Toronto Victory Sets Up Game 7

The Toronto Maple Leafs won’t be celebrating their Game 6 survival for long.

Travis Green scored 10:51 into the second overtime as the Maple Leafs beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, Monday night in Toronto to force a decisive Game 7 in the first-round Eastern Conference series.

The teams have played seven overtime periods during the first six games of the series but will have to recover in a hurry because Game 7 is tonight in Philadelphia. It will be one of three Game 7s tonight. In the Western Conference, Minnesota, which defeated Colorado, 3-2, in overtime Monday, plays in Denver and St. Louis will be at Vancouver.

“We live to play another game,” Green said. “It was quite a relief when the puck went in.”

Green backhanded a shot over goalie Roman Cechmanek after Darcy Tucker’s rebound landed in front of the net.

All three games played in Toronto in this series were decided in overtime.

Jeremy Roenick scored for the Flyers, who have lost in the first round four of the last five years.

Roenick said the Flyers will have the edge tonight.

“It’s a big bonus for us to be playing in our building with our fans,” Roenick said. “It’s a one-game series now. There’s no time to rest.”

Toronto’s Mats Sundin almost won it in the first overtime with a backhanded shot, but Cechmanek made a sprawling pad save. Sundin later hit the post. The Maple Leafs’ Gary Roberts missed a few good chances in both overtimes.

Cechmanek, who made 34 saves, later robbed Tucker with a kick save. Toronto’s Ed Belfour stopped 35 shots.

Minnesota 3, Colorado 2 -- The Wild isn’t playing like a 3-year-old team making its postseason debut.

Richard Park scored his second goal of the game 4:22 into overtime at Minneapolis to give the Wild a thrilling win over the Avalanche and force Game 7 tonight in Denver.

“We’ve accomplished something so far, and we don’t want to let up,” said Marian Gaborik, who put Minnesota ahead, 2-0, midway through the third period.

“We want to go back strong and try to play the best game we’ve ever played.”

The Wild has won two straight on the brink of elimination.

Minnesota Coach Jacques Lemaire, eager to get his team to Colorado, cracked one-liners throughout his postgame news conference.

“We could’ve taken our time, but we’ve got a game tomorrow,” Lemaire said. “If we would’ve lost, we could’ve gone until 1 a.m.”

Of the 193 teams in NHL history that have trailed a series, 3-1, only seven have come back to win with two victories on the road.

“We’re going to be in our barn,” Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy said, “and there’s no reason for us not to be confident.”

After trailing, 2-0, late in the third period, Colorado looked like the favorite for overtime, getting goals from Joe Sakic and Greg de Vries against Manny Fernandez in the final 3 1/2 minutes.

But the Avalanche didn’t even get off a shot in the extra period and now will play a Game 7 for the fifth straight series, dating to the Stanley Cup finals in 2001.