opposite side and tried to go to the top corner,” said Provorov, who was plus-3 and played a game-high 38:15.

It will come down to a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The winner of that game will meet Tampa Bay in the conference finals.

In franchise history, the Flyers are 9-7 in Game 7s.

“It permits us to have a chance, and that’s what we wanted. We wanted to have a chance,” Vigneault said. “If somebody would have asked me at the beginning of this series against such a strong opponent, ’Want a game [with] winner take all?’ I would have taken that.”

Seconds after the Flyers killed a third-period penalty, they tied the game at 4-4 as Claude Giroux sent Laughton (nine hits) on a breakaway, and he made a deft move to beat goalie Semyon Varlamov with 10:07 to go in regulation. It gave the Flyers four goals (three following turnovers) on just 14 shots.

Hart made several clutch saves on a New York power play late in regulation to force overtime. Hart finished with 49 saves, the fifth-highest total in franchise history in a playoff game.

“It’s no secret that Carter kept us in this game,” Giroux said. “He made some huge saves for us.”

Before the game, Vigneault said: “You can’t be looking at the big picture. We have to be focused on the details of the game. We have to be hungry and have that will when we’re on the ice.”

Winger Michael Raffl (five hits, plus-3) had that will. He missed the previous three games with an undisclosed injury, but he returned to the lineup and scored on a rebound with 6:39 left in the second, tying the game at 3-3. It was his fourth goal in only eight postseason games this summer.

It also temporarily dulled the momentum the Islanders had built by scoring three straight goals.

With 30 seconds left in the second, however, the Islanders took a 4-3 lead as Mathew Barzal scored from the left circle after a Travis Sanheim turnover.

The Islanders had scored two goals in the first 3:06 of the second period to grab a 3-2 lead. They scored three goals in a 6:33 span to erase a 2-0 deficit.

Matt Martin’s slot shot deflected off defenseman Justin Braun and through Hart’s legs with 18:36 left in the second, knotting the score at 2-2. Making matters worse for the Flyers: Vigneault’s ill-advised challenge – that made him 0-for-3 in those decisions in the series – for goalie interference on Casey Cizikas was denied, putting the Islanders on a power play.

The Flyers were burned by Vigneault’s challenge, which was turned down because Cizikas was tripped into Hart by Braun. Anders Lee scored on a rebound on the ensuing power play, giving the Isles a 3-2 lead with 16:54 remaining in the second.

After the game, Vigneault said the first replay he watched made it appear like Cizikas had pushed Hart. He later saw another replay after the challenge and it showed him something else. “If I would have seen that one, I wouldn’t have challenged,” he said.

Earlier, Lindblom’s return was met by stick taps from players from both sides and applause from the officials.

“It’s amazing. It’s something great for the whole hockey community,” Raffl said of Lindblom’s return. “The guy was battling for something else than just a hockey game, and he came out on top.”

It was Lindblom’s best friend on the team, fellow Swede Robert Hagg, who helped set up a Hayes goal that gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 9:44 left in the first.

Hagg’s stole the puck in the neutral zone and fed Travis Konecny, who made a slick feed to Hayes in the slot. The 28-year-old center whipped a shot that beat Varlamov high to the short side.

About 1½ minutes later, van Riemsdyk, who had been scoreless in the postseason until Tuesday, scored in his second straight game, putting a left-circle drive to the far side with 8:08 to go in the first.

The Islanders got to within 2-1 three seconds after a slashing penalty to Nic Aube-Kubel expired. Derick Brassard broke his stick in front as he converted Devon Toews’ pass and redirected it past Hart with 3:27 remaining in the opening period.

The relentless Islanders erupted with three goals during a second period in which they had an 18-8 shots domination, putting the Flyers in a desperate situation.

They responded, despite being without the injured Sean Couturier, their do-everything center.

“There were a lot of highs and lows, but I think we did a good job of staying in control and just keeping our eye on the prize,” Giroux said.

“We did a great job of just sticking with it and not overreacting when we’d give up a goal,” Provorov said, “and it paid off.”

And moved them within one win of a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals.