December 11, 1999
It was a heavyweight tilt between two teams that were put together to make a run at the Stanley Cup later in the spring. These rosters had loads of talent, both young and old and the enforcers that protected that talent.
Among those dressed in Blue and White was an old nemesis of the Flyers, the gasoline to any flame, Tie Domi.
All of it was on display as 10 goals were scored and an old fashioned “donnybrook” broke out between the Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Two star veteran goalies started the evening – John Vanbiesbrouck for the Flyers and Curtis Joseph for the Leafs. In the first period, each uncharacteristically allowed two goals to get past them.
First, veteran sniper Steve Thomas opened the scoring for Toronto at 4:20, but the Flyers answered with a power play goal just over five minutes later, by Daymond Langkow.
Exactly one minute later, the Flyers took the lead on a goal set up by Eric Lindros for Keith Jones, his first of the year and the Orange and Black were up 2-1. With Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle off for interference at 12:29, the Flyers had a golden opportunity to extend their lead to two.
Instead, the momentum swung over to the Leafs, as Mike Johnson scored shorthanded on Vanbiesbrouck 37 seconds later. That goal tied it at two and that’s how the game entered the second.
In that second period, the Leafs sustained their momentum and they blew the game open within a two minute span. Goals by Gary Valk at 4:01, Sergei Berezin at 5:23 on the power play and Valk again just 21 seconds later chased “the Beezer” in favor of Brian Boucher.
Heading into the second half of the period, star Eric Lindros charged like a bowling ball across the ice, laying a punishing check on the Leafs Igor Korolev. With the Leafs Adam Mair just a foot or so away with the puck, the follow through of Lindros clipped Mair and he hit the ice as well.
Enter Leafs defenseman Alexander Karpotsev. He goes about 6'2" and decides to give a knee to Lindros right above his knee as he skates away — a very dangerous play. Of course, No. 88 goes right after Karpotsev and smokes him with a few right hands before the linesman come in to save his life. In true Leafs fashion, the gums start flapping once the officials are there on the scene.
With the next line change, Flyers coach decided to beef things up a bit by sending out Sandy McCarthy, Craig Berube and Luke Richardson along with Adam Burt and centered by Langkow — who can hold his own with most his size. Toronto coach Pat Quinn sent out Domi with some of their lesser known physical players. Dimitri Kristich, former Flyer Dimitri Yushkevich, the aforementioned Johnson and Kaberle — and the Flyers made them pay for it.
Berube first punched Domi in the back of the head once the puck was dropped. With the delayed call, Toronto’s Yushkevich fired the puck in on Boucher. The whistle blew and both Berube and McCarthy were chasing Domi into the Flyers defensive corner. With Domi skating away but yapping and antagonizing, Berube grabbed onto Kristich and started mashing his face with right hands. As they went to the ice, McCarthy got Yushkevich. Richardson pounded Johnson. Boucher and Joseph left their crease and were about to exchange blows. Kaberle was smart to grab Adam Burt as they just kind of hugged at first.
Then Domi came in after skating around and charged Berube in the corner, who fired a right hand at Tie and startled him. Both fell to the ice, along with Johnson and with the official on top of Berube, Domi landed cheap shots over the top.
Domi left that scrum and went over to Burt and Kaberle and decided to swing at Burt while Kaberle had his hands locked up. After four or five cheap shots by Domi, he literally hid behind Kaberle as Richardson came over to help Burt out and to destroy the former Ranger punk.
As the players started to separate, Domi’s antics continued, as he continued to yap at Sandy McCarthy while amazingly, linesman Ray Scapinello was holding McCarthy along the corner boards.
Every Flyer fan with a pulse wanted to jump through their TV to get at Domi since McCarthy couldn’t. The cowardly shots at Burt while dancing away from the Flyers enforcers made him public enemy No. 1.
Once the players began to break apart, a slight cut was apparent over the left eye and temple area of Domi as one of Berube’s rights had landed. A moral win albeit a small one for the Orange and Black.
As for the rest of the second period, there were no goals scored and they entered the third with the Maple Leafs up 5-2.
In the third, the Flyers mounted a comeback, behind an early power-play goal at 1:38 by Mark Recchi, then a goal by Lindros to cut it to one at 17:35, again on the power play.
With Chris Therien off on a cross checking call at 19:02, the Flyers had no choice to pull the goalie and try to tie the score anyway. Toronto’s Jonas Hogland put the last nail in the coffin with the empty-net goal with just 12 seconds left to give the Leafs the 6-4 victory.
You can see the brawl in its entirety below. Some good old fashioned hockey, right?
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99.
