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| - Thatcher Demko stopped all 48 shots as the Vancouver Canucks staved off elimination for the second straight Stanley Cup playoff game with a 4-0 shutout of the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Californian Demko won his second straight career playoff start, becoming the first rookie goaltender to do it with his team facing elimination since the maskless Jacques Plante in 1953. Demko powered the Canucks to a winner-take-all game seven in their Western Conference series on Friday night in the NHL's quarantine bubble in Edmonton, Alberta. "I feel great," said Demko, shrugging off questions about his fitness after appearing to injure himself on a difficult save late in the game. The 24-year-old from San Diego also had 42 saves in his first career playoff start, a 2-1 victory in game five while replacing injured No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom. In Toronto, Ivan Provorov scored in double overtime as the Philadelphia Flyers kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the New York Islanders 5-4 to set up another Friday game seven in their Eastern Conference series. J.T. Miller had a goal and an assist and Jake Virtanen and Bo Horvat also scored for Vancouver, which evened the best-of-seven series at 3-3. "Thatcher has been our MVP both nights. He's making it easy for us to win games," said Virtanen. American defenceman Quinn Hughes now has 14 assists in this year's playoffs, joining forward Marian Stastny in 1982 and Ville Leino in 2010 as the only others to reach that number. The 20-year-old Hughes has been brilliant on offence but has struggled on defence when he comes up against bigger, stronger Vegas forwards like Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty. Robin Lehner finished with 19 saves for Vegas, which will try to avoid blowing a 3-1 playoff series lead for the second straight season on Friday. San Jose bounced back to eliminate the Golden Knights in the first round in 2019. Also, Provorov scored with just under five minutes left in the second extra session and goaltender Carter Hart made 49 saves for the Flyers who tied the Eastern Conference second round series 3-3. Provorov's winning wrist shot from the point capped an emotional day for the Flyers, who welcomed back Swedish forward Oskar Lindblom who played his first game since being diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer in December. Lindblom, who underwent months of chemotherapy, was cheered by both teams the first time he stepped on the ice for a shift. "I don't think there is anything that can describe how proud we all are of him and how much he means to this team," Hart said of Lindblom. Canadian Matt Barzal, who was a questionable starter for New York after getting hurt in game five, had a goal and an assist for the Islanders who are seeking to reach the NHL's semi-finals for the first time in 27 years. Derick Brassard, Anders Lee and Matt Martin also scored in regulation and Semyon Varlamov stopped 26 shots. But the biggest star of the contest was Flyers goalie Hart as the Isles outshot Philadelphia 53-31. Canada's Hart made several brilliant saves, including a sequence of stops with 90 seconds left in the third while Philadelphia was killing a penalty. With the Isles storming the Flyers net, but Hart made a diving game saving stop from in close off Lee. Lee had another chance to win it with 6:46 left in the first overtime but Hart stopped him cold again. This time Hart made a calculated move, saving precious seconds by dropping his stick so he could slide faster across the crease to deny Lee again. Both teams had injury problems coming into the game. Barzal suited up for the Islanders despite being hurt, but Flyers forward Sean Couturier sat out after banging knees with Barzal in game five. gph/th
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