EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Elias Petterson scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, Thatcher Demko made 42 saves in his first NHL playoff start and the Vancouver Canucks staved off elimination by beating the Golden Knights 2-1 Tuesday night in Game 5 of their second-round series.
Western Conference top-seeded Vegas outshot Vancouver 43-17 and only cracked Demko once, on a highlight reel goal by defenseman Shea Theodore in the second. Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks and got the primary assist on Pettersson’s goal by taking the shot the 21-year-old Swede deflected past Robin Lehner.
Because of Demko’s dominant performance in net and timely scoring, there will be a Game 6 on Thursday night at Rogers Place. The Canucks joined the Colorado Avalanche and Philadelphia Flyers as teams down 3-1 this round to force a Game 6.
The winner of this series will face the winner of Stars-Avalanche in the Western Conference final.
FLYERS 4, ISLANDERS 3, OT
TORONTO (AP) - Scott Laughton scored on a redirect in overtime after Philadelphia blew a late two-goal lead, helping and the Flyers stave off elimination with a win over the Islanders.
Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk scored their first postseason goals after New York went up 1-0 on Josh Bailey’s first-period goal. Matt Niskanen added his first playoff goal early in the third period to put the Flyers up 3-1.
The scrappy Islanders made a big push late, though, tying it on goals by Brock Nelson and Derick Brassard 93 seconds apart.
Laughton redirected Ivan Provorov’s at 12:20 of overtime and Carter Hart stopped 29 shots to pull the Flyers within 3-2 in the best-of-seven second-round series.
Semyon Varlamov stopped 29 shots for New York.
Game 6 is Thursday in the Toronto bubble.
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