I doubt that anyone but me cares, but 35 years ago tonight, I saw the most exciting hockey game of my life. MY beloved Philadelphia Flyers were facing the estimable Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals. This was one of the terrific but star-crossed Leaf teams featuring Daryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull, Mike Palmateer, Tiger Williams and others worthies. The year before, the teams had literally brawled through a seven-game quarterfinal series in which the Flyers prevailed enroute to the Cup Finals, and this year, Toronto seemed determined to avenge the loss. They came into the Spectrum and won the first two games, placing the Flyers at a huge disadvantage going back to Maple Leaf Gardens. In a very fine Game Three, though, the Flyers won 4-3, on a Rick MacLeish goal in overtime, which set up Sunday night’s pivotal Game Four, where either the Flyers would knot the series coming back to Philly, or the Leafs would gain a stranglehold.
The Flyers held the edge early on a first period power play goal by Bobby Clarke, but soon the Leafs came back. McDonald scored twice and Salming added a power play goals, and though Reggie Leach (my favorite) added one for the Flyers, the second period ended with the Leafs ahead. In the third, the Leafs pulled further ahead, with the phenomenal McDonald scoring in the sixth minute and again in the twelfth. Down now 5 to 2, the Flyers became unhinged, and veterans Gary Dornhoeffer and Ross Lonsberry took cheap, nasty penalties. With seven minutes left, the Flyers looked a way that they seldom looked–discouraged, frustrated, beaten.
Then the amazement began. A suddenly roused Flyers began a relentless attack. Clunky Mel Bridgman, never a big scorer, put one past Palmateer at 14:11. Not sucha big deal, but the Flyers kept fighting. At 18:11, Tom Bladon, the defenseman with the heavy slap shot, scored from the point. A mere sixteen seconds later, the indomitable Clarke poked one from a scramble in front of the net, and the Flyers had tied the score.
The overtime period was terribly tense, end to end action with each side taking eight shots. The Flyers even had to kill a penalty when Bob Kelly went off for tripping. But with the period almost over, Leach and MacLeish broke down the right wing, and from the right circle, Leach blasted a shot past Palmateer. Incredible.
The Flyers took the next two games and the series, before losing, alas, to the Bruins in the semi-finals. We were sorry not to have our rematch with Montreal, but for 35 years, we have had the amazing Game Four, and the overtime blast by The Rifle.