An almost-daily 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 compiled a pretty impressive 14-4-3-1 all-time record in 22 games played on this day. Included in those totals is a 10-game stretch without a loss (8-0-2-0) from 1972-1989, and a 6-1-1-1 mark since 1996.
1972 — Gary Dornhoefer posted his third Flyers’ hat trick and Michel Belhumeur turned away 24 of 26 shots to lead Philadelphia to a 5-2 triumph over Jacques Plante and the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Spectrum.
Dornhoefer opened the scoring with the only tally of the first period, then added a pair in the final frame to complete the hat trick. Don Saleski and Bob Kelly also beat Plante, while Rick MacLeish added three helpers to the winning cause. Bobby Clarke and Barry Ashbee each assisted on two Flyers’ markers.
1975 — Bill Barber’s first period goal held up until Rick Hampton beat Wayne Stephenson to tie it up on a third period power play in a 1-1 deadlock with the California Golden Seals at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena. Despite losing a point, Philadelphia improved to 7-1-2 in their last 10 games.
1977 — Don Saleski scored his second goal of the contest with 6:18 remaining in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and Wayne Stephenson stopped 17 shots as the Flyers topped the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 at the Spectrum.
It was Saleski’s second straight two-goal effort, and helped rally the home team from a 2-1 deficit late in the middle session. Paul Holmgren scored with just 16 seconds left in the second to knot the score heading into the third period, and Ross Lonsberry hit the empty net with Tony Esposito pulled in favor of an extra attacker.
1978 — Bill Barber and Blake Dunlop scored a pair of goals apiece and Bernie Parent thwarted all 28 shots for his 53rd career regular season NHL shutout in a 4-0 whitewash of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Dunlop provided Parent with the only goal he would need just 1:34 into the contest, and Barber notched a shorthanded tally in the latter stages of the second period. Both players connected for their second of the game in the final stanza. Barber also added an assist on Dunlop’s third period strike, giving the left winger three goals and seven points in his last two outings.
The blanking was the 49th regular season shutout as a Flyer for Parent, who also had one with the Boston Bruins and three with the Toronto Maple Leafs before coming back to Philadelphia.
1980 — Bill Barber scored twice and Pete Peeters turned aside 39 of 41 shots as the Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks skated to a 2-2 draw at Chicago Stadium. Peeters had to be especially good during a third period that saw the Blackhawks outshoot Philadelphia 14-6.
1983 — Bobby Clarke scored twice and Len Hachborn scored the first two goals of his NHL career, while Pelle Lindbergh made 20 saves as the Flyers blasted the New Jersey Devils 8-2 at Brendan Byrne Arena.
Ron Sutter, Mark Howe, Tim Kerr, and Brian Propp also beat beleagured Devils’ netminder Ron Low, who finished the game facing 38 shots.
1985 — Mark Howe and Brian Propp recorded a pair of goals and three points apiece, and Bob Froese made 27 saves as the Flyers crushed the Boston Bruins 7-4 at the Spectrum.
Brad McCrimmon, Dave Poulin, and Pelle Eklund also scored for Philadelphia, who won for just the second time in their last six contests following a 17-2-0 run over the prior 19 games.
1987 — Dave Poulin notched a goal and an assist and Ron Hextall turned away 19 of 22 shots to lead the Flyers to a 5-3 victory over Bob Froese and the New York Rangers at the Spectrum. It was the first time Philadelphia had beaten Froese in three tries since he was dealt to New York the previous December after requesting a trade.
The Flyers outshot the Rangers 18-7 in the opening period, and took a 2-1 lead on goals by Murray Craven and Kjell Samuelsson. Philly increased their lead to three midway through the middle frame when Brian Dobbin and Poulin (shorthanded) beat Froese. Tallies by Jeff Brubaker and John Ogrodnick got the visitors back to within a goal halfway through the third, but Ron Sutter salted the game away with 2:14 remaining.
1988 — Derrick Smith recorded the lone hat trick of his NHL career and Ron Hextall made 23 saves as the Flyers skated to a 6-4 triumph over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Spectrum.
Smith scored twice in the second period against starter Jimmy Waite, then completed the hat trick late in the third with a goal on Darren Pang, who came on in relief of Waite to begin the final stanza.
Brian Propp, Mike Bullard, and Scott Mellanby also scored for Philadelphia, who won for the fourth time in five games.
1989 — Terry Carkner posted a Gordie Howe hat trick and Ken Wregget stopped 36 of 38 shots as the Flyers came away from Madison Square Garden with a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers.
Carkner fought Mark Janssens at the conclusion of the first period, assisted on Ilkka Sinisalo’s goal midway through the middle frame, and scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal with 1:04 remaining in the second to complete the Gordie Howe hattie against the team that drafted him 14th-overall in the 1984 draft.
Derrick Smith and Murray Craven also scored for Philadelphia, who was outshot 38-19 but still managed to beat John Vanbiesbrouck. Wregget was spectacular — particularly in the third period when the Flyers were outshot 15-5 — as he improved his record to 7-2-1 in his last 10 outings.
1996 — Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Joel Otto each scored one goal and assisted on another, and Ron Hextall made 18 saves to lead the Flyers over the Florida Panthers at the CoreStates Center.
Goals by Otto, Scott Daniels, Eric Desjardins, and LeClair staked Philadelphia to a 4-1 lead at the second intermission, before Jason Podollan made it a 4-2 contest with his lone NHL tally. Lindros made it 5-2 less than a minute later, but Martin Straka scored just 26 seconds later and former-Flyer Scott Mellanby made it a one-goal game with a power play marker with 1:47 remaining.
The game was just the seventh of the year for Lindros, who had missed the first 23 contests due to a groin injury. The two points gave ‘The Big E’ a five-game point-scoring streak, in which he had two goals and seven points.
2000 — Keith Primeau scored a pair of goals and Roman Cechmanek stopped 16 of 18 shots to give Bill Barber a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders at the First Union Center in his NHL coaching debut. Barber earlier in the day had been named the 14th head coach in franchise history, replacing Craig Ramsay.
Kevin Stevens added a goal and two helpers, while Eric Desjardins and Peter White also scored for Philadelphia.
Barber had been in his first year as an assistant to Ramsay after spending the previous four seasons as bench boss of the Flyers’ AHL-affiliate Adirondack Phantoms, which included the 1997/98 Calder Cup as league champs.
Ramsay finished his tenure in Philly with a 28-20-5 regular season record and 11-7 in the playoffs, where he took the Flyers to within a win of the Stanley Cup Final the previous spring.
2001 — Simon Gagne and Jeremy Roenick posted a goal and an assist apiece, and Roman Cechmanek stopped 14 of 15 shots as the Flyers downed the Atlanta Thrashers by a 3-1 count at Philips Arena. Keith Primeau also scored for Philadelphia, who outshot the home team in each frame for a total of 29-15 for the contest.
Roenick’s goal snapped a 1-1 tie at the midpoint of the third period, when he took a feed from Gagne and snapped a shot past Atlanta starter Damian Rhodes for the go-ahead tally.
2002 — Simon Gagne posted two unassisted markers during a three-goal Flyers’ second period, and Robert Esche stopped 24 shots in a 5-2 triumph over the Florida Panthers at Office Depot Center.
Dennis Seidenberg, Andre Savage, and Justin Williams also beat Roberto Luongo, who finished with 30 saves.
Philadelphia’s five-goal performance snapped a club-record string of 16 consecutive games — during which they posted a 5-6-4-1 record — in which the club scored three goals or less, very similar to the first 15 contests of the current regular season. The Flyers managed just 22 goals during each of those stretches.
2003 — Sami Kapanen scored with 1:08 remaining in regulation as the Flyers finally beat goaltender Fred Brathwaite to lift the Flyers into a 1-1 tie with the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Philadelphia outshot Columbus 41-20, including 8-3 in overtime, but had to settle for the draw. Jeff Hackett made 19 saves for the Flyers.
2005 — Branko Radivojevic batted Mike Knuble’s rebound past Manny Fernandez with 53 seconds remaining in the third period to lift the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild at the Wachovia Center.
Peter Forsberg provided a goal and an assist in his first game back after missing six contests with a groin strain, giving the first-year Flyer nine goals and 41 points in 22 games for the season. Kim Johnsson also scored for Philadelphia.
Antero Niittymaki turned away 23 of 25 shots to improve the rookie netminder’s record to 7-3-2.
2011 — Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist during a three-goal Flyers’ second period as Philadelphia cruised past the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Trailing 1-0 in the middle stanza, the Flyers got goals from Danny Briere and Jaromir Jagr within a 34-second span to take a lead they would not relinquish. Simmonds made it a 3-1 lead with a power play goal late in the frame.
Vincent Lecavalier drew Tampa to within a goal 55 seconds into the third, but Matt Carle re-established the two-goal margin with a man advantage tally four minutes later.
Scott Hartnell closed out the scoring when he hit the empty net with Bolts’ goaltender Mathieu Garon pulled in favor of an extra attacker, making it five consecutive outings with a goal for Hartnell.
Jagr’s goal in the second period was his 10th of the year and 656th of his career, tying him with Brendan Shanahan for 11th place on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list.
The win came with a cost, however, as both Claude Giroux and Ilya Bryzgalov left the contest with injuries.
Giroux — who assisted on two of the Flyer goals in the second, extending his point-scoring streak to five (three goals, 10 points) and giving him an NHL-leading 39 points (16 goals, 23 assists) for the year — left with a head injury after falling to the ice and taking an inadvertant knee from Simmonds to the back of his helmet as Philly began a rush up ice.
Bryzgalov left with just over 13 minutes remaining due to a lower-body injury, with Sergei Bobrovsky stopping all three shots he faced the rest of the way.
December 10 Flyers’ birthday
Nate Guenin was born in Sewickley, PA on this day in 1982, and was inked as a free agent out of Ohio State University in August of 2006. The 6′ 2″, 210-pound blue liner appeared in 12 contests for Philadelphia over parts of three seasons from 2006/07 through 2008/09, recording a pair of assists and six PIMs. The journeyman defender made stops with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Anaheim Ducks over the past several seasons before finally finding a regular place in an NHL lineup last year with Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche.
