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
Heading into tonight’s contest with the New Jersey Devils at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers have compiled a pretty stellar 10-4-3-0 all-time record in 17 games played on October 29. Philadelphia was riding a four-game winning streak in games played on this date (2002.-2011) prior to dropping their last, when the Anaheim Ducks rallied for a 3-2 decision in Philly back in 2013.
Some of the more memorable October 29 moments in franchise history:
1970 — Serge Bernier scored one goal and assisted on another in a three-goal third period, and Doug Favell turned away 34 of 35 shots to lead the Flyers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Spectrum.
Trailing 1-0 entering the final frame, Philadelphia carried play and sent 19 shots on Kings’ goalie Jack Norris. Wayne Hillman knotted the score at 1-1 just over a minute into the stanza, and Earl Heiskala gave the Flyers their first lead less than six minutes later before Bernier clinched the outcome with an empty-netter in the last half-minute.
1972 — Rick MacLeish scored twice and figured in on three Flyers’ tallies, while Bobby Taylor made 35 saves in a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Spectrum.
Bobby Clarke (shorthanded) and Darryl Sittler traded goals in the first three minutes following the opening faceoff before MacLeish took over, beating Leafs’ netminder Ron Low late in the first, assisting on Don Saleski’s tally, then scoring an insurance marker with 1:22 remaining in the middle session to give Philadelphia a 4-1 lead heading into the third.
Bob Kelly extended the Flyers advantage early in the final period, before Toronto’s Ron Ellis beat Taylor late in regulation to close out the scoring.
1977 — Reggie Leach scored a pair of goals and Bernie Parent stopped 26 of 29 shots as the Flyers had the home fans singing the Blues in a 7-3 rout of St. Louis at the Checkerdome.
Bill Barber and Bob Kelley had first period goals that were sandwiched between two from St. Louis’ Garry Unger, before ‘The Rifle’ notched his first of the contest.
Rick MacLeish followed with a goal just 38 seconds later, and Don Saleski made it a three-goal Philadelphia lead less than a minute and a half later.
Defenseman Bob Dailey capped a four-goal Flyers’ second, before Leach closed out the scoring midway through the third.
1981 — Mel Bridgman posted his lone hat trick in a Flyers’ uniform — with his third goal snapping a 4-4 deadlock with 4:22 remaining in regulation — Brian Propp notched the only Gordie Howe hat trick of his time in Philadelphia, in a rough-and-tumble, fight-filled 6-4 triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Spectrum.
It was evident that the affair would be very physical — with the Flyers still carrying a few holdovers from the Broad Street Bullies days, and Pittsburgh having beefed up their lineup with gritty, enforcer-types that were no strangers to dropping the gloves — and two frequent pugilists, Glen Cochrane of the Flyers and the Penguins Gary Rissling, drew coincidental roughing minors after just eight ticks of the clock had passed. The two were involved again just over six minutes later, and George Ferguson’s power play tally to open the scoring for the visitors.
Propp replied for Philadelphia just 0:33 later to knot the game at 1-apiece, and all hell broke loose when Bridgman gave Philly their first lead of the contest just two minutes after they had evened things up. Propp — who picked up an assist on Bridgman’s tally — got into an altercation with defenseman Russ Anderson, one of those Pens’ tough guys,and the two fought while the remaining players on the ice squared off.
Ornery Flyers’ rear guard Behn Wilson duked it out with Anderson’s partner on the blue line Paul Baxter (who was on his way to a league-leading 409 PIMs that season), and the ensuing melee resulted in a pair of minors, four fighting majors, eleven 10-minute misconducts, and the lone game misconduct assessed against Anderson for a total of 144 PIMs.
After the penalties were all doled out and the clubs settled down, Ilkka Sinisalo doubled Philly’s lead just 1:26 later before Pittsburgh’s Mark Johnson got one back late in the stanza via the man advantage.
Bridgman managed the only goal of the middle 20 minutes to stake the home squad to a 4-2 lead heading into the final frame.
Pat Boutette scored in the first minute with the Pens on a two-man advantage from a pair of Philadelphia minors that carried over from the end of the second, and Ferguson made it a new game when he beat Rick St, Croix with 6:09 left before Bridgman completed his first career three-goal contest to put the Flyers up for good.
Bobby Clarke sealed the hard-fought victory when he hit the empty net with Michel Dion pulled for an extra Penguin attacker.
St. Croix finished with 17 saves to pick up the win, while Kenny Linseman added four helpers to the triumphant effort.
In all there were eight fighting majors, 13 10-minute misconducts, and over 220 PIMs handed out between the combatants during the tilt.
The Gordie Howe hat trick completed in the opening 11:17 of play by Propp — who was one of the most prolific scorers in franchise history but rarely dropped the gloves — would be the first and last during his time in Philadelphia.
1983 — Bobby Clarke scored twice and Pelle Lindbergh stopped 25 of 26 shots as the Flyers downed the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 at the Igloo.
Trailing 1-0 on former-Flyer Mark Taylor’s tally in the final minute of the opening stanza, Clarke tied the game with a shorthanded marker just 0:44 into the middle frame.
Darryl Sittler gave the visitors their first lead of the tilt early in the final period, before Clarke iced the game with his second of the contest late in regulation.
The victory was the fourth straight for Lindbergh, and gave the sophomore Swede an impressive 8-1-1 mark for the year.
1988 — Ilkka Sinisalo scored a game-tying goal with 7:36 remaining in regulation, but Jan Erixon scored less than three minutes later to give the New York Rangers a see-saw 6-5 triumph over the Flyers at the Spectrum.
Former-Flyer netminder Bob Froese — who left Philadelphia after being replaced as the number one goaltender by then-rookie Ron Hextall — outplayed Hexy in this one. ‘Frosty’ turned away 28 of 33 Philly offerings, while Hextall managed to stop just 16 of the 22 NYR shots he faced to take the loss.
1992 — Eric Lindros and Mark Recchi each netter a pair of goals and Dominic Roussel made 42 saves in a 5-5 tie with the Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium.
Chicago outshot Philly by a wide 19-3 margin in the opening stanza, but the game was deadlocked at 1-1 at the first intermission thanks to the play of Roussel.
Lindros notched his second of the contest with 5:15 to give the visitors a 5-4 lead, but Jocelyn Lemieux beat Roussel with less than three minutes left to forge extra time.
It was the Flyers who got the better of play in overtime — outshooting Chicago 4-2 in the extra session — but Ed Belfour, who came into the game to start the third period in relief of Jimmy Waite, held the fort as the tilt ended in a deadlock.
Mark Pederson also tallied for the Flyers, who got a two-assist performance from rookie defenseman Dmitri Yushkevich.
The pair of goals gave Lindros — another Philly freshman — eight goals and 15 points in 12 games.
1995 — John LeClair scored once and assisted on another goal and Garth Snow made 18 saves in a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Spectrum.
Goals by Brent Fedyk, LeClair, and Shjon Podein (shorthanded) staked the home team to a 3-0 lead early in the third period, but the Sens answered back with a pair of goals in less than two minutes to get back to within one.
Eric Lindros gave Snow some breathing room with his ninth of the year (in Philly’s 10th game), before Mikael Renberg clinched the triumph with Don Beaupre pulled for an extra Sens’ attacker.
2002 — Keith Primeau scored a pair of goals and Roman Cechmanek stopped 29 of 30 shots as the Flyers overcame the Ottawa Senators 2-1 at the First Union Center.
Primeau deflected a Simon Gagne shot past Sens’ starter Patrick Lalime just 21 seconds into the game, then notched the game-winner when he took a pass from Kim Johnsson at center ice and made a strong move past a defender before roofing one past Lalime and under the crossbar late in the second period.
The lone blemish for Cechmanek came in the second period on Jason Spezza‘s first NHL goal.
2003 — Joni Pitkanen and Michal Handzus posted a goal and assist apiece and Robert Esche made 21 saves to lead the Flyers past the Florida Panthers 5-1 at the Wachovia Center.
Justin Williams, Jeremy Roenick, and John LeClair also scored for Philadelphia, who went 3-for-9 with the man advantage.
The only Panther to beat Esche was Victor Kozlov to bring the visitors back to within a goal at 2-1 early in the middle frame, but Roenick and Handzus each scored within a 59-second span to make it a three-goal lead midway through regulation.
Simon Gagne and Tony Amonte each contributed a pair of helpers to the winning effort.
2010 — Claude Giroux’s second goal of the game midway through the third period proved to be the eventual game-winner, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 of 28 shots in a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center.
It was Philadelphia’s second straight win at the Penguins’ new home, as Bobrovsky and the Flyers had spoiled the arena’s inaugural regular season game by the exact same score three weeks earlier.
Giroux scored once while his team was shorthanded, and the game-winner came via the power play.
Daniel Carcillo also lit the lamp for the visitors.
The game took on a nasty tone from the opening faceoff, as Mike Richards fought Matt Cooke at the 0:06 mark and Jody Shelley took on Deryk Engelland at 23 seconds.
2011 — The line of Scott Hartnell (goal, two assists), Claude Giroux (goal, three assists), and Jaromir Jagr (pair of goals) combined for four goals and nine points, and the Flyers scored four times in the third period to blow away the Carolina Hurricanes by a 5-1 count at the Wells Fargo Center.
Maxime Talbot added a shorthanded goal early in the third period to give Philadelphia a 3-1 lead.
Ilya Bryzgalov made 24 saves to snap a personal five-game losing skid (0-4-1), with the last being the 9-8 “lost in the woods” defeat to the Winnipeg Jets just two days earlier.
“I found the way pretty quick, huh?” Bryzgalov quipped after the win. “I found a compass.”
Former-Flyer Brian Boucher made 29 saves for Carolina in the loss.
October 29 Flyers birthday
Joel Otto was born on this day in Elk River, Minnesota in 1961. The 6′ 4″, 230-pound centerman was signed as an UFA in the summer of 1995, giving the Flyers a bona fide shutdown pivot that could also be counted on to win important late-game defensive draws.
Otto spent three seasons in Philadelphia, posting 28 goals, 80 points, and 292 PIMs in 213 regular season games. He was part of the 1997 club that made it to the Stanley Cup Final, only to be swept by the Detroit Red Wings. In 35 postseason tilts, Otto recorded four goals, 13 points, and 19 PIMs.
After recording just three goals and seven points over the course of 68 games during the 1997/98 campaign and finishing with a -2 rating — just the third time he’d ended up on the negative side of that statistic in 14 NHL seasons — it was apparent that Otto, never one to be confused with great foot speed to begin with, had lost more than a step and he decided to hang up the skates for good.
