The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the New York Islanders 5-4 in double overtime at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday to even the best-of-seven series at three games a piece, forcing a Game 7.

Ivan Provorov’s shot from the point found the back of the net with 4:57 left in the second overtime, giving Philadelphia their third overtime victory of the series. Scott Mayfield broke his stick earlier in the play and Kevin Hayes capitalized on the error, rushing down the ice and assisting Provorov’s game-winning tally.

“That’s just playoff hockey,” said Islanders head coach Barry Trotz. “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 outshot their opposition 53-31 and led late in the third period, but Scott Laughton’s breakaway goal evened the game and extended the Flyers’ season.

“We’ve just got to go through a little adversity,” 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.”

New York led 3-1 in this series before dropping two consecutive games in overtime. Teams that lead a series 3-1 are 285-29 all-time, including 8-0 in the first two rounds this season. However, when teams lose Games 5 and 6 after going up 3-1, they are 28-29 all-time.

“The frustration level is honestly about 30 seconds, and then that’s about it,” said Islanders forward Mat Barzal. “There’s nothing we can do. Game 6 is over now, and we’ve moved on.”

In the first period, two Islanders’ turnovers led to two Flyers’ goals. Kevin Hayes’ scored on a 3-on-2 10:16 into the first period and 1:36 seconds later, James van Riemsdyk put the Flyers up 2-0.

But the Islanders responded with a goal late in the first period, entering the intermission down one. That momentum continued into the second, as Matt Martin and Anders Lee added tallies to give New York a 3-2 lead.

That lasted about 10 minutes, coming to an end when Michael Raffl scored his fourth goal of the postseason. Mat Barzal, who was a game-time decision with an eye injury, took the lead right back, scoring on a wrist-shot with 30 seconds left in the second period.

Despite being outshot 14-4 in the final frame of regulation, the Flyers managed to tie it up and eventually scored their first double overtime goal since Mike Knuble’s winner in Game 4 in 2008 against the Capitals.

The Islanders have won all 10 previous series when they went up 3-1 but that will be put to the test in a Game 7. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST in Toronto, the final game that will take place in the Eastern Conference bubble.

David Lazar