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 contest with the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre, the Flyers have a collective 13-10-2-1 mark in 26 games played on this day over the course of franchise history. Recent history has not been good, as Philadelphia has posted a pretty miserable 1-6-0-1 record in their last eight December 21 outings.
Some of the more memorable moments and brief recaps in Flyers history that took place in December 21 games:
1967 — Bernie Parent snuffed out all 31 shots he faced to record his second shutout in five days (and second as a Flyer) and he received offensive support from six different goal scorers in a 6-0 whitewash of the Minnesota North Stars at the Spectrum.
Philadelphia scored two goals in each period with Pat Hannigan and Claude Laforge doing the honors in the first, Forbes Kennedy and Gary Dornhoefer in the second, and Leon Rochefort and captain Lou Angotti in the final frame.
Garry Peters added a pair of assists in the victory.
Parent was tested most in the third period as the North Stars sent 16 shots his direction, but to no avail for the visitors.
1968 — Goals by Andre Lacroix and Dick Sarrazin staked the Flyers to a 2-0 lead and goalie Doug Favell made it stand up, stopping 45 of 46 shots in a 2-1 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Philadelphia was badly outplayed and it showed in the lopsided shot totals, but Favell was the great equalizer from the east-coast visitors. Although L.A. held a wide 20-5 shots advantage in the opening stanza, Lacroix’s goal was the only shot to hit the back of the net when he beat Gerry Desjardins at the 10:00 mark.
Sarrazin’s marker in the latter stages of the middle frame made it a 2-0 lead by the second intermission, despite the fact the Kings had a 32-14 shots on goal margin.
It was more of the same in the final session as the home team directed 14 more on Favell and allowed just five, before Los Angeles finally broke through on a Bill Flett tally with 8:09 remaining to spoil Favell’s shutout bid.
1969 — Lew Morrison, Reg Fleming, and Bobby Clarke each posted a goal and an assist, while Bernie Parent stopped all 28 shots he faced as the Flyers blanked the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-0, at the Spectrum.
Morrison opened the scoring 27 seconds into the second period with a carry over man advantage from late in the first, providing the only offense Parent would need. Fleming and Andre Lacroix would also beat Pittsburgh goaltender Les Binkley before the stanza expired, and Clarke made it a laugher when the rookie scored 2:27 into the final session.
It was the second shutout of the season for Parent, and seventh whitewash as a Flyer.
1972 — Bill Barber scored a pair of goals and Rick MacLeish added a goal and four points as the Flyers skated to a 6-3 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings at the Spectrum.
MacLeish snapped a 2-2 tie with 2:50 left in the middle frame, and third period goals by Bobby Clarke, ex-King Bill Flett, and Barber’s second of the night clinched the outcome.
Simon Nolet also lit the lamp for the Orange-and-Black, and Gary Dornhoefer added a pair of helpers.
Michel Belhumeur turned aside 23 of 26 shots to pick up the win, while Gary Edwards stopped 33 shots for Los Angeles in defeat.
1975 — Bill Barber notched two goals and five points and Reggie Leach added a pair of goals and four points in an 8-3 beatdown of the St. Louis Blues at the Spectrum. The win was the fourth in a row for Philadelphia, and gave them an 11-1-2 record over their last 14 outings.
Things didn’t start off too well for the home team, though, as goals from Larry Patey and Garry Unger staked the visitors to an early two-goal lead. Despite outshooting St. Louis by a 20-5 margin, the Flyers needed goals from Barber and Larry Goodenough in the last half of the opening period just to get even at 2-2.
After Chuck Lefley made it a 3-2 Blues lead with a power play marker just 10 seconds into the middle stanza, tallies from Dornhoefer and Leach in the latter stages of the frame staked Philly to its first lead of the night heading into the final session.
It was all Flyers in the third with goals from Leach, Barber (shorthanded), and Dornhoefer — all the second of the contest for each — and Mel Bridgman added another to win going away.
With Bobby Clarke’s pair of assists, the LCB Line of Leach (two goals, four points), Clarke (two helpers), and Barber (two goals, five points) chipped in with an 11-point output in the victory.
Philadelphia goaltender Wayne Stephenson stopped 28 of 31 shots to boost his record to 22-4-7 for the season, while St. Louis’ Yves Belanger kept his club in the game but took the eventual loss after making 39 saves.
1977 — Bobby Clarke scored a shorthanded goal and added an assist, while Bernie Parent made 21 saves for his 43rd regular season Flyers shutout in a 4-0 triumph over the Cleveland Barons at Richfield Coliseum, to give Philadelphia a scorching 11-1-1 mark over their last 13 games.
Bill Barber, Rick MacLeish, and Don Saleski also beat beleagured Cleveland netminder Gilles Meloche, who stopped 40 of the 44 Flyer shots sent his direction.
1978 — Rick MacLeish and Yves Preston notched a pair of goals apiece, and Bernie Parent made 22 saves to lead the Flyers to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals at the Spectrum.
Preston snapped a 2-2 tie with his second of the contest with 3:17 remaining in the opening period. Philadelphia extended that lead in the middle frame on goals by MacLeish and Blake Dunlop, while Bill Barber and Behn Wilson each added two helpers.
Former-Flyer Gary Inness was able to stop 41 shots, but was saddled with the defeat.
1983 — Defenseman Miroslav Dvorak beat Murray Bannerman with 54 seconds remaining in regulation to help the Flyers grab a point in the standings, as he forced a 3-3 deadlock with the Chicago Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium.
Trailing 2-0 on goals by Kenny Yaremchuk and Dave Feamster, rookie Ron Sutter got Philadelphia on the board midway through the middle stanza and cut the ‘Hawks lead to one goal heading into the third.
After Steve Ludzig restored Chicago’s two-goal cushion, Brian Propp got the Philly comeback started with his 19th marker of the season with 9:36 left to make it a 3-2 deficit before Dvorak’s late-game heroics.
Goalkeeper Bob Froese finished with 36 saves — including stopping the only two shots in overtime — to preserve the draw.
1985 — Tim Kerr scored his 30th and 31st goals of the year and Bob Froese turned aside 36 of the 38 shots he faced as the Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, at the Igloo.
Goals from Ron Sutter and a pair by Kerr gave the visitors a 3-1 lead at the second intermission, before Ilkka Sinisalo provided an insurance marker midway through the third period.
Dave Poulin added two assists to the winning cause, giving the captain a goal and five points in his last two games..
The pair of goals gave Kerr a nearly goal-per-game pace for the year, with 31 in 34 regular season contests.
1986 — Tim Kerr’s third goal of the game tied the score at 6-6 midway through the third period, and Dave Poulin’s marker just over three minutes later was the game-winner as the Flyers downed the St. Louis Blues in a wild 7-6 victory at the Spectrum.
It was the club’s fourth straight win and seventh in their last eight outings.
Kerr’s three-goal output was his second hat trick in three contests, and gave the big forward 12 goals and 17 points during a nine-game point-scoring streak. Included in that stretch were 10 goals and 14 points in seven games since returning after missing three contests with a hamstring injury. The third marker also made it another 30-goal season for Kerr, in just the 31st game in which he appeared.
Derrick Smith opened the scoring in the first period and a pair of goals from Kerr made it 3-1 Philadelphia at the midway point of regulation, before St. Louis came roaring back with four consecutive tallies — from Ric Nattress, former-Flyer Ron Flockhart, Brian Benning, and Bernie Federko — to take a 5-3 lead at the second intermission.
Head coach Mike Keenan pulled goaltender Ron Hextall in favor of Glenn “Chico” Resch following the second stanza after yielding five goals on 23 shots, and the move seemed to spark the home club when J.J. Daigneault and Pelle Eklund scored within a 48-second span early in the final frame to knot the score at 5-5.
But Rick Meagher notched his second of the game just two minutes later to put the Blues up by a goal before the late strikes from Kerr and Poulin.
Resch allowed one goal on five shots in the third frame to claim his second victory of the season, while Rick Wamsley made 20 saves in absorbing the loss.
1991 — Kevin Dineen and Rod Brind’Amour each scored one goal and assisted on another, and Ron Hextall stopped all 34 shots he faced as the Flyers skated to a 3-0 triumph over the Minnesota North Stars at the Met Center.
Dineen scored early in the opening period and Brind’Amour doubled the lead 25 seconds into the third, while Rick Tocchet added an insurance marker midway through the final stanza.
The shutout was the third in the regular season of Hextall’s career and snapped a personal four-game losing skid in the process, while Minnesota’s Darcy Wakaluk took the loss after giving up three goals on 19 shots.
1996 — Ron Hextall made 24 saves to record his fifth consecutive win and second straight shutout and John LeClair chipped in with his 20th goal of the year to lead the Flyers to a 4-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the CoreStates Center. The win was the seventh in a row for Philadelphia and gave them a 10-game undefeated streak (9-0-1).
Following a socreless opening period goals from Trent Klatt and Joel Otto staked the home team to a 2-0 lead, and third period markers by LeClair and Kjell Samuelsson clinched the triumph.
The goal for LeClair kept his point-scoring streak alive at seven games, during which he managed six goals and 12 points.
Blues netminder Jon Casey was far less busy than Hextall, but was collared with the loss after yielding four goals on just 15 shots.
2011 — Claude Giroux made his first game back after missing the previous four with a concussion a rousing success, as he scored once and added three assists in a 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
It was also the second four-point game in the last four outings in which Giroux played, giving him three goals and 12 points in his last five contests. The team’s leading scorer was injured on December 10 when he was inadvertently struck in the back of the head by Wayne Simmonds‘ knee while falling to the ice.
Following a Michael Ryder goal in the first minute after the opening faceoff, Giroux evened the score nearly eight minutes later and assisted on a Simmonds power play tally for the go-ahead marker at 11:36.
Giroux also set up Jaromir Jagr with a give-and-go worked to perfection for another man advantage strike in the middle stanza, then added a helper on an Andrej Meszaros insurance marker early in the third.
After yielding the early goal, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped the final 30 shots he faced to pick up his fourth win in his last five decisions, improving his record to 7-2-1 for the season while serving as backup to Ilya Bryzgalov.
Jagr’s goal was his 11th of the year and 657th of his career, moving him ahead of Brendan Shanahan for 11th place in all-time NHL goal scoring.
There was an incident between Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette and Dallas agitator Steve Ott at the end of the first period in the runway tunnel as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms at the intermission.
Laviolette exited the Flyers bench and Ott moved in front of him to allow his teammates to get through the tunnel before anyone else went. The fiery Philly bench boss shoved Ott in the back and hurled an expletive at him as he pushed his way past, with everything having been caught on video.
