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
Heading into tonight’s road tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia owns an 9-7-2-1 mark in 19 all-time contests played on November 23, which includes wins in their last three (2011, 2013, 2015).
Some of the more memorable November 23 moments from franchise history:
1974 — Bobby Clarke notched a Gordie Howe hat trick as the LCB Line stormed out of the gates in a 6-3 triumph over Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Clarke scored the game’s opening goal, assisted on the second (scored by Reggie Leach), then fought Rod Seiling in the second period to complete the feat.
Philly outshot the home team by a 14-4 count in the opening frame and led by a 4-0 score by the first intermission.
Bill Barber — the third member of the LCB Line — made it 3-0. Bob Kelly, Don Saleski, and Rick MacLeish also lit the lamp for the visitors.
Bernie Parent made 21 saves to record the victory, defeating former-Flyer Doug Favell, for whom Parent was re-acquired by Philadelphia in a May, 1973 trade.
1979 — Bobby Clarke and Brian Propp each scored one goal and set up another and Phil Myre made 19 saves to lead the Flyers to a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks at the Spectrum. The win extended the Flyers undefeated streak — which began on October 14th in just the team’s third game of the campaign — to 16 games (14-0-2), and left them with a 15-1-2 record for the year.
Reggie Leach — who missed games on November 4th and 7th — scored the first goal of the night to keep a streak alive of having posted at least one point in each of the 16 contests in which he had appeared (15 goals, 25 points over that span).
Philadelphia also got goals from Al Hill and Mel Bridgman, while defenseman Mike Busniuk added a pair of helpers.
1980 — Defenseman Bob Dailey scored twice, Bobby Clarke added a goal and an assist, and Pete Peeters made 27 saves to lead the Flyers to a 3-1 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets at the Spectrum.
Brian Propp assisted on two of the Philadelphia markers.
Peeters’ bid for a shutout was dashed by Morris Lukowich, who scored the Jets lone goal with 6:29 remaining in the game.
1984 — Tim Kerr’s 20th goal of the season snapped a 2-2 tie late in the second period and Pelle Lindbergh stopped 24 shots as the Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres by a 4-2 count at Memorial Auditorium.
A shorthanded goal by Brian Propp and and even strength strike from Mark Howe staked Philadelphia to a 2-1 lead late in the middle frame, but Gilbert Perreault connected for his second goal of the contest at 16:21 to knot the score at 2-2.
Kerr answered back, beating Tom Barrasso just 26 seconds later for the eventual game-winner. Lindsay Carson sealed the outcome with an empty-netter with 31 ticks remaining on the clock.
Ron Sutter added a pair of assists for Philly.
1990 — Scott Mellanby broke a 1-1 deadlock with a power play goal early in the third period, Rick Tocchet added a Gordie Howe hat trick, and Pete Peeters made 22 saves to lead the Flyers to a 4-1 triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Spectrum.
Tocchet scored a goal in the first, assisted on Mellanby’s third period game-winner, and fought Luke Richardson late in regulation to complete the Howe trick.
Other Philadelphia goals came from the sticks of Derrick Smith and Dale Kushner, while Keith Acton added two assists.
The lone shot to get past Peeters was Richardson’s only goal of the season, scored 20 seconds after the opening faceoff to give Toronto an early lead.
1996 — Dale Hawerchuk’s power play marker with 4:21 remaining in regulation proved to be the game-winner and Ron Hextall made 20 saves to lead the visiting Flyers over the Lightning in Tampa Bay.
Bolts winger Dino Ciccarelli and Philadelphia’s Rod Brind’Amour traded late first period markers for the game’s only scoring until Hawerchuk’s third period winner.
2007 — Mike Richards scored on an R.J. Umberger rebound with 4:15 remaining in regulation to cap a comeback from a late second period 3-0 deficit and gain a point in an eventual 4-3 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals at the Wachovia Center.
Nicklas Backstrom scored the OT-winner at 1:55 of the extra frame to snap a five-game losing skid and give new head coach Bruce Boudreau — who was named interim coach upon replacing Glen Hanlon earlier in the week — a victory in his debut.
Down 3-0 late in the second period, Philadelphia got goals from Danny Briere and Jeff Carter to make it a one-goal game before the second intermission.
Flyers goaltender Martin Biron made 31 saves in a losing effort.
2009 — Danny Briere posted two goals and two assists and Jeff Carter scored twice, but the Flyers could not come all the way back from a 5-2 third period deficit in a 5-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.
2011 — Danny Briere scored the game-tying goal with 5:42 remaining in regulation and the game-winner at 2:34 of overtime as the Flyers turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 triumph over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
Andrej Meszaros gave Philadelphia an early lead when he beat Rick DiPietro just 18 seconds into the contest. But Kyle Okposo tied it up 19 seconds later, then gave the Isles a lead with his second of the game (and season) midway through the frame. Michael Grabner increased the lead to 3-1 before the end of the period.
With Ilya Bryzgalov stopping just six of the nine shots he faced in the first, Peter Laviolette felt a change in goal was necessary. He inserted Sergei Bobrovsky between the pipes, and the second-year netminder was perfect the rest of the way, stopping all 23 N.Y. shots he faced.
Scott Hartnell also scored for the Flyers on a second period man advantage.
2013 — Matt Read scored twice and Steve Mason turned aside 36 of the 38 shots he faced as Philly skated to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center.
Following a scoreless first twenty minutes, the home team chased New York starter Kevin Poulin with a trio of goals in the first 3:48 of the middle period. Read, Wayne Simmonds, and Claude Giroux each lit the lamp to give Philly a 3-0 lead before Anders Nilsson stopped the bleeding in relief.
John Tavares finally broke through for the Islanders late in the second, and things got a little too close for comfort when Eric Boulton cut the lead to 3-2 just 2:39 into the final frame.
Brayden Schenn gave the Flyers some breathing room just under 10 minutes later, and Read hit the empty net for his second with Nilsson pulled for an extra Isles’ skater.
The win gave Philadelphia their third consecutive victory and a 6-0-1 mark in their last seven as they continued to recover from a dreadful 4-10-1 start.
2015 — The Flyers blew a two-goal lead in the third period, but Shayne Gostisbehere salvaged the evening when he beat Eddie Lack with the game-winner just 0:24 into overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 triumph over Carolina.
The win snapped the club’s six-game home losing skid, during which they had gone 0-3-3 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Brayden Schenn — who was thwarted on a late-first period penalty shot after being pulled down from behind on a breakaway by Noah Hanifin — opened the scoring on a power play 10:20 into the middle frame when he redirected a Jake Voracek pass behind Lack, ending Philly’s offensive futility at 162:54 after being blanked in their previous two contests.
Less than five minutes later, Claude Giroux doubled the Flyers’ lead when he knocked home the rebound of a Sean Couturier shot on a 2-on-1 shorthanded break.
Michal Neuvirth was cruising along, stopping all 16 Carolina shots over the first 40 minutes, but his teammates were outshot by a 17-6 margin in the third period as the visitors tied things up via Victor Rask and Brett Pesce, with the latter coming with only 3:45 remaining in regulation.
Rask was given a seat in the penalty box 11 seconds into the extra session for holding Couturier, and things came to an end rather quickly after that.
Giroux won the ensuing faceoff and Gostisbehere made a great play by dashing back to keep the puck in the zone. Gostisbehere and Voracek sent passes back and forth before the rookie defender sent a feed down low to Giroux in the left circle. The captain sent a flat feed into the slot where Gostisbehere’s one-timer beat Lack to the glove side for the victory.
It was the second goal for the first-year blue liner in his six games since being recalled from the Phantoms, and the second time he had been instrumental in late game-changing goals against the Hurricanes in two meetings.
Prior to the contest, Rod Brind’Amour was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame. The hard-working centerman appeared in 633 games for Philly — which includes the team’s all-time iron man record of 484 consecutive games — scoring 30 goals or more four times and is still in the franchise’s all-time top-10 in goals (235), assists (366), and points (601). He was the Flyers’ lone representative at the 1992 NHL All-Star game which was played at the Spectrum.
Anther notable Flyers November 23 moment
2010 — After a ceremony in which Philadelphia sports icons Ed Snider, Bernie Parent, Bob Clarke, and Julius “Dr. J” Erving gave moving remembrances of the building, an orange wrecking ball knocked a small hole in a wall of the Spectrum as demolition began on the Flyers beloved original barn. The arena was the site of such historic moments as the club’s first Stanley Cup championship in May of 1974, and the Flyers 4-1 destruction of the Soviet Red Army club in January of 1976, among others.
The last contest in the team’s Spectrum history was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the Florida Panthers on May 12th, 1996, which ended when Mike Hough beat Ron Hextall in the second overtime to give Florida a 2-1 victory.
November 23 Flyers Birthday
Forward Simon Nolet was born in St-Odilon, Quebec on this day in 1941. The 5′ 9″, 185-pounder was acquired by Philadelphia when they purchased the Quebec Aces in 1967, and after appearing in just four games in the team’s inaugural season became a regular in 1968. Nolet went on to score 20 goals or more twice for the club during his seven years in the organization, totaling 93 goals and 201 points in 358 career games with the Orange-and-Black. His time with the organization culminated with a 19-goal, 36-point 1973/74 regular season campaign and as a member of the first Stanley Cup winners in franchise history. The Flyers lost Nolet’s rights when the Kansas City Scouts claimed him in the expansion draft in June of 1974.
In Memorium
Pat Quinn (2014, 71 years old)
