An almost-daily column that takes a look back at how the Philadelphia Flyers have fared on this day, recalling some of the more memorable moments, achievements, and events that shaped the organization throughout the club’s storied history
The Flyers went winless in their first three December 14 games (0-2-1), but have still managed an 11-4-3-0 overall record — which includes wins in their last three and six victories in the last seven, as well as a torrid 7-1-2-0 mark on home ice — over the course of franchise history.
Tonight’s matchup with the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center will be the first December 14 contest for the Flyers in six years.
Philadelphia has scored 51 goals and allowed just 33 to their opponents in 18 December 14 outings. Part of the reason for the brilliant defensive numbers were three consecutive shutouts (1995-1997) and four whitewashes in five contests on this date from 1995-2002.
Some of the more memorable moments and brief recaps in Flyers history that took place on December 14:
1967 — Brit Selby scored his first two goals in a Flyers’ uniform — with the second being the game-tying marker — and Bernie Parent stopped 30 of 32 shots as Philadelphia tied the St. Louis Blues, 2-2, at the Spectrum.
The visitors twice took leads — on a last-minute goal in the first by Frank St. Marseille and the second from Gary Sabourin midway through the middle frame — but both times Selby knotted the score minutes later.
Gary Dornhoefer assisted on both of Selby’s tallies.
Selby — who was claimed by the Flyers in the 1967 expansion draft — was skating in his first game after missing 17 straight contests with a separated shoulder sustained on November 2 against the Minnesota North Stars. The Kingston, Ontario-native had picked up just one assist in those early-season games.
Parent had to be very good with the score deadlocked in the third, as St. Louis controlled the last stanza by an 11-4 shot count. Glenn Hall made 29 saves in the draw, including 15 in a second period that saw Philly send 17 shots in his direction.
1968 — Bernie Parent stopped 46 of 47 shots — yielding only a first period goal to John Ferguson — but Tony Esposito stopped all 25 shots he faced in a Flyers’ 1-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum.
1972 — Bill Clement’s second goal of the game snapped a 3-3 tie with 3:28 remaining in the third period and goaltender Michel Belhumeur stopped 37 of 40 shots to lead the Flyers to a 5-3 triumph over the St. Louis Blues at the Spectrum.
Philadelphia stormed out to a 3-0 opening period lead on goals from Gary Dornhoefer, Bill Barber, and Bill Clement, but the Blues gained some equilibrium in the middle frame. Mike Murphy scored 13 seconds into the second on a power play carried over from a Dornhoefer hooking minor late in the first period, and Gary Sabourin made it a one-goal game just over eight minutes later.
Jack Egers knotted the game at 3-3 with 7:58 remaining in regulation, setting up Clement’s late game-winner. Bill Flett hit the empty net with 22 seconds left to seal the outcome.
Ross Lonsberry assisted on two Philly goals, and Belhumeur was especially good in crunch time when he stopped 14 of 15 shots in the third period to gain his fourth win of the season
The clubs got together and made a trade earlier in the day, with the Flyers dealing defender Brent Hughes and forward Pierre Plante to St. Louis in exchange for tough blue liner Andre Dupont and a draft pick. The players involved each skated for their new teams in this contest.
1976 — Gary Dornhoefer scored a pair of goals to help stake the Flyers to a 3-1 lead late in the third period, but Tim Young scored twice within the last two minutes — including the game-tying strike with just 16 seconds remaining — in a 3-3 deadlock with the Minnesota North Stars at the Met Center.
Bobby Clarke also scored for Philadelphia with a shorthanded marker in the opening stanza, and Rick MacLeish added a pair of helpers. The two goals gave Dornhoefer four goals and seven point in a four-game point-scoring streak.
Flyers netminder Gary Inness stopped 24 of 27 shots, and Minnesota’s Pete LoPresti made 17 saves in the draw.
1978 — Reggie Leach snapped a 1-1 tie with five minutes left in the second period, and Bernie Parent made the one-goal lead hold up the rest of the way by stopping 24 of 25 shots in a 2-1 Flyers win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Spectrum.
George Ferguson opened the scoring for the visitors while they were killing off a penalty, but Mel Bridgman knotted things up seven minutes later to send the clubs to intermission in a 1-1 deadlock before Leach provided the game-winning goal in the middle frame.
Despite dominating the third period to the tune of a 13-4 shots count, Philadelphia couldn’t extend their lead due to the excellent netminding of Denis Herron, who finished the contest with 31 saves.
1980 — Rick MacLeish beat Mike Liut with 3:12 remaining in the third period to lift the Flyers to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the Spectrum.
Behn Wilson gave the home team an early lead, but a pair of strikes from Mike Crombeen and another from Perry Turnbull gave the Blues a 3-1 lead after the first 20 minutes.
Philadelphia outshot the visitors by a 36-12 margin over the final two periods — which included a lopsided 22-3 middle frame — and gradually climbed their way back into the contest.
Paul Holmgren’s second period tally made it a 3-2 Blues lead at the second intermission, and third period strikes from Bill Barber and Reggie Leach in the first 3:15 put the Flyers in front, 4-3. But Wayne Babych’s power play goal knotted the score 4:48 later, setting the stage for MacLeish’s late-game heroics.
Goaltender Rick St. Croix made 22 saves to pick up the victory, while Liut stopped 39 of 44 Flyer shots in the loss.
1985 — Dave Poulin gave Philadelphia their first lead of the night with 2:01 remaining as the Flyers scored four times in the third period to pull out a brawl-filled, come-from-behind 6-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena.
Tim Kerr netted a power play marker in the first period — giving him three in the last two games and 28 in Philadelphia’s 31st game — but tallies from Warren Young and Claude Loiselle staked the Wings to a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
After Doug Crossman tied things up on another power play midway through the second, Steve Yzerman put Detroit back on top less than two minutes later and John Ogrodnick made it a 4-2 lead for the home team heading into the final frame.
Brian Propp brought the Flyers back to within a goal and Crossman’s second of the contest deadlocked the score at 4-4, setting the stage for Poulin’s late game-winner before Murray Craven iced the outcome when he hit the empty cage with seven ticks left on the clock and Detroit netminder Mark Laforest pulled for an extra attacker.
Head coach Mike Keenan lifted starting goaltender Bob Froese after Ogrodnick’s goal with five minutes left in the second period and brought in Darren Jensen, who did not allow a goal on the nine shots he faced the rest of the way to garner the victory.
There were eight fighting majors and a pair of game misconducts doled out among the contests 124 PIMs, including 74 in the middle stanza alone.
The come-from-behind triumph made it three consecutive wins for the first place Orange-and-Black, and four in their last five outings.
1986 — Tim Kerr scored twice and Ron Hextall stopped 30 of 31 shots to lead Philadelphia to a 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Winnipeg Arena.
Kerr’s goals were sandwiched around a man advantage marker from defenseman Brad McCrimmon, as the Flyers built a solid 3-0 lead after the first period and never looked back.
Peter Zezel made it a four-goal margin early in the second, before Andrew McBain dashed Hextall’s hopes for a zero-goal game just 16 seconds later.
Though he lost the shutout, the victory upped the combative rookie’s season record to a stellar 18-6-2. Hextall — who revolutionized the goaltending position as one of the best puckhandlers ever to play the sport — also collected his fourth assist of the season on Zezel’s second period marker.
1991 — Dan Quinn beat Ed Belfour with 1:28 remaining in the third period, while Dominic Roussel turned away 41 shots to help the Flyers salvage a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Blackhawks at the Spectrum.
1995 — John LeClair and Eric Lindros each figured in on three goals and Ron Hextall stopped all 18 shots he faced to post his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 whitewash of the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Spectrum.
LeClair opened the scoring with a power play goal with 17 seconds remaining in the first period, then set up Lindros midway through the middle stanza to make it 2-0. LeClair scored his second of the game and 20th of the season late in the frame, and Pat Falloon closed out the scoring with a third period marker.
The three points for LeClair gave him six goals and 10 points in his last five outings.
Current Flyer goaltending coach Jeff Reese stopped 27 of 31 Philly shots for Tampa in the loss.
1996 — Rod Brind’Amour notched a pair of goals, Dale Hawerchuk added three assists, and Garth Snow stopped 21 shots to post his first-ever NHL shutout in a 4-0 whitewash of the Hartford Whalers at the Hartford Civic Center.
John LeClair and Eric Lindros forged a 2-0 Philadelphia lead in the opening session, and Brind’Amour added one tally in each of the last two periods.
The Flyers threw 14 shots on Whalers’ goalie Jason Muzzati in all three stanzas, while Snow won for just the third time in nine decisions (3-5-1) since being acquired as Ron Hextall’s backup.
1997 — John LeClair scored twice and Ron Hextall turned aside all 20 shots he faced to post his second shutout of the year and 17th regular season zero-goal game as a Flyer in a 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the CoreStates Center.
Rod Brind’Amour scored the only goal Hextall would need on a shorthanded strike midway through the second period with Chris Gratton in the sin bin. LeClair would post his 25th of the season later in the session, then add his 26th in the final stanza to close out the scoring.
It was the fourth straight game in which LeClair had netted at least a goal, a span that saw him score six times. The big winger lost a chance to complete a hat trick when he and Bolts’ defender Michel Petit were each given misconducts with just under 10 minutes remaining in what was an acrimonious third period that saw 96 PIMs handed out between the teams.
2002 — Donald Brashear and Eric Desjardins each scored goals and Robert Esche made 15 saves to notch his first shutout in a Flyers uniform in a 2-0 blanking of the Buffalo Sabres at the First Union Center.
Esche — who came to Philadelphia over the summer along with forward Michal Handzus in exchange for netminder Brian Boucher — faced just 15 shots in muting the Sabres and improving his record to 5-1-2 while serving as backup to Roman Cechmanek.
2009 — Kimmo Timonen scored twice in the third period and Brian Boucher made 26 saves to lead the Flyers to a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in a prelude to the upcoming NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day at Fenway Park.
Vladimir Sobotka staked the home squad to a 1-0 lead at the second intermission, but James van Riemsdyk evened the scored early in the third.
Timonen’s blue line shot changed direction before it got to Bruins starter Tim Thomas and floated over the goalie’s glove and high into the net to give the visitors their first lead at 2-1 with 9:32 left in regulation. Timonen added a shorthanded empty-netter with 41 seconds remaining and also assisted on van Riemsdyk’s earlier strike, as the defender figured in on all three goals in the stanza.
Brian Boucher stopped 26 of the 27 Boston shots he faced in picking up his third victory of the season in 10 decisions.
2010 — Scott Hartnell‘s power play goal with 9:56 remaining in regulation snapped a 2-2 deadlock and propelled the Flyers to a 3-2 triumph over the red hot Pittsburgh Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center, putting an abrupt halt to the Pens 12-game winning streak. It was Philly’s fifth win in six outings, moving them ahead of their cross-state rivals into first place overall in the NHL.
Claude Giroux and Nikolay Zherdev also scored for Philadelphia, while Evgeni Malkin notched both of the Penguin tallies.
Brian Boucher made 21 saves to pick up the victory, while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 of the 37 Flyer shots he faced in the losing effort.
December 14 Flyers’ Trade:
On this day in 1972, the Flyers sent defender Brent Hughes and winger Pierre Plante to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for rugged defenseman Andre Dupont. The stocky 6′, 200-pounder would become a vital member of the Broad Street Bullies’ blue line, adding a highly physical presence and chipping in with the “Moose Shuffle” after scoring the occasional goal. Dupont would play a key defensive role in Philly’s two Stanley Cup championship teams in the mid-1970’s.
December 14 Flyers’ Birthday:
Chris Therien was born on this day in 1971. The 6′ 5″, 235-pound defenseman was selected by Philadelphia in the third round (47th-overall) of the 1990 draft, and appeared in 753 contests — a franchise-record for defenders — in two tours with the Orange-and-Black. He posted 29 goals, 159 points, a +125 rating, and 583 penalty minutes while skating as the defensive partner of Eric Desjardins for much of his time with the Flyers. The Ottawa, Ontario-native has been a part of the club’s game broadcasts since 2008, beginning as radio analyst before moving over to the television side of things as the guy between the benches.
