An almost-daily 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
Even though they went winless in their first five (0-4-1-0) and last two (0-1-0-1) November 15 outings, the Flyers have still managed a 12-5-3-2 record in 22 games played on this date. Following their initial winless skid, Philadelphia went 10-0-2-0 in November 15 tilts from 1979-2006.
Some of the more memorable November 15 moments in franchise history:
1974 — Orest Kindrachuk scored early in the third period and Bernie Parent turned aside 32 of 34 shots as the Flyers erased a 2-0 deficit and salvaged a 2-2 tie with the Atlanta Flames at the Omni.
Rick MacLeish also scored for Philadelphia, who extended their undefeated streak to 10 games (8-0-2), while Parent extended his personal unbeaten string to 11 (8-0-3).
1979 — Kenny Linseman scored twice and Phil Myre stopped 35 of 38 shots as the Flyers skated to a 5-3 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers at the Spectrum in the inaugural meeting of the two squads.
Edmonton joined the NHL the previous summer when the WHA folded and four teams –Edmonton, the Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers, and Winnipeg Jets — were brought into the fold.
Goals from Bill Barber, Linseman, and John Paddock staked Philadelphia to a 3-1 lead at the first intermission, but defenseman Pat Price cut the Oilers’ deficit to one goal heading into the third period.
Linseman netted his second of the contest at 1:49 and Reggie Leach made it a 5-2 game less than seven minutes later.
Defenseman Norm Barnes added helpers on two Philly markers, while a first-year Oilers’ youngster named Wayne Gretzky assisted on two of the three Edmonton tallies.
It was the Flyers’ ninth consecutive victory — extending the club’s unbeaten streak to 13 straight games (12-0-1) as they continued to push towards the NHL record — and gave the team a 13-1-1 regular season record.
1980 — Paul Holmgren’s goal in the last half-minute of the second period proved to be the eventual game-winner in a 5-2 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings at the Spectrum.
Trailing 1-0 heading toward the midway point of regulation, Philadelphia got goals from Brian Propp, Rick MacLeish, and Holmgren to take a 3-1 lead before the second intermission.
Detroit’s George Lyle netted his second goal of the contest to bring the Red Wings back to within one with 8:56 remaining, but rookie Tim Kerr scored his fifth of the year to give the Flyers an insurance marker.
Bill Barber extended his streak to five straight games with at least a goal (scoring seven during that span) when he notched his 17th with just under four minutes left.
1981 — Ron Flockhart scored the game-winning goal early in the third period and recorded three points, while Pete Peeters made 22 saves to lead the Flyers to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders at the Spectrum.
Things didn’t look good early for Philly as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions dominated the first period — outshooting Philadelphia, 12-4 — and taking a 3-0 lead on tallies from Butch Goring, Bobby Nystrom, and Mike Bossy within a 2:06 span before the contest was even six minutes old.
Goals by Bill Barber, Jim Watson, and Ilkka Sinisalo tied the game up midway through the middle frame, but Denis Potvin gave the visitors a 4-3 lead on a power play marker with Brian Propp in the penalty box for slashing with just under five minutes remaining in the stanza.
Propp made up for that infraction by knotting the score early in the third before Flockhart notched his game-winner.
Bobby Clarke added a pair of helpers for the Flyers, who won for just the second time in their last seven outings (2-5-0).
1984 — Tim Kerr scored a pair of goals and Pelle Lindbergh stopped 26 of 27 shots as the Flyers dominated the Hartford Whalers 6-1 on Bobby Clarke Night at the Spectrum.
Clarke’s number 16 was retired and raised to the Spectrum rafters in a pre-game ceremony before a rabid sellout crowd of 17,191. The consummate leader — who captained the franchise to their lone pair of Stanley Cup championships and retired as an active player to become the club’s GM the previous spring — still owns the all-time franchise marks for games played (1,144), assists (852), points (1,210), and shorthanded goals (32).
The two tallies gave Kerr a four-game goal-scoring streak, in which the big winger scored seven times. In 15 games for the season, Kerr had posted 17 goals, including six-multiple goal contests.
Derrick Smith, Dave Poulin, Rich Sutter, and Murray Craven also put the puck past Hartford goalie Greg Millen in the rout.
Lindbergh won for a fourth consecutive decision and ran his own personal unbeaten streak to seven games without a loss (6-0-1).
1990 — Rick Tocchet scored one goal and set up another and Pete Peeters turned away 28 shots as the Flyers dumped the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 at the Spectrum.
Keith Acton, Mike Ricci, and Murray Craven also scored for Philadelphia, who stayed unbeaten in their last four games (3-0-1).
1992 — Rookie Eric Lindros recorded his first career hat trick as the Crazy Eights Line posted 12 points, and Dominic Roussel made 31 saves as the Flyers bombed the Ottawa Senators 7-2 at the Spectrum.
Lindros scored once in each period and added an assist, while Mark Recchi notched a goal and four helpers and Brent Fedyk added a goal and three points. The outburst continued the trio’s red-hot play, giving them 15 goals and 35 points (Recchi 3-11-14, Fedyk 6-6-12, Lindros 6-3-9) over four games after being re-united by head coach Bill Dineen.
The four contests, not so coincidentally, were all Philadelphia wins, snapping an 0-5-2 skid prior to the Crazy Eights being reassembled.
Mark Pederson and Claude Boivin also lit the lamp for the Flyers in the goal stampede.
2000 — Mark Recchi’s goal 3:26 into overtime lifted the Flyers to a 2-1 triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre.
The goal was Recchi’s first in just his fifth appearance of the year after missing the last nine games and 13 of the previous 14 with concussion-related issues.
Tallies from Toronto’s Darcy Tucker and Philly’s Ruslan Fedotenko — separated by just 0:12 late in the first period — represented the only scoring in regulation. Fedotenko’s came off his own rebound after being set up by Rick Tocchet from behind the net.
First-year Flyer Roman Cechmanek made 30 saves to record his fourth consecutive win and outplayed the Leafs’ Curtis Joseph, who finished with 29 saves in the loss.
2001 — Keith Primeau had a goal and two assists, while Brian Boucher and Roman Cechmanek combined to stop all 24 shots they faced in a 5-0 whitewash of the Washington Capitals at the First Union Center.
Goals from Primeau, Jiri Dopita, and Mark Recchi gave Philadelphia a 3-0 lead just 3:40 into the contest.
Primeau opened the scoring 44 in, then Dopita deflected a Kim Johnsson past Olie Kolzig 1:34 later with Peter Bondra in the penalty box serving a high-sticking minor. The tally was Dopita’s first in the NHL and came in his third game and second since returning after missing 15 with a knee injury suffered on opening night.
Dopita gave Washington a chance to get one back when he was nabbed for a high stick of his own just 10 seconds after his marker, but Recchi batted Primeau’s rebound past Kolzig for a shorthanded strike to make it a three-goal lead.
John LeClair and Simon Gagne later added goals, while Johnsson and Eric Desjardins each assisted on a pair of markers.
Boucher, who had made 13 saves and was leading the NHL in goals-against average at the time with a 1.50 mark, left the game late in the second period after injuring his hamstring in a goalmouth scramble. Cechmanek preserved the shutout by turning aside all 11 shots he faced in relief.
2003 — Sami Kapanen scored once and added an assist in a four-goal Flyers third period and Jeff Hackett turned away 24 shots in a 4-0 blanking of the Atlanta Thrashers at the Wachovia Center.
After a scoreless first forty minutes, Kapanen knocked the rebound of an Eric Desjardins shot past Byron Dafoe to open the scoring at 1:14 into the final frame, then assisted on a Simon Gagne snipe just over five minutes later.
John LeClair and Jeremy Roenick added late goals to set the final score.
It was the third consecutive victory for Hackett, whose best save of the tilt came on a Shawn McEachern shorthanded breakaway. The shutout was his third of the season, and first since recording back-to-back whitewashes in his initial two Philadelphia appearances to start the year.
2006 — Sami Kapanen scored twice and Robert Esche stopped 37 shots as the Flyers built a 5-1 first period lead and hung on for a 7-4 triumph over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.
The win snapped a six-game losing streak (0-5-1) for a team that would go on to have the worst record in franchise history.
Kapanen opened the scoring 1:48 after the first drop of the puck, but Anaheim’s Chris Kunitz knotted it up just 22 seconds later.
Ducks’ starter Jean-Sebastien Giguere was chased after goals by Geoff Sanderson, Peter Forsberg, Mike Knuble, and Simon Gagne in a 5:10 span midway through the frame. The five goals scored in 14:38 was a pretty remarkable feat, since Philadelphia hadn’t scored more than four goals in any one of their first 17 contests
Giguere finished with only six saves on 11 shots before being relieved by Ilya Bryzgalov with 3:34 left before the first intermission.
Bryzgalov would be very bored the rest of the way, as the Flyers managed just five shots in the last 43:34 of play — including two in each of the final two periods, when Anaheim outshot the visitors by a ridiculous 27-4 margin.
Alexandre Picard and Kapanen gave Philadelphia a perfect shooting percentage in the final twenty minutes, with both beating Bryzgalov early in the stanza. Joni Pitkanen and Randy Robitaille each added a pair of helpers to the winning cause.
2008 — Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter scored second period goals and Martin Biron stopped 24 of 25 shots en route to a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre.
Philadelphia dominated the middle frame, outshooting the Habs by an 18-7 count, breaking through twice on Montreal starter Jaroslav Halak.
Biron lost his bid for a shutout midway through the final period on a goal by Alex Tanguay — which came shortly after the Canadiens appeared to have gotten on the board, but an apparent Guillaume Latendresse tally was waived off when the net became dislodged from its moorings prior to the puck crossing the goal line.
2010 — Mike Richards posted a pair of goals and three points, Claude Giroux scored once and added two helpers, and Sergei Bobrovsky turned away 28 shots as the Flyers blasted the Ottawa Senators 5-1 at the Wells Fargo Center.
It was the second successive two-goal outing for Richards, who scored twice two days earlier in a victory over the Florida Panthers. Philly’s captain also recorded his 300th NHL point when he assisted on Giroux’s second period power play tally.
Danny Briere and Darroll Powe also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, who improved to 9-0-1 over the course of its last 10 outings.
There was a brief delay in the opening twenty minutes when a young fan required medical attention after being struck by a deflected puck that had left the playing surface.
Bobrovsky stretched his string of not losing in regulation to 10 games (9-0-1), and gave up just one Ottawa goal to Jason Spezza midway through the opening stanza. The rookie netminder improved his record to a sparkling 11-2-1 for the season.
