PHILADELPHIA -- The search may have taken all season, but Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier finally found his confidence.

And it couldn't have happened at a worse time for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Playing the role of spoiler to near perfection, Bernier was under constant duress from a desperate Flyers team, yet the Maple Leafs came away with a 4-3 overtime victory thanks to Bernier's 41 saves.

The win by Bernier and the Leafs, who have the worst record in the NHL, put a serious crimp in the Flyers playoff hopes. It knocked the Flyers from the final wild-card position in the Eastern Conference, and Philadelphia is now one point behind both Detroit and Boston with just two games to play.

After struggling mightily at the beginning of the season, going without a win for the first two months, Bernier was demoted to the minors. He came back and slowly rediscovered the form that made him such a highly touted net minder, and over the last eight starts of the season, he was excellent, allowing just 16 goals on 266 shots faced.

"It was a really tough season for me," said Bernier. "But I played every game hard and it meant a lot to me to show I have a lot of character and to finish strong."

Making his final start of the season, Bernier was on point from the opening draw and stopped wave after wave of Flyers chances, including all four power play opportunities.

"He's done a good job of late," said Toronto coach Mike Babcock. "He's gotten his confidence back. This was his last game so it's a good way for him to go into the summer feeling good about himself."

Jake Gardiner scored the game-winner on a one-time power-play goal in the extra session, although the Flyers took umbrage with the goal, claiming goaltender interference. The play was reviewed and it was deemed that there was no interference and the goal counted.

"I don't want to get into a debate on referees or their calls," said Flyers coach Dave Hakstol. "But I think it was goalie interference on the winning goal. But, that's a moot point at this time."

It was especially frustrating because the Flyers had a goal by Jake Voracek negated by an incidental goaltender interference call on Flyers captain Claude Giroux.

"If (my) goal is disallowed, why isn't (theirs)," asked Voracek. "It seems every game the rule is different."

Toronto was only able to muster 26 shots of their own, but were aided by a couple of defensive mental lapses by the Flyers in the opening period, and in both instances, it resulted in goals for the Leafs.

Giroux inexplicably went for a line change with the puck deep in his own zone. This left Wayne Simmonds to try and mark two different Leafs. He went for one and Toronto defenseman Martin Marincin found the other.

Rookie center William Nylander was all alone on the doorstep and took a pass from Marincin and flipped it into a yawning net to get the Leafs on the scoreboard first a little more than five minutes into the contest. It was Nylander's sixth goal of the season.

Later in the first period, with the Flyers looking sluggish, the Leafs capitalized on their opponent's sloppy spacing and Nylander sprung Colin Greening on a breakaway as Greening blew past defenseman Radko Gudas and beat Steve Mason for his seventh goal to make it 2-0.

The Flyers had much better jump early in the second period and it immediately paid dividends as Brayden Schenn re-directed a centering pass by Sam Gagner past Bernier to cut the Leafs lead in half just 28 seconds into the period.

The Flyers continued to pepper Bernier, but he stood tall in goal long enough for Michael Grabner to intercept a telegraphed pass by Simmonds and score an insurance marker on a breakaway to make it 3-1 Toronto.

However, the Flyers were able to earn an important point by overcoming that two-goal deficit in the third period as Andrew MacDonald scored his first goal of the season and Simmonds tied it with 58 seconds to play, notching his 30th goal of the season.

But MacDonald took a tripping penalty in overtime, leading to the Leafs goal and leaving the Flyers in a position where they have to win both of their final two games of the season to make the playoffs, or get some additional outside help in the way of a Detroit and/or Boston loss Saturday.

"Losing this game was very disappointing," Giroux said. "But, if you would've told us two months ago, we'd be in this position, we'd take it."

NOTES: After serving as a backup for 10 games, Flyers G Anthony Stolarz was loaned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL on Thursday. He was sent down because G Michal Neuvirth rejoined the team after missing nine games with a left knee injury. G Ray Emery, whom the Flyers signed at the end of March as an emergency fallback option, remains on the roster as well. ... The Maple Leafs were once again without leading scorer C Nazem Kadri, who served the third of his four-game suspension for an illegal crosscheck last Saturday to Detroit C Luke Glendening. ... C Scott Laughton returned to the lineup for the Flyers after being a healthy scratch for the past seven games. He replaced C Nick Cousins, who is a healthy scratch for the first time since being recalled from the AHL in February. Other healthy scratches for Philadelphia were Emery, C R.J. Umberger, C Jordan Weal and D Evgeny Medvedev. ... The Maple Leafs had no healthy scratches but have a sizeable injury list with nine different players out of the lineup, including C Leo Komarov who has missed 11 straight games. However, he made the road trip with the Leafs and, according to Toronto coach Mike Babcock, may see action in the season finale in New Jersey on Saturday.