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 hold an excellent 10-5-3-0 record in 18 all-time contests played on October 31, which only stands to reason for a team that dons the Orange-and-Black to do so well on Halloween day. Their stellar October 31 mark includes a current three-game winning streak (from 2001-2009).
Some of the more memorable October 31 moments in franchise history:
1970 — Goaltender Doug Favell became the first NHL goaltender to sport a painted mask when he had it painted solid orange to look like a pumpkin just prior to Halloween in 1970.
1971 — Trailing 2-0 after two periods, Simon Nolet keyed a frantic five-goal Flyers third with a hat trick and an assist to help Philadelphia to a 5-3 victory over Ken Dryden and the Montreal Canadiens at the Spectrum.
Nolet kick-started the comeback early in the final frame to cut the Habs lead in half at 2-1, but Frank Mahovlich notched his second of the game with 8:39 remaining to restore the visitor’s two-goal advantage.
Jim Johnson and Bill Lesuk tallied 1:34 apart to tie the game, then Nolet gave the Flyers the lead for good just 33 seconds later. Nolet then capped his three-goal performance by hitting the empty net with Dryden on the bench for an extra Canadiens attacker to put the final nail in the coffin.
Doug Favell made 28 saves to pick up the win, while Dryden was collared with one of just eight losses he would suffer during the entirety of his shimmering Calder Trophy winning rookie season (39-8-15).
Bobby Clarke and Rick Foley each contributed a pair of helpers to the winning effort.
1974 — Bill Clement and Ross Lonsberry each scored a pair of goals and Bernie Parent turned aside 22 shots as the Flyers blasted the New York Rangers 5-1 at the Spectrum.
Clement provided the lone marker of the first period, before Philadelphia blew the game open in the middle stanza. Reggie Leach and Lonsberry scored within the first two minutes of the frame to make it 3-0, and Lonsberry and Clement each added their second via the power play before the second intermission to chase Rangers starter Ed Giacomin.
New York’s Bobby Rousseau spoiled Parent’s shutout bid midway through the third period with a power play tally.
1976 — Bobby Clarke scored twice and racked up six points, while Paul Holmgren notched a Gordie Howe hat trick as the Flyers bombed the Minnesota North Stars 9-1 at the Spectrum.
Philadelphia’s special teams work provided an early lead as Clarke opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal and Reggie Leach added a power play tally before Minnesota’s Dean Talafous cut the Flyers lead to take a 2-1 at the first intermission.
From that point on, it was all Orange-and-Black. Holmgren, who had assisted on Leach’s man advantage strike and been given a fighting major in the first period, completed the Gordie Howe hatty as the game neared the mid-point of regulation by giving Philly a 3-1 lead. Clarke notched his second of the contest just under eight minutes later, before Orest Kindrachuk and Rick MacLeish made it a 6-1 advantage heading into the final frame.
Ross Lonsberry, Bob Kelly, and Bill Barber each beat Stars’ netminder Pete LoPresti in the third to close out the scoring.
1982 — Brian Propp scored twice in a three-goal Philadelphia second period as the Flyers dominated play but barely eked out a 3-2 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets at Winnipeg Arena.
Though they outshot the Jets by an 11-4 count in the opening period, the home team skated to the room with a 1-0 lead on a Dave Babych power play marker midway through the frame.
Propp knotted the score with a man advantage tally of his own early in the second, and Tim Kerr gave Philadelphia the lead just 59 seconds later. Propp beat Doug Soetaert for his second of the contest to make it a two-goal cushion, but Winnipeg’s Craig Levie scored 11 seconds later to make it 3-2.
The Flyers continued to carry play, outshooting the Jets 34-16 for the game. There was no scoring the rest of the way, as Rick St. Croix held the fort to the tune of a 14-save victory.
1984 — Brian Propp scored a pair of goals and Brad McCrimmon’s marker late in the third period capped a rally from a two-goal deficit as the Flyers managed to pull out a 3-3 tie with the Buffalo Sabres at Memorial Auditorium.
A pair of goals from Dave Andreychuk and another from John Tucker saw the home team with a 3-1 lead late in the middle stanza, but Propp beat Bob Sauve for his second of the period late in the frame to give Philadelphia momentum heading into the third.
The visitors outshot Buffalo 8-3 in the final period, and knotted it up when McCrimmon put the puck past Sauve with 4:21 remaining in regulation.
Pelle Lindbergh stopped 24 shots in the contest, including four in overtime to preserve the tie, while Sauve turned away 35 of the 38 shots he faced for the Sabres.
1991 — Rick Tocchet scored twice, while Ron Hextall made 25 saves and added an assist as the Flyers defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-2 at the Spectrum in the first-ever meeting with the expansion club.
Mike Ricci added a goal and a pair of helpers to the winning cause, and Philadelphia also received goal support from Murray Craven and Keith Acton.
1993 — Kevin Dineen posted four goals and five points while Rod Brind’Amour added a goal and five points and Josef Beranek chipped in with four helpers as the club’s second line combined for five goals and 14 points in a wild 9-6 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium.
Philadelphia led 6-4 at the second intermission, but goals 49 seconds apart in the first 2:15 of the stanza from Brian Noonan and Kevin Todd tied it at 6-6.
Dineen completed the hat trick with the game-winner less than three and a half minutes later, and the Flyers put the game away when Mark Recchi and Dineen scored 58 seconds apart with just over seven minutes left in the third.
In addition to his goal, Recchi added a pair of assists. Linemate Eric Lindros added a goal and two helpers, with his goal marking the 10th game in 12 outings he had scored for a total of 11 tallies on the year.
Defensemen Greg Hawgood and Ryan McGill also beat Blackhawks netminder Eddie Belfour, who yielded all nine goals on just 25 shots. Dominic Roussel made 26 saves to improve his season record to 8-1-0.
1996 — Trent Klatt scored two third-period goals to complete a Flyers comeback from a three-goal deficit and lift the club to a 4-3 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Ice Palace.
Goals from Brian Bradley, Dino Ciccarelli, and Brian Bellows staked the Bolts to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes, and Corey Schwab made that advantage hold up until late in the second period. Mikael Renberg and Scott Daniels each scored within the span of 0:35 in the last five minutes of the middle frame to bring Philadelphia back to within a goal, setting up Klatt’s third period heroics.
Ron Hextall made 25 saves, and was especially key in a third period that saw Tampa outshoot the Flyers 12-6.
2001 — John LeClair, Mark Recchi, and Dan McGillis each scored goals and Brian Boucher stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 3-0 blanking of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the First Union Center.
Boucher became the first goaltender in Flyers history to record a shutout on consecutive days, having made 32 saves in a whitewash of the Washington Capitals the day before by an identical 3-0 score.
The Flyers “unretired” their orange road jersey for this contest and raised $67,947 through an on-line jersey auction, of which the proceeds increased the organization’s contribution to the Twin Towers Fund to over $187,000.
2002 — Kim Johnsson scored a goal and assisted on two others, Jeremy Roenick and Michal Handzus added a goal and assist apiece, and Robert Esche outplayed Brian Boucher in the matchup of goaltenders playing against their former teams in a 6-2 Flyers victory over the Phoenix Coyotes at the First Union Center.
Eric Desjardins and Mark Recchi also scored, and Dennis Seidenberg connected for his first NHL goal in the win.
Esche, who was acquired from Phoenix along with Handzus in exchange for Boucher in June, made 18 saves to keep his record perfect at 3-0-0.
2009 — Defenseman Braydon Coburn scored two goals and injury-recall David Laliberte scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in a 6-1 drubbing of the Carolina Hurricanes at the Wachovia Center.
Laliberte, who was called up from the AHL’s Adirondack Phantoms earlier in the day to replace the injured Daniel Briere, beat Michael Leighton on a rebound in his second shift of the contest.
Scott Hartnell, Matt Carle, and James van Riemsdyk, also scored in support of Ray Emery, who made 39 saves in the win.
Later that night across the parking lot, the Spectrum officially closed its doors following its last public event, a Pearl Jam concert in which the band appropriately brought down the house with an epic 40+-song setlist. The building originally opened its doors in 1967, and served as the Flyers home until the CoreStates Center opened in 1996.
October 31 Flyers trade
On this day in 2013, the struggling Flyers — looking for some kind of spark for a non-existent offensive attack and with the team freefallling in the standings — swapped forwards with the Colorado Avalanche when they sent defensive specialist Max Talbot out west in exchange for Steve Downie, Philly’s first round draft pick (29th-overall) back in 2005.
October 31 Flyers birthday
Steve Eminger was born in Woodbridge, Ontario on this day in 1983. A first-round selection (12th-overall) of the Washington Capitals in the 2002 draft, Eminger had fallen out of favor with the Caps organization and was packaged along with a third-round draft pick and sent to the Flyers in June of 2008 in exchange for Philly’s first round pick (which subsequently was used to select blue liner John Carlson). The 6′ 2″, 212-pound rear guard lasted all of 12 contests with Philadelphia — recording a pair of assists and eight PIMs — before Paul Holmgren had seen enough, as he dealt Eminger and Steve Downie to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for defender Matt Carle on November 7.
