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
The Flyers have put together a 13-6-2-0 all-time record in 21 games played on November 6. Philly went 7-0-1-0 in contests played on this day from 1977-1990 — having recorded five consecutive victories from 1977-1985 — and have been winners in their last three played on this date (2009-2014).
Some of the more memorable November 6 moments from franchise history:
1975 — Ross Lonsberry scored the game-tying goal late in the second period and Wayne Stephenson made 20 saves as the Flyers salvaged a point in a 1-1 deadlock with the Los Angeles Kings at the Spectrum.
1977 — Bobby Clarke recorded a goal and an assist and Bernie Parent stopped 28 of 30 shots to lead the Flyers to a 3-2 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks at the Spectrum.
Following a scoreless first period, Clarke opened the scoring early in the middle frame. Orest Kindrachuk doubled the Philadelphia lead less than a minute and a half later, and Bob Kelly notched the eventual game-winning goal when he gave the Flyers a 3-1 lead at 7:22 of the third period.
Orange-hot Reggie Leach posted his third straight game with a pair of assists and fourth consecutive two-point outing, giving him seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in Philly’s first 11 contests.
Vancouver netminder Cesare Maniago was excellent in defeat, making 43 saves to help keep his club close in the losing effort.
1980 — Rick MacLeish notched his 12th and final regular season Philadelphia hat trick and Bill Barber added a pair of goals as the Flyers dismantled the Los Angeles Kings by an 8-2 verdict at the Spectrum.
The matchup was much anticipated for a couple of reasons; the two clubs were atop the NHL standings, so the tilt was billed as an early-season ‘clash of the titans’, and it was also the first game back in Philadelphia for linesman Leon Stickle, who missed a blatant off sides call in Game 6 of the previous year’s Stanley Cup Final. The gaffe remains to this day one of the biggest blunders in all of sports history, as the error led directly to a New York Islanders goal in a 5-4 Flyers’ overtime loss when a victory would have forced a deciding Game 7 back at the Spectrum.
The contest took on a scintillating postseason atmosphere, with fans brandishing banners with derogatory sentiments directed at Stickle covering every open space of facade in the building.
Paul Holmgren and Billy Harris exchanged goals and the tilt remained tight until late in the opening stanza. MacLeish connected for his first of the game less than two minutes after Harris’ goal to give the home team a lead, and Tom Gorence made it a 3-1 Flyers’ advantage just 2:11 later.
MacLeish extended the home squad’s lead with his second of the night and Barber made it 5-1, before Charlie Simmer finally answered for L.A. to make it a 5-2 Flyer lead at the second intermission.
The third period was all Philadelphia as they stormed Kings goaltender Ron Grahame for much of the frame, outshooting the visitors by an 18-3 margin. Three more Flyers’ tallies — Barber’s second of the contest, one from Tim Kerr, and one from MacLeish to complete the hat trick all came within a span of 4:05 to put the game away.
While it couldn’t do anything to help rectify the crippling blow dealt by Stickle to the club’s championship aspirations in the prior year’s Final, the high-intensity affair did provide both the Flyers and their fans one of the more-memorable moments of the season.
1982 — Paul Holmgren broke a 3-3 deadlock 0:40 into the third period and Ron Flockhart scored twice, while Rick St. Croix turned away 25 shots to help the Flyers double up the New York Islanders by a 6-3 score at Nassau County Coliseum.
The clubs traded tallies throughout the first 40 minutes, with the Isles taking the lead and Philadelphia replying to knot the score. Anders Kallur gave N.Y. the lead early in the opening frame, but Tim Kerr answered late in the period for the Orange-and-Black to make it a 1-1 affair at the first intermission.
Islanders defender Denis Potvin put the home team ahead 1:59 into the middle stanza, but Flockhart knotted it up again with his first of the contest. Bryan Trottier staked the Isles to their third lead of the tilt just over four minutes after Flockhart’s marker, but Bill Barber beat the clock with just two ticks remaining to even things up at 3-apiece heading into the third.
Holmgren’s goal 40 seconds into the final session snapped the tie, before Flockhart added an insurance marker in the latter stages of the stanza.
Bobby Clarke hit the empty net with Rollie Melanson pulled for an extra attacker with 1:18 left to clinch the victory in the first end of a home-and-home set, with the clubs ready to do battle again the following day in Philadelphia at the Spectrum.
1983 — Dave Poulin’s goal early in the third period broke a 2-2 deadlock and Bob Froese made 21 saves to lift the Flyers to a 4-2 triumph over the Hartford Whalers at the Spectrum.
The visitors twice took a lead in the contest, first on Norm Dupont’s opening tally before Tim Kerr tied it up, and less than three minutes later when Ron Francis gave the Whalers a 2-1 advantage before Brian Propp knotted the game late in the middle session.
Darryl Sittler sealed the deal with an empty-netter with goalie Greg Millen pulled for an extra Whalers’ attacker in the final minute of play.
In addition to his goal, Kerr also added a pair of helpers to the winning cause to take First Star honors.
1985 — Brian Propp and Peter Zezel each scored a pair of goals and Bob Froese stopped 35 of 37 shots as the Flyers skated past the New York Rangers 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.
It was Philadelphia’s eighth consecutive win, and 10th in their last 11 outings.
New York took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, but Propp quickly tied the score just 0:16 into the middle frame. Pelle Eklund gave the Flyers the lead for good with a power play marker late in the second, and Propp and Zezel put the game out of reach with their respective second goals of the game just 38 seconds apart late in the latter stages of the third.
Propp was one of the big catalysts for the club’s ongoing winning streak, as the team’s run of good fortune just so happened to coincide with his own personal eight-game points stretch, in which he accumulated 8 goals and 7 assists for 15 points.
1986 — Murray Craven notched a pair of goals and Brian Propp recorded a goal and two assists to stake Ron Hextall to a 5-1 lead in the latter stages of the third period, but the bottom fell out for Philadelphia as the New Jersey Devils rallied for four goals in the span of 6:14 late in regulation to forge a 5-5 tie at Brendan Byrne Arena.
Pat Verbeek opened the scoring for N.J. just over three minutes into the contest, but it was all Flyers for the next 37 minutes.
Tim Kerr evened it up with a power play goal just past the midway part of the first, before Craven and Mark Howe each scored shorthanded goals within a 0:26 span with Peter Zezel serving a tripping minor to make it 3-1 at the first intermission.
Craven notched his second of the contest midway through regulation, and it looked like a laugher when Propp made it a 5-1 Philadelphia lead heading into the third.
After a nondescript first 10 minutes, Claude Loiselle, Aaron Broten, Greg Adams, and Doug Sulliman each beat Hextall — with Sulliman’s game-tying marker coming with less than three minutes remaining in regulation — as the Devils pulled off the near-miracle comeback.
New Jersey starter Alain Chevrier was pulled at the second intermission, and Karl Friesen stopped all 13 shots he faced the rest of the way to earn the improbable draw.
Hextall finished with 34 saves in recording his first NHL tie, as the rookie’s record stood at 8-2-1 after the late-game collapse.
1988 — Tim Kerr scored twice and Doug Sulliman’s late second period goal turned out to be the game-winner as the Flyers held on for a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Spectrum.
Mark Howe added a goal and three points, and Scott Mellanby also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, who won for a second consecutive game after dropping three straight.
Mark Laforest stopped 23 shots to pick up the win for a second consecutive game, and had to be especially good during a third period in which the Pens outshot the home team by a 14-3 count while protecting a two-goal lead. Laforest was perfect until Randy Cunneyworth was finally able to beat him with a power play tally with 0:01 remaining on the clock to cut the final margin of victory to one goal.
1990 — Rick Tocchet snapped a 2-2 deadlock early in the third period and Pete Peeters turned aside 25 of 27 shots as the Flyers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 at Winnipeg Arena.
Tocchet also assisted on Ron Sutter’s insurance goal with just under six minutes left., while Derrick Smith and Murray Baron recorded the other Philadelphia tallies.
1997 — John LeClair scored twice and added three assists and Garth Snow made 18 saves to lead the Flyers to a 6-2 thrashing of the Edmonton Oilers at the CoresStates Center.
It was LeClair’s second five-point effort of the season as the big winger scored at least one goal in his fifth consecutive contest. The offensive outburst gave “Johnny Vermont” 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points in the club’s first 17 games of the regular season.
Petr Svoboda, Rod Brind’Amour, Dainius Zubrus, and Chris Gratton also put the puck past Oilers’ netminder Bob Essensa, while Gratton also added a pair of helpers.
1999 — Eric Desjardins broke a 2-2 tie early in the second period and the Flyers never looked back on the way to a 5-3 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings at the Great Western Forum.
Mark Greig’s marker less than four minutes after Desjardins’ became the eventual game-winner, while Mikael Andersson (shorthanded, first goal as a Flyer), Mark Recchi, and John LeClair also beat L.A. goalkeeper Stephane Fiset in the win.
John Vanbiesbrouck made 15 saves to improve his record to 7-1-1 over the course of his last nine starts.
2003 — Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte each posted a goal and an assist and Robert Esche made 20 saves to lead the Flyers to a 4-2 win over the Washington Capitals at the Wachovia Center.
Justin Williams scored a second period goal to pick up his 100th career NHL point, and Keith Primeau was also able to best Ollie Kolzig in the victory.
2009 — Daniel Carcillo scored his first two goals in a Flyers’ uniform and Ray Emery turned away 28 of 30 shots in a 5-2 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres at HSBC Arena.
Goals by Carcillo, Chris Pronger, James van Riemsdyk, and Darroll Powe staked the visitors to a 4-1 lead midway through the third period, before Carcillo hit the empty net with Ryan Miller pulled for an extra Sabres attacker in the game’s closing minute for his second of the contest.
Ian Laperriere assisted on a pair of Philadelphia markers, while van Riemsdyk’s goal gave the rookie two goals and seven points during a four-game points streak.
2010 — Andreas Nodl‘s goal late in the third period broke a 1-1 tie to back Sergei Bobrovsky‘s 31-save performance as the Flyers defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 at Nassau County Coliseum to post their sixth consecutive win.
Nodl was able to put the rebound of an Eric Wellwood shot past Dwayne Roloson, who had took the initial shot off his mask.
Mike Richards, who scored Philadelphia’s first goal when he redirected a Chris Pronger point shot past Roloson late in the opening period, added an assist on Nodl’s game-winner to Philly make it 17 victories over the Isles in the last 18 meetings between the clubs.
2014 — Sean Couturier scored one goal and set up another, Michael Del Zotto scored his first goal as a Flyer, and Steve Mason turned aside 34 of 35 shots in a 4-1 thumping of thumping of the Florida Panthers at the Wells Fargo Center.
Matt Read started the sequence on the opening goal, stealing the puck from Florida’s Jussi Jokinen in the Panthers’ end and feeding Brayden Schenn, whose shot was deflected past Roberto Luongo by Couturier stationed in front to give the home squad the early 1-0 lead.
That same line would double the lead less than three minutes later, when Couturier beat Aleksander Barkov cleanly on a faceoff and sent the puck to Schenn, who skated down low and sent a pass into the slot for a cutting Del Zotto. The defenseman beat Luongo for his first goal of the season, and first since signing with the Flyers during the previous offseason.
Philly would add to the lead early in the middle frame, when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare picked up a loose puck in the slot and snapped a shot past Luongo to make it 3-0. Defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo — playing in his second game after being signed a week earlier due to a run of long-term injuries to the club’s blue line — notched his first point as a Flyer on Bellemare’s goal, having fanned on a shot before the diminutive Frenchman deposited the puck into the Florida cage.
Nick Bjugstad finally got the Cats on the score sheet with a power play marker 11:50 into the second period, before Mark Streit sent Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek away on a two-on-one break with Voracek putting the finishing touch to provide an answer just 0:39 after Bjugstad’s marker to close out the scoring.
The goal extended Voracek’s point-scoring streak to seven straight contests, during which he had amassed 4 goals and 8 assists for 12 points. The blossoming Czech had managed at least one point in 12 of the Flyers’ 13 games thus far in the campaign for a total of 6 goals, 13 assists, and 19 points, tying him for the NHL scoring lead with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby.
A couple of streaks did come to an end in this one:
- Bjugstad’s goal with the man advantage was the first that Philadelphia had allowed on home ice all season-long, snapping a run of 19 consecutive successful penalty kills to start the year in games played at the Wells Fargo Center.
- The Flyers’ three-goal victory broke a Florida run of eight straight one-goal games, the most since the Ottawa Senators played 11 in a row in the 2012/13 season.
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