A sometimes frequent look back at how the Philadelphia Flyers have fared on this day, recalling some of the more memorable moments, achievements, and events that have shaped the organization throughout the club’s storied history
Winners of two of their last three games played on October 6, the Flyers have managed a 4-4-3-0 record in 11 all-time contests that took place on this day. The team went 21 years between October 6 victories, posting an 0-3-3-0 mark during that stretch before a Flyers’ “birthday boy” potted an overtime winner in the lone October 6 matchup that went to extra time.
1983 — Second period goals by Rick MacLeish and Lindsay Carson erased a 1-0 deficit, and Pelle Lindbergh stopped 31 of 32 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Capitals at the Spectrum in the 1983/84 regular season opener.
Washington dominated the first period by a 10-3 shots on goal count, and Alan Haworth’s goal in the final minute of the frame gave the visitors a one-goal lead at the first intermission.
MacLeish tied it up with a power play marker early in the second, and Carson gave Philly a lead they would not relinquish with 4:27 remaining in the middle stanza.
Bobby Clarke beat Pat Riggin just 18 seconds into the third to double the lead to 3-1, and Brian Propp sealed the triumph with a goal late in regulation to close out the scoring.
All-world defenseman Mark Howe picked up helpers on three of the Flyers tallies, hitting the 50-assist mark with the franchise in his 77th game since being acquired from the Hartford Whalers.
1988 — Scott Mellanby snapped a 1-1 deadlock early in the second period to back Ron Hextall’s 32-save performance, propeling the Flyers to a 3-1 triumph over the New Jersey Devils at the Spectrum in the 1988/89 regular season opener.
Philadelphia had spotted the Devils a 1-0 lead on an early first period Tom Kurvers power play marker, but managed to knot the score with a Rick Tocchet tally while the Flyers skated with a man advantage less than three minutes later to head to their respective locker rooms tied at 1-1.
Scott Mellanby made it a 2-1 Philly lead on a power play just over four minutes after New Jersey’s John MacLean had been given a five-minute major and game misconduct for high-sticking early in the middle frame, and Derrick Smith provided Hextall with a two-goal cushion in the final minute of the second.
New Jersey increased their attack in the final stanza but Hextall turned aside all 13 shots he faced, and Murray Craven was the only player to light the lamp as he clinched the win with an empty-netter in the final minute with Sean Burke pulled for an extra Devils attacker to set the final score.
1990 — 1988 second-round draft pick Pat Murray scored his first NHL goal on a first period power play to tie the score at 1-1, but that’s all that Sean Burke would yield in a 3-1 Flyers loss to the New Jersey Devils at the Meadowlands.
1991 — Defenseman Steve Duchesne scored his first goal as a Flyer to give his team a 2-1 lead late in the first period, but Joey Mullen potted the game-tying tally midway through regulation in a 2-2 with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Igloo.
Paul Stanton gave the home squad a lead 1:59 just after the opening faceoff, but Rick Tocchet evened things up midway through the first and Duchesne — a high-scoring defender who was acquired in a three-team trade during the offseason and in his second game with the club — beat Tom Barrasso to put the Flyers up before Mullen’s eventual game-tying goal.
Ron Hextall finished the contest with 33 saves, and had to be especially spectacular in the third as Philly was shorthanded on three occasions, leading to 16 Penguins shots in the session.
1992 — Eric Lindros scored a goal in his first NHL game to kickstart a third period comeback from a two-goal deficit, and Dominic Roussel was tremendous in the Philadelphia net stopping 42 of 45 shots as the Flyers managed a 3-3 regular season opening tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Igloo.
The high-powered Penguins looked as though they would run the visiting Flyers right out of the building early on, as Mario Lemieux beat Roussel 46 seconds into the contest and Kevin Stevens made it 2-0 with Philadelphia defenseman Brian Benning in the penalty box less than five minutes later.
Newcomer Brent Fedyk — recently acquired from the Detroit Red Wings — cut that deficit in half late in the opening frame with his first as a Flyer to make it a 2-1 Pittsburgh lead at the first intermission.
The score remained the same until Benning was nailed for another infraction late in the middle stanza, this time being whistled for a spearing major and a game misconduct on Lemieux away from the play. It took former-Flyer Rick Tocchet about a minute and a half to capitalize on a perfect cross-crease feed from Lemieux, restoring Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead heading into the third.
Lindros brought the Flyers back to within a goal just 31 ticks after the faceoff to start the third, taking advantage of a failed clearing attempt by Jaromir Jagr and backhanding the puck past Barrasso. It was a broken play which started with Mark Recchi carrying the puck into the Penguins zone on the right side, and his centering pass for Fedyk went off the winger’s stick and trickled towards Barrasso’s right. Jagr took a swipe in vain to knock the puck to the corner, and Lindros was Johnny-on-the-spot for his initial NHL marker.
On the next shift, Rod Brind’Amour carried the puck in on the right side and sent a beauty of a cross-ice pass to Doug Evans streaking towards the net at the left circle. Evans faked a shot that made Barrasso commit, then slid the puck under the diving netminder’s right arm and past the body of defender Ulf Samuelsson, who dove into the net in a failed attempt to block the puck had it gotten past Barrasso.
Just 47 seconds had passed between the Lindros and Evans goals, and the quick strikes tied the game at 3-3, which is where it would end thanks to some great goaltending by both Roussel and Barrasso.
2001 — Defenseman Kim Johnsson scored twice and Justin Williams‘ goal with 4:14 remaining capped a two-goal third period Flyers comeback as they salvaged a 3-3 tie with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Wachovia Center.
Grant Marshall scored two goals for Columbus and Tyler Wright added another, giving the Jackets a 3-1 lead early in the third stanza.
Johnsson — playing in his second game as a Flyer after being acquired from the New York Rangers as part of the Eric Lindros trade, and having scored in the first period — notched his second goal of the with Columbus defender Deron Quint in the sin bin to bring the home squad back to within a goal, setting up Williams’ late game heroics.
Philadelphia carried play for much of the contest, outshooting the visitors by a wide 40-18 margin, including 13-4 in the third. Ron Tugnutt was spectacular for Columbus, preserving the deadlock with four stops in overtime.
Roman Cechmanek was not tested nearly as often, and made 15 saves in the tie.
2009 — Mike Richards scored three times in a wild second period, and Danny Briere’s goal late in overtime capped a memorable 6-5 Flyers victory over the Washington Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center.
Despite 25 combined shots in the opening twenty minutes, the scoreless first period gave no indication of just how crazy of a night this would become for the two teams.
Goaltenders Ray Emery (14 saves) and Semyon Varlamov (11 saves) were both perfect in the opening stanza, but things changed quickly following the first intermission. There would be four goals (divided evenly) in the first 7:33, and seven in all during the period with Philadelphia clinging to a 4-3 lead.
Richards opened the scoring with Mike Green in the box for cross-checking, taking a feed from Matt Carle and blowing a shot high past Varlamov 1:37 into the frame. That lead lasted all of 1:07 before goal-scoring wunderkind Alex Ovechkin beat Emery to knot the game at a goal-apiece.
Kimmo Timonen’s wrister sailed past Jeff Carter’s screen and Varlamov to put the Flyers up a goal less than two minutes later, but it was Ovechkin again evening things up with his second of the contest exactly three minutes after Timonen’s tally.
Alexander Semin gave Washington their first lead of the game at 12:26, but the next 1:39 would prove to be all Richards. Brooks Laich was tagged for interference and Richards made the Caps pay just 11 seconds later to tie it at 3-3.
With the crowd still going wild, Richards beat Varlamov again just 18 seconds later to notch his second career hat trick and put Philly back on top, 4-3, at which time Varlamov was pulled in favor of Jose Theodore.
Semin tied it up with Carter off for hooking midway through the third, and Washington took a 5-4 lead 1:14 later when Brendan Morrison was knocked down and the puck glanced off his body and past Emery as he slid through the crease.
Scott Hartnell was able to get his stick on a Braydon Coburn shot that beat Theodore on a late third period power play to make it a 5-5 deadlock and send the game to overtime, where Briere — celebrating his 32nd birthday — put the perfect celebration on the night by sending the rebound of a Timonen shot past Theodore with 1:08 left in the extra session to lift Philadelphia to the exhilirating triumph.
2011 — New Flyers Jakub Voracek (game-winning goal) and Ilya Bryzgalov (22 saves) made their respective presences felt in their debuts with the club as Philadelphia put a huge damper on the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup banner raising night with a gritty 2-1 win at TD Garden in the 2011/12 regular season opener.
All of the scoring came in the first period, as Brad Marchand gave the reigning champs a 1-0 lead via the power play midway through the frame, and Claude Giroux and Voracek each scoring within a 47-second span in the last minute of the period.
Voracek’s tally, which proved to be the game-winner, beat Boston starter Tim Thomas with just 0:03 remaining on the first period clock.
Another pair of newcomers to the team picked up their first points as Flyers, with Jaromir Jagr getting the primary assist on Giroux’s goal and Wayne Simmonds picking up the secondary helper on Voracek’s winning marker.
Flyers’ October 6 Birthdays
Danny Briere — who was part of the Flyers’ immediate recovery from the worst season in franchise history when he was inked as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007 — was born in Gatineau, Quebec on this day in 1977. He posted 31 goals and 72 points in 79 games in his first year with the club, then notched another nine goals and 16 points in 17 postseason tilts to help the club reach the Eastern Conference Final (his third consecutive year in the ECF, having been in the last two with the Buffalo Sabres). Briere’s high point with the club came during the spring of 2010, as he garnered a ton of Conn Smythe consideration with 12 goals and a franchise-record 30 points in 23 playoff games, leading the Flyers to within two wins of the Stanley Cup. He ended up being bought out of his contract following the 2012/13 campaign, finishing his time in Philadelphia with 124 goals, 283 points in 365 regular season games. But where Briere always made the most impact was in the postseason, where he became known as “Mr. Clutch”, with 37 goals and 72 points in 68 playoff outings. Recently picking the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees to officially announce his retirement as a player, Briere will be honored with a pre-game ceremony before the Flyers meeting with the Buffalo Sabres at the Wells Fargo Center on October 27, 2015.
Ville Leino — who briefly looked to be one of the all-time steals when he was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in February of 2010 in exchange for fringe defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen — was born in Savonlinna, Finland on this day in 1983. He managed two goals and four points in 13 games down the stretch run, but gelled on the team’s top line with Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere, posting seven goals and 21 points in 19 postseason contests on the way to a near miss in the Cup Final. Leino notched 19 goals and 53 posts the following regular season and three goals and five points in 11 playoff games in the spring of 2011, which included a memorable Easter Day overtime tally that kept the team alive in a potential elimination game in Buffalo during the first round with the Sabres. Head coach Peter Laviolette was oftentimes visibly frustrated with Leino during games and practices, and when his agent came in with huge monetary demands when his contract expired, Paul Holmgren wisely passed and watched as Leino signed a gigantic UFA pact with the Sabres. In 94 regular season games with the Flyers, he posted 21 goals and 57 points, while recording 10 goals and 26 points in 30 postseason contests during his time in Philadelphia.
