November 28, 1981
The Flyers were in Bloomington, Minnesota to take on Bobby Smith, Dino Ciccarelli and the Minnesota North Stars at The Met Center, one of the tougher places to play in the NHL. On this night, the Flyers would lose to Minnesota 5-3 , however the fireworks that came after the final whistle were just as entertaining as the game itself.
In the first period, Flyers defenseman Bob Hoffmeyer and the Stars Ron Friest got things going with a scrap, dropping the gloves and fighting. With referee Bruce Hood trying to keep some control of the game, he called five other minors throughout the period. On one of those power plays, Dino Ciccarelli scored his 19th of the year to give the Stars a 1-0 lead after the first.
In the second, Bill Barber scored just 48 seconds in and knotted the game at one. With the whistles silent for a while, the game settled down a bit and the scoring chances picked up. At 7:46, Ciccarelli notched his second of the game giving the Stars a 2-1 lead. A minute later, Brad Palmer beat Flyers goalie Pete Peeters to give the Stars a two-goal lead.
Not to be outdone by Ciccarelli, Barber scored his second of the game late in the period and cut Minnesota’s lead in half at 3-2 as the teams headed into the third.
When referee Bruce Hood whistled Flyers defenseman Glen Cochrane for a high-sticking minor at 9:47, it gave Minnesota a golden opportunity to stretch the lead. On that power play, up-and-coming defenseman Craig Hartsburg did just that, scoring his first of the season and the Stars went ahead, 4-2.
As time was ticking away, the Flyers continued to put pressure on the Stars goalie Gilles Meloche. At 18:40, they cut the lead in half once again as Brian Propp tallied his 17th on the year. Down 4-3, the Flyers would pull the goalie for the extra attacker and try to tie the game.
The effort was for naught as Stars centerman Bobby Smith scored with just nine seconds left into the empty net, assisted by Ciccarelli and Fred Barrett and on a three-point night by Ciccarelli, Minnesota had a 5-3 win.
But there was one Flyer who would have the last word.
With just one second remaining, the Flyers had an offensive zone, left circle face-off. Bobby Clarke won the draw cleanly back to Cochrane, who fired a shot which was stopped by Meloche.
The North Stars Jack Carlson decided he was going to try and stop the play and got a little too close to Cochrane. Maybe he said something? When Cochrane turned towards Carlson, the gloves came off and the fists were flying.
As they both went down to the ice, Cochrane discarded his jersey and parts of his shoulder pads and kept swinging. With Cochrane and Carlson throwing haymakers and the game over, both teams slowly came onto the ice.
That wasn’t the brightest idea for the North Stars.
About 15 pairings magically appeared, one including goalie Peeters and the Stars Gordie Roberts. When a few Flyers saw their goalie tussling with a forward, they came over to help out.
Meanwhile, with two officials trying to separate Cochrane from atop of Carlson, he just kept firing punches somewhere in and around the head of Carlson. Once they finally separated the two, Cochrane was about halfway to a Ned Braden outfit and was led to the far boards, away from any other skirmishes by linesman Ryan Bodzak.
Ah, and back to that tussle with Peeters.
Somehow, he and the Stars young backup goaltender Don Beaupre got together and away they went. Peeters had the jersey pulled over the shorter Beaupre and was firing right hands down at the beleaguered goalie. Once they were finally separated, Beaupre had some of his own red dripping from above his left eye to go with his North Star green and white jersey.
In true hockey spirit, the best of the Bloomington area cascaded as many beers as they did boos onto the ice during the fracas. As the teams were milling around in front of the Stars bench, one knucklehead fan from a few rows up had been pointed out by security as to have thrown a beer at the players.
That was the only thing anyone from Minnesota landed in either fight.
Thanks to the world of YouTube, you can see the seven minute scrum and enjoy the legendary Hall of Fame voice of Gene Hart describe the action below.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99
