TORONTO (Reuters) - Jeremy Roenick's overtime goal earned the Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday and a berth in the Eastern Conference playoff finals.
The Flyers now meet the Tampa Bay Lightning for a place in the Stanley Cup finals. But the Maple Leafs and their fans will endure another long off-season, their championship drought having been extended to 37 years.
Roenick's second goal of the game snuffed out a valiant comeback bid by the Leafs, who scored twice late in the third period to force overtime.
Riding a wave of momentum and energized by the sellout crowd, Toronto surged on to the attack in overtime. But the Flyers clinched their place in the East finals when Roenick broke into the Toronto zone two-on-one with Tony Amonte and rifled a rising slap shot past Ed Belfour to secure the best-of-seven series 4-2.
"It's just huge, so big," Roenick told reporters. "When you let a two-goal lead get diminished in the last 10 minutes of a game and come out in overtime and beat a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's amazing.
"It's like a dream really. I knew before I went out on the ice if I got the chance I was going to score."
PHYSICAL PLAY
Embarrassed 7-2 in Game Five Sunday, the Maple Leafs had hoped a return to Air Canada Center would bring a return to form and force Game Seven. But for most of the contest the Leafs could not match Philadelphia's physical play or find a way past Robert Esche, who was back in the Flyers' net after missing the last two periods of Game Five because of flu.
Facing elimination, Toronto began the game with a sense of urgency.
The Flyers, however, weathered the early storm and drew first blood, Radovan Somik giving Philadelphia a 1-0 lead with his opening goal of the playoffs.
Roenick then poked home his own rebound from the side of an open net before the first intermission. Following a scoreless second period, Karel Pilar, a replacement for injured defenseman Ken Klee, breathed life into Toronto's Stanley Cup hopes when his slap shot from the point found its way through a crowd for his first career playoff goal.
With a little more than four minutes remaining in regulation, Toronto's Swedish captain Mats Sundin brought the crowd to its feet when he snared a loose puck in the slot and hammered it past Esche.
"We've won eight games (in the playoffs) but our goal is only halfway there," said Esche, who faced 38 shots. "It's great to go to the conference final but we've got a lot more to prove."