February 17, 1973
It was a wild game in the old Montreal Forum in which the Flyers prevailed 7-6 over the Montreal Canadiens. In this game, the centerpiece of this franchise, Bobby Clarke recorded the first hat trick of his Hall of Fame career.
In the first period, Clarke opened the scoring with his 27th goal of the year at 10:11. The Flyers followed up with 2 more first period goals on goaltender Michel Plasse, one by Bill Barber and the other by Rick MacLeish. Both tallies were on the power play and MacLeish’s beat the buzzer, as he scored at 19:59.
In the second period, the Canadiens made a comeback, putting two past Flyers goalie Bobby Taylor. Serge Savard scored a power play goal at 2:38 with Flyers defenseman Tom Bladon off for a slashing minor, followed by a Jacques LaPerriere goal that cut the lead to one at 10:55.
The one goal Flyers lead was quickly doubled as Clarke scored his second goal of the game, just 20 seconds after the LaPerriere tally and that was all for Plasse. With the score now 4-2, he was pulled and replaced by the legendary Ken Dryden.
The Canadiens got back within a goal three minutes later on a Yvon Cournoyer goal at 14:01, however the Flyers pushed the lead to two once again. Simon Nolet scored his 11th of the season on the power play, assisted by Clarke and MacLeish. The goal at 17:06 made it a 5-3 heading into the third period.
Right out of the gate in the third, Montreal put the pressure on goalie Bobby Taylor. The 35th of the season at 1:36 by Jacques LeMaire made it a 5-4 game. Once again, the Flyers would extend the lead to two as Bob Kelly knocked in his 9th of the year, at 4:20.
Keeping with the see-saw scoring, Canadiens winger Steve Shutt scored just 36 seconds after Kelly’s goal to make the score 6-5. After a Ross Lonsberry hooking call at 9:23 the Canadiens went on the power play with a great opportunity to tie the game. Just a minute in, there was Shutt once again, scoring to tie the game at six. His goal was set up by Guy LaPointe and Hall of Famer Frank Mahovlich.
With just less than half of the third period to go, it seemed that whoever scored last would end up winning this high scoring affair. This is where we find our way back to Mr. Clarke. At 16:31, he knocked in his 3rd goal, this one was the first on Dryden but more importantly, gave the Flyers the 7-6 lead. It was his 29th on the season and it turned out to be the game winner. Despite 19 third period shots and 39 overall by the Canadiens, the Flyers were able to hang on with the one goal win.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99
