Flyers Force Overtime, Then a Game 7

Keith Primeau saved the Philadelphia Flyers’ season. Simon Gagne gave them at least one more game.

Gagne scored his second goal with 1:42 left in overtime, leading the Flyers to a 5-4 home victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night.

Game 7 is Saturday in Tampa, Fla. The winner will play the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup finals, starting Tuesday.

“I need everybody around me to help. I got that tonight,” said Primeau, who scored twice, including the tying goal with 1:49 left in regulation.

The Flyers are seeking their eighth trip to the Cup finals, and first since being swept by Detroit in 1997. The Lightning, in the playoffs for only the third time in the franchise’s 12 seasons, has never reached the Cup finals.

After Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin made several outstanding saves in the extra period, the Primeau-Gagne-Jeremy Roenick line struck again in its first game together.

Primeau took a shot that hit Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina and went to Roenick, whose shot bounced to Gagne at the other side of the net. Gagne snapped a shot that hit Khabibulin and squeaked in.

“The puck went right to my stick and I shot it as hard as I could,” Gagne said. “I was excited when I saw that line on the board this morning.”

Sami Kapanen also had a goal for Philadelphia, which won its second overtime game of the playoffs.

Ruslan Fedotenko and Vincent Lecavalier each scored twice for the Lightning.

“If we win Game 7, this game has no bearing,” Lightning center Tim Taylor said. “We can’t get on the plane and mope around.”

Fedotenko’s first goal against his former teammates tied the score, 3-3, in the second period. He scored on a power play from almost the same spot on a near-identical pass from Dave Andreychuk to give the Lightning a 4-3 lead with 2:27 left in the second.

But Tampa Bay seemed content to sit on the lead in the third period, and Primeau made them pay for it.

From the left side of the net, Primeau kicked the puck through Khabibulin’s pads, came around the other side and jammed it in to force overtime.

Now, the injury-depleted Flyers, playing without defensemen Eric Desjardins and Marcus Ragnarsson and forward Radovan Somik, are a victory away from playing for the Cup.

“This team has a special quality. It won’t quit,” Flyer Coach Ken Hitchcock said.