February 22, 1980: Old Time Hockey in Vancouver as Flyers rout Canucks
The Flyers would take on the Vancouver Canucks in British Columbia on this night, a game which saw the teams combine for 10 goals, a bushel of fights and a bench-clearing brawl late in the third period.
Nothing like Old Time Hockey, eh?
The Flyers would fall behind 2-0 within the first three minutes of the game as the Canucks recorded goals by Kris Manery and Per-Olav Brasar. Rugged winger Paul Holmgren and centerman Al Hill would tally to the tie the score at two with four minutes left to go in the opening frame. At 17:46, Vancouver’s Curt Fraser would get the third of the period for the Canucks and they took a 3-2 lead into the locker room.
In the second period, the Flyers "LCB" line overpowered the Canucks for three goals in just less than eight minutes. "The Rifle" Reggie Leach would score at 4:09 to tie the game, then Bobby Clarke would score at 9:01 and Leach notched his second of the game and 40th of the season at 12:26. The Flyers would take a 5-3 lead into the third period.
In that third period, centerman Mel Bridgman would expand the lead to three at 5:35 and Bob "the Count" Dailey would score just 24 seconds later to blow the game open at 7-3.
Later in the third, the Canucks would fight back, this time by dropping the gloves and the Flyers were more than happy to oblige.
At 10:43, Flyers defenseman Mike Busniuk and the Canucks John Hughes would tangle, after a dustup occurred with Bridgman and star Thomas Gradin of the Canucks. This little tussle would be the "undercard" for what was about to take place.
After a point shot was stopped by Flyers goalie Phil Myre, Dailey and Jere Gillis of the Canucks got into it. The gloves were dropped and away they went. The other players started to clutch and grab and wrestle; however the Canucks Kevin McCarthy came over to help Gillis. Third man in, and goalie Myre decided to get in on the fray and grabbed McCarthy to even the odds.
With that, Flyers defenseman Frank Bathe jumped over the boards and headed into the pile. The Canucks longtime defenseman Harold Snepsts did the same.
And the rest of the players from both benches followed suit.
For the next nine minutes, a handful of fights by eight different players, gloves and sticks all over the ice; even the goalies got into it as Flyers backup goalie Pete Peeters wrestled with starting goalie Gary Bromley and slammed him to the ice.
Later in the fracas, backup goalie Glen Hanlon of the Canucks took on Myre and got the best of him in one of the better fights of the night.
The Flyers would hang on for a 7-3 win, but not before a host of players were tossed from the game.
Thanks to YouTube, you can see a great 10-minute clip from the Canadian feed from the bench clearing brawl below.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99.
