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
The Flyers have put together a respectable 13-7-2-1 record in 23 all-time November 16 contests — which includes a stellar 9-2-2-1 mark at home — over the course of franchise history.
Philadelphia has scored 73 goals in the 23 contests (an average of 3.17 GPG), while yielding 65 — which includes 11 surrendered to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Civic Arena in 1993 — to their opponents (2.82 GAA).
Some of the more memorable November 16 moments in franchise history:
1967 — Doug Favell made 30 saves and Ed Hoekstra’s late-second period goal proved to be the game-winner as the Flyers defeated the New York Rangers, 3-2, at the Spectrum.
Leon Rochefort and Ed Van Impe also scored for Philadelphia, and Don Blackburn added a pair of assists.
1973 — Bill Flett beat Gilles Meloche early in the third period to snap a 1-1 tie and Bernie Parent stopped 23 of 24 shots to lift the Flyers to a 2-1 triumph over the California Golden Seals at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Philadelphia had taken a 1-0 lead in the opening period when Rick MacLeish scored a shorthanded goal with Joe Watson in the penalty box serving a cross-checking minor.
The home team tied it up just 1:09 into the second on a goal by Walt McKechnie.
1975 — Bob Kelly and Rick MacLeish scored second period goals and Wayne Stephenson turned aside 26 of 27 shots to lead the Flyers to a 3-1 triumph over the Montreal Canadiens at the Spectrum.
Trailing 1-0 midway through regulation on a first period tally by Guy Lafleur, Kelly scored just seconds after exiting the penalty box after the Flyers killed off his high-sticking major.
MacLeish scored 5:26 later to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead, and Gary Dornhoefer sealed the victory with an empty-netter with 0:04 remaining and Ken Dryden — who turned in a spectacular 46-save performance to hold the Habs in the game — pulled in favor of an extra attacker.
1976 — Orest Kindrachuk scored the game’s first goal with 2:05 left in regulation time and Bernie Parent stopped all 27 shots he faced to record his third shutout of the season to lead the Flyers to a hard-fought 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at the Spectrum.
Mel Bridgman added an empty net goal with seven seconds left and Eddie Giacomin pulled for an extra attacker as Detroit unsuccessfully attempted to break through Parent for a tying goal.
The whitewash was Parent’s 37th in a Flyers uniform and the 41st shutout of his NHL career.
1985 — Rick Tocchet scored a pair of goals to help the Flyers to a 5-2 decision over the Whalers at the Hartford Civic Center for the club’s 12th straight victory.
Brian Propp scored his 14th goal of the year in Philadelphia’s 16th game to open the scoring in the first, before Hartford’s Paul Lawless knotted the game up with 2:05 remaining in the middle stanza. But Tocchet answered for Philadelphia just 0:37 later to stake the team to a 2-1 at the second intermission.
Pelle Eklund and Tocchet extended the lead to 4-1 by beating Steve Weeks in the first half of the final frame, and defenseman Brad McCrimmon closed out the scoring less than five minutes after Ray Ferraro notched a power play tally for the Whalers.
Murray Craven assisted on two Flyer markers, and Darren Jensen made 31 saves to win his second consecutive start after being recalled from the Hershey Bears following Pelle Lindbergh’s fatal car accident. Jensen had been pressed into starting duties when incumbent Bob Froese suffered a groin injury in practice.
1986 — Peter Zezel scored twice and added an assist in a four-goal Flyers first period as Philadelphia went on to a 6-2 thrashing of the Washington Capitals at the Spectrum.
Lindsay Carson and Murray Craven also tallied in the opening stanza, chasing Caps starter Bob Mason, who was done after making 11 saves on 15 Philly shots.
Former-Flyer Pete Peeters came into the game to begin the second period and went the rest of the way, yielding a third period shorthanded goal to Brian Propp and an even strength tally by Dave Poulin in the 20 shots he faced.
Rookie Ron Hextall made 23 saves to hit the double-digit mark in victories, raising his record to 10-3-1 for the year, and he also added an assist on Propp’s third period shorty.
1989 — Pelle Eklund scored twice and Mike Bullard added a goal and three helpers to lead the Flyers to a 6-3 win over the Minnesota North Stars at the Spectrum.
Eklund broke a 3-3 tie midway through the second stanza with his first of the contest, then added a second with 5:31 remaining in regulation to close out the scoring after Don Biggs had made it a 5-3 lead early in the third.
It was the third consecutive multi-point outing for Bullard, who scored three goals and posted eight posts during the hot stretch.
Brian Dobbin and Murray Craven (shorthanded) also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, and defenseman Gord Murphy added three assists.
Bruce Hoffort made 21 saves to record his third victory of the year (3-0-1).
1995 — Eric Lindros netted a pair of goals and Rod Brind’Amour assisted on four Flyer markers to lead Philadelphia to a 5-3 tiumph over the Ottawa Senators at the Spectrum.
Trailing 3-2 early in the third period, the Flyers got goals from Russ Romaniuk, Lindros, and Karl Dykhuis within a span of 3:09 to knock Sens starter Mike Bales out of the game in favor of Don Beaupre.
The game represented a triumphant return to the lineup for Lindros, who sat out the previous seven with a bruised left knee.
Mikael Renberg also scored for Philly, extending his point-scoring streak to five straight contests (3-4-7).
John LeClair and Joel Otto each recorded a pair of assists, and Ron Hextall stopped 20 of 23 Ottawa shots to post the win.
1997 — Rod Brind’Amour scored two third period goals — including the game-winner with 1:00 left in regulation — and Ron Hextall made 19 saves to lift the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the CoreStates Center.
Alexander Selivanov had staked the visitors to a 2-0 lead by scoring a pair of goals within a 39-second span in the opening period, but.Trent Klatt beat Daren Puppa early in the middle frame to cut Tampa’s lead in half to set the stage for Brind’Amour’s third period heroics.
2006 — R.J. Umberger scored a pair of late third period goals — including the game-winner with 3:37 left in regulation — to erase a 3-2 deficit and lift the Flyers to a come-from-behind 4-3 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center.
The win was the second in a row to begin the west coast portion of their road trip following a disastrous six-game losing skid (0-5-1) in an otherwise continuing awful campaign.
After Alex Frolov scored his second goal of the game to give the Kings a 3-1 lead midway through the final frame, Simon Gagne notched his 10th goal of the season with 6:47 left.
Umberger connected on his first of the night when he stripped the puck from Dustin Brown and fired a shot past Los Angeles netminder Dan Cloutier to tie the score just 0:40 later.
Geoff Sanderson also scored for the Flyers, and Mike Richards assisted on three goals.
Antero Niittymaki made 23 saves to record the win.
2008 — Joffrey Lupul ended an end-to-end dash by scoring from the left faceoff circle with 6:17 remaining in regulation to rescue the Flyers from a third period collapse in a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers at the First Union Center.
The win was Philly’s 12th consecutive over the Thrashers and gave the Orange-and-Black an unbelievable 27-3-3-1 all-time record against Atlanta, including a 13-1-2-1 mark against them on home ice.
Philadelphia took a 3-1 lead into the final stanza on the strength of markers from Simon Gagne, Mike Knuble, and Kimmo Timonen, but the ice was tilted in the visitor’s favor just about the rest of the way.
Atlanta outshot Philadelphia 21-4 in the third, and they got on the board quickly as Bryan Little scored 35 seconds into the frame. Slava Kozlov tied it at 12:03 before Lupul beat Johan Hedberg for the game-winner just 1:40 later.
In addition to his goal, Gagne also added a pair of assists.
Antero Niittymaki made 29 saves to garner the win, keeping his career record against the Thrashers perfect at 11-0-0.
2009 — James van Riemsdyk gathered a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Martin Brodeur for what would prove to be the game-winning goal as the Flyers stopped New Jersey’s nine-game road winning streak to open the season with a 3-2 triumph over the Devils at the Wachovia Center.
N.J. had been attempting to tie the Buffalo Sabres NHL record of 10 consecutive road wins to begin a campaign, but fell just short with the loss.
Darroll Powe and Scott Hartnell also scored for Philadelphia and Claude Giroux added a pair of helpers.
Ray Emery came up big with 33 saves, allowing only a David Clarkson power play goal late in the second and a Zach Parise tally with only 0:01 remaining in the game.
Prior to the game, Dave Schultz became the 20th member of the organization to be inducted into the Flyers Hall-of-Fame.
“The Hammer” was a member of the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup championship squads, and posted 51 goals and 115 points in 297 games over parts of five seasons with the club while amassing 1386 penalty minutes, including a still-standing NHL-record of 472 during the 1974/75 regular season.
Schultz played in 61 games over four postseasons for Philly (1973-1976), recording seven goals, 16 points, and 363 PIMs. Included in that penalty minute total is 139 over 17 contests in 1974 which at the time set a league mark, but was shattered in 1986 by Montreal’s Chris Nilan when he accumulated 141 PIMs in 18 games.
November 16 Flyers trade:
On this day in 1995, the Flyers sent the rights to winger Martin Spanhel and 1996 first and fourth-round draft picks to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for sniping winger Pat Falloon.
Falloon would spend just over two years in Philadelphia, posting 38 goals and 83 points in 144 regular season games, while managing just six goals and nine points in 26 postseason tilts.
Following a poor performance in the Flyers run to the 1997 Stanley Cup Final — in which he was scratched for the final four games of the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers and first game of the Final against Detroit — and getting off to a slow start in 1997-98 (five goals, 12 points in 30 games), Falloon was dealt to the Ottawa Senators as part of a package for center Alexandre Daigle.
As far as San Jose’s return in the original Falloon trade, Spanhel never played a game for the Sharks, and the two draft choices were dealt — with the first-rounder going to the Phoenix Coyotes, who used the pick to select Daniel Briere.
