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 posted a 5-4 record in nine contests played on April 29, having picked up wins in their last two (2012, 2014).
Some of the more memorable moments and brief recaps in Flyers history that took place on April 29:
1975 — Bobby Clarke and Rick MacLeish each posted a goal and an assist, and Wayne Stephenson turned aside all 21 shots he faced in his Flyers playoff debut to lead the home team to a 4-0 win over the New York Islanders in Game 1 of their Semifinal series at the Spectrum.
Philadelphia was the more rested club, having had 10 days off following a four-game sweep of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Quarterfinal round, while the Isles three days earlier had become just the second team in NHL history to overcome an 0-3 series deficit to advance with a Game 7 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Don Saleski gave Philly a 1-0 lead early in the first, which was doubled by Bill Barber in the opening minutes of the middle stanza.
Clarke then made it a three-goal lead shortly after Flyers’ defender Ed Van Impe was sent to the penalty box, and MacLeish closed out the scoring at 1:34 of the third.
1976 — Reggie Leach beat Gerry Cheevers 13:38 into overtime to give the Flyers a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins at the Spectrum, and a split of the first two games of their Semifinal round series.
Philly netminder Wayne Stephenson — playing in place of Bernie Parent, who had missed most of the year and was out with a serious neck injury — made Don Saleski’s first period goal stand up until the latter stages of the third period, when John Bucyk knotted the contest while the Bruins skated with a man advantage to send the game into extra time and set up Leach’s heroics.
The goal for ‘The Rifle’ was his eighth in nine playoff game that spring, continuing on in a legendary year which saw him light the lamp 61 times during the regular season.
1989 — Brian Propp had a goal and an assist, Ken Wregget stopped 39 of 40 shots and Dave Poulin’s shorthanded goal snapped a second period 1-1 tie and the Flyers never looked back en route to a 4-1 Game 7 triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Civic Arena to clinch their Patrick Division Final series, 4-3.
Propp’s marker late in the first period gave the visitors the lead at the first intermission, but Mario Lemieux evened things up on a power play early in the second. With Pittsburgh heading back to the man advantage on a Jeff Chychrun cross-checking minor just over a minute after Lemieux’s goal, Pittsburgh seemed poised to grab the lead.
But Propp, Mark Howe and Poulin combined to deliver a crushing blow to the Pens, with Poulin beating Tom Barrasso while Philadelphia skated a man short.
Wregget was air-tight the rest of the way, while former-Penguin Mike Bullard notched a power play goal in the first minute of the final period and Scott Mellanby sealed the deal into the empty net with Barrasso pulled for an extra attacker in the final minute.
The victory capped off one of the great series in franchise history, one in which the Flyers came back from a 3-2 deficit against one of the burgeoning NHL superpowers of the time.
Tim Kerr — who had a 48-goal, 88-point regular season in his return from multiple shoulder surgeries that cost him all but eight of the previous campaign’s contests — added an assist in Game 7 and managed at least one point in each game of the series, finished a dominating seven games with 10 goals and 15 points against Pittsburgh. Combined with his first round totals against the Washington Capitals, Kerr had a whopping 15 goals and 26 points in 13 postseason outings up to that point.
2012 — Moments after having what appeared to be a game-winning goal disallowed because it was ruled he had kicked it into the net, Danny Briere beat Martin Brodeur 4:36 into overtime to life the Flyers to a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils in Game one of the Eastern Conference Semifinal at the Wells Fargo Center.
The goal was Briere’s second of the contest that actually counted, sent through a massive screen set up in front of Brodeur by James van Riemsdyk, who along with Claude Giroux also provided tallies for Philly.
Picking up the victory for the Flyers was Ilya Bryzgalov, who allowed three goals on 26 shots after yielding just one in 76 shots during three regular season wins against the Devils that included a pair of shutouts.
2014 — Wayne Simmonds recorded his first-ever postseason hat trick and Steve Mason made 34 saves to help the Flyers stave off elimination in a 5-2 triumph over the New York Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center to force a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.
Simmonds was his usual dominating self around the net, managing two of his tallies on the power play and the other off a broken rush when Brayden Schenn lost control of the puck as he cut across the slot and the big winger gathered it up and snapped a shot past Henrik Lundqvist.
With the Flyers clinging to a 2-0 lead on a pair of Simmonds goals late in the middle frame, the Rangers were attempting to cut their deficit in half with Philadelphia defenseman Erik Gustafsson in the penalty box serving a high-sticking minor. As the expiration of his time in the sin bin, Braydon Coburn gained possession of the puck and sent a long lead pass to Gustafsson out of the box, sending the blue liner in on a breakaway.
Gustafsson swooped in on the New York cage and fired a shot through Lundqvist’s five hole to instead make it a 3-0 lead.
The moment had to feel extra fantastic for Gustafsson, who was making his 2014 postseason debut after having been a healthy scratch for the first five games of the series. Included in those scratches was Game 5 at Madison Square Garden after Nicklas Grossmann was lost to the team, and head coach Craig Berube instead chose to insert Hal Gill, who had played all of six games all season-long. Gill was a -2 in Philly’s 4-2 loss, which had put them on the brink of elimination.
Carl Hagelin spoiled Mason’s shutout bid late in the third before Claude Giroux hit the empty net with Cam Talbot (who was on in relief of Lundqvist) pulled for an extra Rangers skater with just over four minutes remaining and Mats Zuccarello closing out the scoring in the game’s final minute.
