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 complied an 8-9-2-1 all-time record in 20 games played on November 8. Philadelphia has won four of their last six contests on this date (2001-2014), with a pair coming in overtime (2003, 2005).
Some of the more memorable November 8 moments in franchise history:
1967 — Bill Sutherland scored the lone Flyers’ goal and Bernie Parent turned aside 41 of 42 shots in a 1-1 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Igloo.
Parent had to be especially good over the final 40 minutes as Pittsburgh outshot Philly by a 35-19 margin, including 17-8 in the final stanza.
1970 — Wayne Hillman’s goal 28 seconds into the third period snapped a 1-1 tie, while rookie Bob Kelly notched his first NHL goal and an assist in a 3-1 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres at Memorial Auditorium.
Gilbert Perreault — the first-overall pick in the draft that year — staked the Sabres to a 1-0 lead when he beat Doug Favell early in the first period.
That marker held up until late in the middle frame, when Jim Johnson was able to get the puck past Roger Crozier to knot the score.
After Hillman made it a 2-1 Philadelphia lead in the first half minute of the final stanza, Kelly provided Favell with an insurance goal midway through the third to close out the scoring.
Bobby Clarke assisted on both of the Flyers’ third period tallies, while Favell finished with 19 saves on 20 shots in the winning effort.
1972 — Freshman Bill Barber recorded the first multiple goal game of his career, scoring both Philadelphia markers in a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Civic Arena.
1978 — Blake Dunlop scored his first two goals in a Flyers’ uniform and Bernie Parent stopped 22 of 25 shots in a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Forum.
Bill Barber added a goal and a pair of helpers, while Reggie Leach and Rick Lapointe also managed to beat Kings’ netminder Mario Lessard.
1980 — Reggie Leach’s goal midway through the third period broke a 4-4 deadlock to back Phil Myre’s 33-save performance as the Flyers knocked off the Whalers 5-4 at the Hartford Civic Center.
Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber, Yves Preston, and Blake Wesley also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, who won for a third consecutive time and ran their undefeated streak to 10 games (8-0-2).
1987 — Defenseman Doug Crossman scored a goal and assisted on two others while Ron Hextall made 39 saves in a 3-3 draw with the New Jersey Devils at the Spectrum.
New Jersey jumped to a 3-1 lead at the 8:58 mark of the opening period, but Crossman and Ilkka Sinisalo scored late in the first to knot the game.
Brian Propp also scored, and Rick Tocchet added a pair of helpers.
No more goals were scored the rest of the way, and Hextall had to be particularly good in a third period that saw the visitors throw 17 shots in his direction as he maintained the deadlock.
1990 — Tim Kerr scored the 358th goal of his NHL career, tying him with Bobby Clarke for third place on the Flyers’ all-time goal-scoring list in an 8-2 loss to the Calgary Flames at the Spectrum.
Kerr still holds the third spot in franchise goals scored with 363 (Bill Barber 420, Brian Propp 369 are the top-two).
1997 — Shjon Podein’s goal with 0:43 left in the second period proved to be the eventual game-winner as the Flyers scored three times in the middle frame and held on for a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Corel Center.
After John Druce and Ottawa’s Alexandre Daigle traded first period tallies, Garth Snow received offensive support from John LeClair, Chris Gratton, and Podein to take a 4-1 lead into the final frame.
Snow finished with 23 saves to pick up his third straight victory and fourth in his last five decisions.
2000 — Todd Fedoruk posted his first NHL goal, but Alexei Kovalev’s hat trick led the host Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-2 pasting of the Flyers at Mellon Arena.
2001 — Tomas Divisek scored his first NHL goal in the second period, and it would prove to be the game-winner in a 2-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Ice Palace.
Ruslan Fedotenko gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the latter stages of the opening stanza, before Divisek beat Tampa starter Nikolai Khabibulin midway through regulation to make it a 2-0 game through 40 minutes.
The goal turned out to be invaluable for Philadelphia goaltender Brian Boucher, as he lost his shutout bid to a Pavel Kubina tally with just over 11 minutes left in the final period.
Boucher finished with 22 saves to register his fourth win of the season.
It was the second game of the year for Divisek after being recalled from the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms. He played the next game for the Flyers before being returned to the AHL. The game-winning goal in the win over Tampa would be his lone NHL tally, as Divisek would return to the Czech Republic following the 2001/02 campaign.
2003 — Marcus Ragnarsson beat Mike Dunham 1:01 into overtime to lift the Flyers to a come-from-behind 2-1 triumph over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Trailing 1-0 at the start of the third period, Tony Amonte evened the score on the power play at the 49-second mark, just 19 seconds after Tom Poti was called for slashing.
In the overtime Amonte — who had drilled Dunham in the mask with a shot on a two-on-one earlier in the shift — set up Ragnarsson in front for the game-winner. The defenseman took the Amonte feed and put it high past Dunham to the short side.
Jeremy Roenick assisted on both markers, and Jeff Hackett made 21 saves to snap a personal three-game winless skid (0-2-1).
2005 — Joni Pitkanen scored the tying goal with just 0:24 remaining in regulation, then provided the game-winner 1:55 into overtime to give the Flyers a comeback 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins at the Wachovia Center.
Mike Knuble gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead on a man advantage goal with less than a minute left in the opening stanza, but Boston’s Shawn McEachern knotted the game with a power play strike of his own late in the second.
Sergei Samsonov gave the visitors their first lead of the contest in the first minute of the third, and Joe Thornton appeared to put the game away with less than five minutes left following a glaring Pitkanen turnover.
But Simon Gagne — fresh off a hat trick against the Atlanta Thrashers in the club’s previous outing — notched his seventh goal in the last four games to cut the deficit to one goal just over a minute later to get Philly back into the contest. The marker gave the blistering-hot Gagne a league-best 16 in Philadelphia’s 13th contest of the year.
With goaltender Robert Esche off in favor of an extra attacker, Pitkanen was already in full flight when he took a feed from Peter Forsberg down the left wing side. The young defenseman snapped a wrist shot that beat Boston netminder Hannu Toivonen under the crossbar to the far side corner to send the fans into a frenzy and the game to extra time.
In overtime, Pitkanen took a pass from Michal Handzus behind the net and sent a shot that hit Toivonen in the shoulder and found its way into the net to help Philadelphia garner the extra point.
Forsberg posted three assists, increasing his NHL-leading total to 24 in just 13 games.
2014 — Claude Giroux (two goals, assist) and Jakub Voracek (three assists) combined for a pair of goals and six points and Steve Mason made 36 saves as the Flyers built a 4-0 lead and held on for a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at the Wells Fargo Center.
The game was scoreless until late in the opening frame when Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon was assessed a five-minute boarding major for his hit from behind on Luke Schenn, which sent the defenseman heavily into the end boards left shoulder / head-first as he was in the process of going back to get the puck with less than a minute left.
Schenn did not return to the game, and would miss the next three outings with a shoulder injury.
As the clock ticked down in the period, Wayne Simmonds passed the puck from behind the Av’s net to Giroux in the left circle then went to the front of the net to provide a massive screen on goalie Reto Berra. Giroux snapped a perfect shot through the blinded netminder and into the net with 0:2.9 remaining to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead at the first intermission.
The two would combine for a second man advantage tally at 2:48 into the middle stanza when Giroux found Simmonds down low at the goal line and the big forward stepped out in front of Berra and tucked the puck past the goaltender to make it a 2-0 Philadelphia lead.
The Flyers extended their advantage just past the midway point of regulation when Nick Schultz pinched to keep a puck in and threw a puck towards the net that was deflected by Matt Read. Berra made the save and stopped Read on the rebound, but the persistent forward got to the loose disc and fed Brayden Schenn, who made no mistake to make it a 3-0 game.
Philly’s power play unit would strike for a third time late in the second with both Cody McLeod and former-Flyers defensive prospect Nate Guenin sitting in the sin bin and the Flyers skating with a 5-on-3 advantage. Vincent Lecavalier had the puck in the right circle and faked a shot that pulled Berra to the near post, but Lecavalier instead whipped a quick cross-ice pass to Giroux, who one-timed a shot into the vacant net to make it a seemingly-safe 4-0 lead heading into the final frame.
The third would have Mason see an avalanche of Colorado shots, however, as the visitors carried play for the entirety of the twenty minutes and outshot Philadelphia by a gigantic 21-6 margin, pulling to within one on makers by former-Flyer Max Talbot, Alex Tanguay, and Zach Redmond before falling just short in the comeback attempt thanks to the Philly backstop.
Philadelphia’s special teams play was crucial in the win, as their power play unit went 3-6, while the penalty killers were a perfect 4-4.
Voracek finished with three helpers to extend his points streak to eight games — in which he accumulated 4 goals, and 11 assists for 15 points — with the stretch of consecutive games with at least one point being just one short of his career high.
November 8 Flyers Birthday
Keith Jones 1968 — Acquired in a November, 1998 trade with the Colorado Avanlanche for Shjon Podein, the hard-nosed Jones notched 18 goals, 49 points, and 78 PIMs in his first season with the Flyers playing on Eric Lindros’ wing. With recurring knee injuries and a concussion, Jones retired as an active player after only appearing in eight games in 2000/01. Jones finished parts of three seasons in Philadelphia with 27 goals, 74 points, and 164 in 131 regular season contests and five goals, nine points, and 28 PIMs in 24 playoff games. He is currently one of the leading in-game analysts with the Flyers and the NBC Sports Network.
