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 recorded an 11-7-1-0 mark (6-3-0 at home) in October 27 tilts over the course of franchise history heading into tonight’s home affair with the Buffalo Sabres on Daniel Briere night. The club is currently on a two-game losing streak (2009 and 2011) in games played on this day, but have strung together a pair of decent winning streaks — they won five consecutive from 1998-2007, and three straight from 1983-1985 in October 27 battles. Flyers’ netminders have posted a pair of October 27 shutouts, while Philly has also been blanked twice in October 27 contests.
Some of the more memorable moments in franchise history from October 27:
1968 — Jimmy Johnson scored one goal and assisted on another and Doug Favell was spectacular in turning aside 35 of 37 shots, but Joe Szura’s goal 4:44 into the final stanza forced a 2-2 deadlock with the Oakland Seals at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena.
Ed Van Impe staked the visitors to a 1-0 lead midway through the opening frame, but Carol Vadnais knotted the contest two minutes later.
Johnson gave Philadelphia their second lead of the tilt in the last minute of the second period, before Szura’s game-tying marker early in the final session.
The Seals carried play and heavily outshot the Flyers by a wide 37-22 margin, and Favell had to be sharp to ensure his club came away with at least one point.
1973 — Bobby Clarke scored twice and assisted on another goal, while Bernie Parent stopped the 23 shots he faced to record a shutout as the Flyers blasted the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 6-0 count at Civic Arena.
Rick MacLeish and defenseman Tom Bladon each added a goal and an assist, while Don Saleski and Simon Nolet also lit the lamp for Philadelphia. Bill Flett and Andre Dupont both chipped in with a pair of helpers.
The whitewash snapped a personal three-game losing streak for Parent — who improved to 5-3-0 for the year — and was his third shutout of the season and 13th during his time in a Flyers’ uniform (17th overall in the NHL — he managed four combined shutouts with the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs).
1981 — The Montreal Canadiens bombed Philadelphia netminders for half-a-dozen goals in the opening 20 minutes en route to an 11-2 pasting of the Flyers at the Forum, in the club’s most decisive road loss in franchise history.
Led by Keith Acton’s hat trick, the home team scored three more times in the second and twice more in the final stanza.
Flyers starter Pete Peeters managed to stop just two of the six shots he faced in the game’s opening 11:10, before getting the hook in favor of Rick St. Croix. The reliever ended up allowing seven more goals on 37 shots the rest of the way.
Reggie Leach got the visitors on the board late in the first, with Bill Barber scoring shorthanded midway through regulation as the lone Philadelphia tallies.
Habs’ goalkeeper Denis Herron played well, stopping 23 of 25 Philadelphia shots in the laugher.
1983 — Dave Poulin’s shorthanded marker late in the third period proved to be the game-winner as the Flyers held off the visiting Quebec Nordiques 4-3 at the Spectrum.
Tim Ker and Bo Berglund swapped first period goals, but the home team appeared to take control of the contest with the lone tallies of the middle frame, courtesy of Rich Sutter, and Mark Howe.
Wilf Paiement cut the lead to one midway through the third, before Poulin again made it a two-goal cushion with teammate Ray Allison sitting in the sin bin.
Poulin’s goal became huge when Nords winger Tony McKegney beat Pelle Lindbergh with Quebec still on the same man advantage just 0:13 later, providing Philly with the final margin of victory.
Rick MacLeish and Bill Barber each contributed a pair of helpers, while Lindbergh finished with 21 saves to pick up the win. Clint Malarchuk stopped 32 of 36 Flyers shots in defeat.
1984 — Trailing the New Jersey Devils by a 2-1 score after two periods, the Flyers got goals from Brian Propp, Derrick Smith, and Mark Howe to pull out a 4-2 triumph at Brendan Byrne Arena.
Defenseman Thomas Eriksson scored for Philadelphia in the second period, while Tim Kerr and Murray Craven both assisted on two goals.
Goaltender Pelle Lindbergh wrangled First Star honors with a 28-save performance, outplaying Devils Glenn “Chico” Resch, who allowed four goals on 23 Philadelphia shots.
1985 — Ilkka Sinisalo and Murray Craven each scored twice and Brian Propp added a goal and an assist as the Flyers downed the Vancouver Canucks 7-4 at the Spectrum.
Dave Poulin and Lindsay Carson also scored, while Peter Zezel and Doug Crossman both added a pair of helpers as the home squad built a commanding 6-1 lead early in the third period before cruising to the victory.
Bob Froese stopped 20 Canucks shots to record the win, while Richard Brodeur allowed five goals on 28 shots before being pulled after the second period. Frank Caprice finished out the contest, giving up two goals on the 16 shots he faced in the final 20 minutes.
1988 — Brian Propp scored once and assisted on a pair of goals and Ron Hextall stopped 30 of 32 shots as the Flyers defeated the New York Islanders, 5-2, at the Spectrum.
Mark Howe and Pat Lafontaine traded first period tallies, before Scott Mellanby (power play) and Ron Sutter (shorthanded) provided goals via special teams units in the middle frame to build a two-goal advantage before Lafontaine struck for a second time to make it a 3-2 Philly lead at the second intermission.
Flyer mainstays Tim Kerr and Brian Propp put the final nails in the Isles coffin with goals 0:53 apart midway through the third to take any drama out of how the contest would end.
Kelly Hrudey made 24 saves for the visitors in the loss.
1993 — Rod Brind’Amour scored twice — including what proved to be the game-winner early in the middle frame — and Philadelphia also got a goal and an assist each from Eric Lindros and Mark Recchi as the Flyers defeated the Ottawa Senators at the Ottawa Civic Centre by a convincing 5-2 score.
Lindros and Recchi staked the visitors to a 2-0 first period lead, which was extended by Brind’Amour’s first of the contest early in the middle stanza before Alexei Yashin and Bob Kudelski answered for Ottawa.
Philadelphia got their bearings and carried play in the final 20 minutes, with Vyacheslav Butsayev providing an insurance goal with just under four minutes remaining in regulation, and Brind’Amour sealing the deal into an empty net in the final minute with the Ottawa goaltender pulled in favor of an extra skater.
Dominic Roussel made 19 saves to record the win, but was relieved by Tommy Soderstrom to start the third period after yielding two late second period Senator goals. Soderstrom was perfect, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the final stanza.
Craig Billington made 26 saves in the loss for the Sens.
1998 — John Vanbiesbrouck stopped all but one of the 30 shots he faced as the Flyers overcame and early deficit to grind out a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the Spectrum.
After Pierre Turgeon staked St. Louis to an early first period lead, Philadelphia got a power play goal from Rod Brind’Amour in the late stages of the frame, then took the lead for good on a Colin Forbes tally in the first half minute of the second to close out the scoring.
Blues’ goalkeeper Jamie McLennan made 18 saves in the defeat.
2001 — The Flyers got contributions from five separate goal scorers — Kim Johnsson, Jan Hlavac, Mark Recchi, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Marty Murray — on the way to routing the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 at Bell Centre.
Enforcer Todd Fedoruk contributed a pair of helpers to the winning cause.
Brian Boucher stopped 27 of 28 Habs shots for the win, while Mathieu Garon made 30 saves in the loss.
2003 — John LeClair, Simon Gagne, Michal Handzus, and Marcus Ragnarsson all posted a goal and two points and Robert Esche stopped all 20 shots he faced to help the Flyers to a 5-0 shutout of the Montreal Canadiens at the Wachovia Center.
LeClair and Gagne made it 2-0 after the opening session and Handzus and Ragnarsson doubled that lead after 40 minutes, while Tony Amonte scored the lone goal of the final frame.
Esche picked up his first win in his third start of the young season (1-1-1 record), and was beneficiary of a stifling Philadelphia defensive effort over the final two periods in which the club outshot the Habs by a 25-8 count.
Montreal netminder Jose Theodore played well and finished with 34 saves in the loss,
2005 — Peter Forsberg tied the game with his first goal of the season with just 50 seconds remaining in regulation, and defenseman Joni Pitkanen provided the game-winner 1:13 into overtime as the Flyers came back to record a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers at the Wachovia Center.
Trailing 4-2 early in the third period, Simon Gagne scored his second goal of the game to set up Forsberg’s tying goal.
Jeff Carter also lit the lamp for the home squad, tying the contest just under five minutes into the second period for his first NHL goal in his eighth game.
Forsberg — who also had two assists on the night — had an earlier chance to score when awarded a penalty shot, but was stoned by Panthers’ netminder Roberto Luongo.
Robert Esche made 30 saves while Luongo — though turning in an excellent 34-save performance — suffered the defeat.
2007 — Martin Biron made 40 saves and Mike Richards recorded a goal and assist as the Flyers skated to a 2-2 deadlock with the Boston Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden.
Biron was especially tough in a scoreless third period, as he was called upon to make 16 saves as the Bruins carried play.
After Richards scored an unassisted shorthanded goal, Joffrey Lupul tallied on the power play to give Philadelphia a brief 2-1 lead, but Phil Kessel knotted the game in the latter stages of the middle frame, beating Biron on a penally shot.
2011 — Andrew Ladd‘s goal with 1:06 left in regulation gave the Winnipeg Jets a wild 9-8 victory over the Flyers in a pre-Halloween horror show at the Wells Fargo Center.
The 17 goals scored tied the all-time franchise record for most goals scored in a game, and it was the first time in club history that the Flyers managed eight goals and did not come out victorious.
Philadelphia trailed, 6-2, midway through regulation but stormed back on goals from Danny Briere and Maxime Talbot to cut the deficit to 6-4 heading into the third period.
The Flyers briefly took a 7-6 lead on goals by Briere, Matt Read, and James van Riemsdyk in the first 3:02 of the stanza, but Ilya Bryzgalov — who relieved starter Sergei Bobrovsky earlier — allowed two Jets markers within 1:01 as the visitors reclaimed the lead, 8-7.
Philly tied it again on van Riemsdyk’s goal with 3:39 left before Ladd’s game-winner.
After the contest, Bryzgalov delivered his infamous “Lost in the woods” comments to the media when the goalie was inconsolable and was searching for answers. The first-year Flyer netminder yielded four goals on just 10 shots in suffering the defeat.
Briere (two goals, two assists) and Kimmo Timonen (four assists) each picked up four points, and van Riemsdyk recorded three (two goals, an assist) in defeat.
Led by van Riemsdyk’s nine, the Flyers threw 48 shots at Jets goaltenders Ondrej Pavelec (36 saves on 43 shots) and Chris Mason (four saves on five shots). Mason played less than eight and a half minutes, but came away with the victory.
October 27 Flyers Birthday:
Mike Ricci, Philadelphia’s first round draft pick (fourth-overall) in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, was born on this day in 1971.
As an 18-year-old rookie, Ricci suffered a broken finger in his first game with the Flyers. The gritty centerman missed 11 contests, but scored his first NHL goal / point in his first game back on November 1, 1990 in a 6-3 victory over the Minnesota North Stars. Ricci recorded 21 goals and 41 points in 68 games that season, and along the way showed the type of tireless two-way play and leadership that not only caused Philly to draft him, but made him such a valuable commodity to clubs throughout his career.
In his second campaign in Philadelphia, Ricci scored 20 goals and posted 56 points. But that would end up being his last with the organization, as Ricci was included as part of the package that was dealt to the Quebec Nordiques for one of the most anticipated players ever to come into the NHL, Eric Lindros.
The Scarborough, Ontario-native finished his time with the Flyers with 41 goals, 97 points, and 157 penalty minutes in 146 contests, but never skated in a playoff tilt with the club.
Ricci would go on to win a Stanley Cup with his new franchise, even though it occurred in Colorado after the Nordiques moved there following the 1994/95 season.
