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 recorded a 10-7-3-0 all-time record in 20 games played on December 5. It’s been all about streaks with Philadelphia in games played on this day — tying their first two (1969, 1970), winning four in a row (1971-1981), losing six straight (1982-1995), and winning five consecutive December 5 contests (1998-2007).
Since 1998, the Flyers have taken six of their seven December 5 tilts (6-1-0).
1969 — Bill Sutherland and Joe Watson scored for the Flyers, but the big story was Bernie Parent’s 41-save performance to help Philadelphia garner a point in a 2-2 draw with the California Golden Seals at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena.
The game was tied 1-1 despite the Flyers being outshot 20-8 in the first period, with the fact they were even still in the game in large part due to Parent’s play. After Watson made it a 2-1 lead at the second intermission, the Seals again tilted the ice towards the visitor’s end in the third. They put 16 shots on Parent and knotted the score on a goal by Gary Jarrett.
The standoff gave Parent five consecutive outings without a loss, including four ties in those five contests (1-0-4),
1970 — Simon Nolet’s power play tally with 2:12 remaining in regulation lifted the Flyers into a 4-4 deadlock with the Los Angeles Kings at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Trailing 2-0, Bobby Clarke and Gary Dornhoefer sparked a three-goal outburst with a goal and two assists apiece to give Philly a 3-2 lead at the end of 40 minutes of play. Los Angeles controlled play for much of the third frame, outshooting the Flyers, 18-10 and getting goals from future-Flyer Bill Flett and Bob Pulford to take a 4-2 lead with 3:15 left.
Bernie Parent was excellent in the Philadelphia nets, stopping 34 of the 38 shots he faced to notch the draw.
1971 — Gary Dornhoefer scored one goal and assisted on another, while Doug Favell turned aside all 27 shots he faced to post his 10th career NHL shutout in a 3-0 whitewash of the California Seals at the Spectrum.
First period power play goals from Larry Keenan and Jim Johnson 48 seconds apart gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead, and Dornhoefer added a third tally midway through the second period.
1974 — Reggie Leach’s goal with 3:19 remaining in the third period proved to be the game-winner, and Bernie Parent stopped 30 of 32 shots in a 3-2 Flyers’ victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Spectrum.
Goals by Jimmy Watson and Rick MacLeish staked Parent to a 2-0 lead late in the middle stanza, before Darcy Rota cut the ‘Hawks deficit to one goal before the second intermission. Leach’s late marker made it a 3-1 lead, while Chicago’s John Marks closed out the scoring when he beat Parent 32 seconds later.
The game-winner extended Leach’s point-scoring streak to seven games, during which ‘the Rifle’ totaled six goals and 10 points.
Tony Esposito stopped 31 of 34 shots in defeat.
1976 — Rick MacLeish notched his second hat trick of the season and the eighth regular season three-goal game of his career and Bobby Clarke added a pair of goals and an assist in a 6-2 thumping of the Cleveland Barons at the Spectrum.
MacLeish tallied once in each period, including his third when he beat Barons’ netminder Garry Simmons with 1:11 remaining. Bill Barber chipped in with a goal and an assist, while both Andre Dupont and Tom Bladon had two helpers apiece for the Orange-and-Black.
Bernie Parent made 18 saves to extend his personal undefeated streak — as well as that of the club, as he’d been the goalie of record in each — to eight straight contests (5-0-3).
1981 — Kenny Linseman scored once and assisted on two other goals, Bill Barber added a goal and an assist, and Pete Peeters turned away 30 of 32 shots in a 5-2 defeat of the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena.
Goals in the opening period from Tom Gorence (first of the season), Bob Hoffmeyer, and Barber staked the visitors to a seemingly-secure 3-0 lead.
Fueled by undisciplined penalties, Detroit mounted a furious assault on Peeters in the second period, outshooting the Flyers by a 17-2 count. Power play goals from Willie Huber and Eric Vail drew the Red Wings to within one and Detroit headed to another man advantage, but Bobby Clarke turned the momentum back in Philly’s favor by beating netminder Bob Sauve for an unassisted shorthanded marker with 2:03 left in the frame.
Linseman clinched the outcome with a man advantage strike of his own late in the third to seal the win for Philadelphia, which was their third consecutive victory and fifth in the last six games.
1997 — John LeClair scored a pair of goals and Garth Snow stopped 27 shots, but Brian Leetch scored twice on the power play to enable the New York Rangers to force a 4-4 deadlock at the CoreStates Center.
1998 — Rod Brind’Amour scored both goals and Ron Hextall turned aside 22 of the 23 shots he faced in a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals at the First Union Center.
Brind’Amour notched both goals via the power play — the first midway through the opening period and then the eventual game-winner late in the second.
Hextall’s bid for a shutout ended at 10:13 of the final stanza when Brian Bellows got the Caps on the board with a man advantage tally.
Washington’s Rick Tabaracci made 26 saves in a losing effort.
1999 — John LeClair beat Jamie McLennan for his second goal of the contest with 4:35 remaining in regulation to snap a 2-2 deadlock and lift the Flyers to a 3-2 triumph over the St. Louis Blues at the First Union Center.
Despite being outshot by the visitors by a 17-6 count in the first period, markers from LeClair and Mark Recchi gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead, and rookie goaltender Brian Boucher made that lead hold up into the third period despite a 24-13 shot count that favored the Blues over the first 40 minutes.
Pavol Demitra knotted the score with 7:59 left in regulation, before LeClair tallied his game-winner.
Boucher stopped 27 of 29 St. Louis shots to pick up the victory, while McLennan made 18 saves in a losing cause.
The game marked just the sixth NHL appearance for Boucher — who won for a fifth consecutive outing after losing his initial decision — as the freshman slowly wrestled the starting job away from John Vanbiesbrouck.
2002 — Michal Handzus became only the second player in NHL history to record a penalty shot game-winning goal in overtime when he beat Dan Blackburn with 36.7 seconds remaining in the extra frame to life the Flyers to a thrilling 3-2 win over the New York Rangers at the First Union Center.
Handzus — who had been hooked from behind by defenseman Tom Poti while on a breakaway to set up the rare occurrence — faked Blackburn on the forehand, then shifted to the backhand and sent a high shot to the glove side for the game-winning marker.
Former-Philadelphia captain Eric Lindros scored with two minutes left in the second period to knot the game at 2-2.
Winning netminder Roman Cechmanek — who stopped all 12 shots he faced in the third period and finished with 24 saves on 26 shots — also received goal support from Jeremy Roenick and Mark Recchi.
Recchi also added an assist to give him 515 points as a Flyer, moving him ahead of Reggie Leach and into the top-10 all-time point scorers in franchise history.
Kim Johnsson, the defender acquired in the trade for Lindros, assisted on Recchi’s second period goal to hit the 100-point mark in his NHL career.
2003 — John LeClair scored the game-winning goal 1:18 into the third period and Robert Esche made 18 saves to lead the Flyers to their 11th consecutive home win (and an unbeaten 12-0-2-0 for the year) with a 3-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes at the Wachovia Center.
Trailing 1-0 on a Branko Radivojevic opening period goal, Philadelphia answered twice in the second — Jim Vandermeer’s first of the season and Tony Amonte’s go-ahead marker midway through regulation — before LeClair made it 3-1 early in the final frame.
Sean Burke made 28 saves for Phoenix but was beaten by Esche, who he had mentored in Phoenix prior to his acquisition by the Flyers.
The win upped Philadelphia’s record to 12-1-2 over their past 15 contests, giving them a 16-3-5-1 mark for the season and an NHL-best 38 points.
2007 — Jeff Carter and Scottie Upshall each posted a goal and an assist and Antero Niittymaki made 28 saves to lead the Flyers to a 3-1 road win over the Minnesota Wild.
Upshall and Carter each beat Niklas Backstrom in the first period, but Pavol Demitra made it a one-goal Philadelphia lead when he scored with a man advantage in the first minute of the middle stanza.
Blue liner Braydon Coburn restored the Flyers’ two-goal lead early in the third when his long slap shot from just outside the Wild zone floated past Backstrom and into the top corner of the net to close out the scoring.
Rookie Denis Tolpeko assisted on both first period goals for Philadelphia.
2009 — The Flyers were embarrassed 8-2 by the Washington Capitals in a Wells Fargo Center horror show marking Peter Laviolette’s debut as head coach. The game-changer came shortly after Mika Pyorala tied the game at 1-1, when the visitors received a nine-minute power play advantage courtesy of Daniel Carcillo, who dropped Matt Bradley with a single punch as the two exchanged shoves. The Capitals scored three times with the man advantage, took full control of the contest and never looked back as they built a 7-1 lead into the third period.
2010 — Danny Briere broke a 2-2 tie with 5:44 remaining in regulation as the Flyers scored twice to erase a late-third period deficit in a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau County Coliseum.
Leading 1-0 into the final frame, the Isles got goals from former-Flyer Jon Sim and Frans Nielsen within a 36-second span early in the period to take a 2-1 lead.
Andreas Nodl knotted the score in the latter stages of the third, giving him seven goals in just 19 games for the year after lighting the lamp just once in 48 appearances over parts of the previous two seasons.
Rookie netminder Sergei Bobrovsky was spectacular, making 28 saves to improve his record to 13-4-2, while Roloson stopped 24 of 27 Philly offerings in the loss..
Flyers’ December 5 trade
On this day in 2005, Philadelphia made an ill-fated trade when they sent promising young forward Patrick Sharp (along with forward Eric Meloche) to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Matt Ellison and a 2006 third-round draft pick (which was later dealt to the Montreal Canadiens).
Ellison managed just one assist in seven appearances over two seasons with the Flyers, but Sharp — who recorded 10 goals, 15, points, and 67 penalty minutes in 66 games in Philadelphia — blossomed into a star in the Windy City. The Winnipeg, Manitoba-native has recorded 226 goals and 477 points in 624 regular season contests with the ‘Hawks, including four seasons of 33 goals or more and registering at least 20 in six of the last seven years (only exception being an injury-plagued, lockout-shortened 2012/13, in which he scored six in just 28 games). Sharp has also played a big role in a pair of Chicago Stanley Cup championships, with the first coming at the expense of his former-Flyers teammates in the 2010 Final.
Flyers’ December 5 coaching change
1992 — GM Russ Farwell named Bill Dineen the eighth coach in franchise history, replacing Paul Holmgren after the last-place Flyers got off to a 10-10-4-0 start. Holmgren finished his time as bench boss with a 107-126-31 mark.
In Dineen’s first game at the helm on December 5, Philadelphia coughed up a 2-1 lead third period lead and dropped a 3-2 decision to the Ottawa Senators at the Ottawa Civic Centre.
The coach — who is the father of Kevin, the rugged winger who had been recently acquired from the Hartford Whalers — would go on to post a 60-60-20 record before being supplanted by Terry Simpson in 1993.
December 5 Flyers’ birthday
Kevin Haller was born in Trochu, Alberta on this day in 1970. The 6′ 2″, 199-pounder was brought to Philadelphia from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for defender Yves Racine in June of 1994, and immediately became one of the club’s steadiest blue liners as Philly continued to build towards respectability after five seasons out of the postseason mix.
Haller’s blend of toughness and hockey sense helped the Flyers to qualify for the playoffs in his first campaign. Jumping into the play at just the right moments, he also scored some big goals in the postseason as Philly made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final in an eventual six-game loss to the New Jersey Devils, who would go on to win their first Stanley Cup.
In 132 regular season contests, Haller posted seven goals, 29 points, 177 PIMs, and a collective +31 rating. Skating in 21 postseason games, the defenseman notched four goals and nine points, 18 PIMs, and a +7 rating.
Haller’s time in Philly was short-lived, however, as he was included in a package that was sent to the Hartford Whalers in exchange for roving rear guard Paul Coffey in December of 1996.
