Phanatic Hockey Editor
"In...Howe...SCOOOORE!!! Bullet Shot!"
That was Hall of Fame broadcaster Gene Hart calling the action on Channel 57, a Saturday night, April 16, 1988. Game 7, Patrick Division Semifinals, at Capital Centre in Landover, MD.
One second shy of the three-minute mark of the second period, and Mark Howe's trademark wrister, which blew over the shoulder of Washington goalie Pete Peeters, gave the Philadelphia Flyers a seemingly-insurmountable 3-0 lead over the Capitals.
''I know I was shaking my head when it was 3-0,'' said then-Capitals coach Bryan Murray. ''They had everything going for them. We had nothing. I knew somebody had to do something exceptional.''
There appeared to be no more thought of this proud franchise wasting a three-games-to-one series lead. No talk about the psychological scars of losing a Game 7 in Edmonton 10 months ago having an effect. Another chapter added to the grit, guts and glory of Philadelphia hockey in the 1980s.
What followed was one of the most infamous collapses in franchise history, or the most dramatic come-from-behind victories in franchise history, depending on your perspective.
If you're a Capitals fan, to this day, 25 years later, you celebrate the Dale Hunter trade with Quebec, reminisce about how Washington scored five of the last six goals in the game to win -- with Hunter getting the final two including the iconic playoff-series clincher.
"He is a player who will absolutely do anything to win,'' said Washington defenseman and captain Rod Langway, a veteran of five seasons of Capital collapses to that point. ''He sacrifices his body, his person. Look at him, he's got stitches and cuts everywhere. But he knows how to give it, too.''
If you're a Flyers fan, you mutter under your breath with multiple colorful metaphors describing Hunter. You lament the fact that Ron Hextall couldn't pull his teammates back from the brink again, and that Mike Keenan, after four years of whipping his kids into contenders, had finally lost the room for good.
Hextall did everything but snap his spinal column in two during the five minutes and 56 seconds of overtime which preceded Hunter's game winner. He stopped seven shots, most of them dead-on quality chances, helped kill off a penalty to Howe -- the club's most valuable player in any situation, and did his best to calm his teammates despite waves of Capitals rushes on every shift.
But there it is, in black and white. Hunter scored the most famous overtime goal in Capitals history, on a breakaway no less, giving the 14-year-old team its first-ever taste of true playoff success, and doing it against a rival which blocked their ascension to the top of the division and to the NHL's elite.
It washed away the bitter taste of losing the four-OT Easter Epic at home to the New York Islanders one year prior, when the Caps held a 3-1 series lead and blew it thanks to a Pat LaFontaine seeing-eye shot in Game 7.
It was the first time in 21 years that the Flyers blew a 3-1 series lead, and one of only two instances to this day it's happened.
It also was the second time in Hunter's career he won a playoff game in OT against Philly, with the first coming in a 1981 quarterfinal with Quebec which forced a deciding Game 5.
Below is the final portion of the extra session, plus the immediate celebration, with soon-to-be Flyers play-by-play voice Mike Emrick pulling duty for ESPN:
The Flyers' train started coming off the tracks almost as soon as the sirens blared inside the Cap Centre.
Three weeks after the loss, Keenan was shown the door by GM Bob Clarke. Aiding in the decision were the voices of several key veteran personnel who never felt Keenan eased up on the team as a whole over his four-year tenure, plus his obstinate decision to stick a flu-ridden Hextall into the nets to start Game 6 (a 7-2 home loss) after front office personnel urged him to give the start to the healthier Mark Laforest -- who had spelled a weakened Hextall in Games 4 and 5.
Three weeks after that, Paul Holmgren, an assistant for the previous three years under Keenan, was promoted to the top job.
Despite key injuries throughout the season, plus the loss of their leading goal producer for 66 games, the Flyers under Keenan went from one period removed from a potential Stanley Cup title to out in the first round via spectacular failure.
"A lot of people tried to be helpful by asking me to let up, but I was insecure," Keenan said in Full Spectrum. "A few kind words from time to time would have been just what the doctor ordered. I didn't have to show the intensity I did. I could have delivered the same message without saying a word and probably been more effective. But I started out knowing that I wasn't a former player...I wanted my career to last a long time so I pushed. I always felt I had to prove myself."
Doug Crossman, who had an open dislike for Keenan and whose play reflected that opinion late in the 87-88 season, was beaten by Hunter up the middle on his milestone tally. He drew more fan and organizational heat for not doing more to stop the chance, and was shipped out to LA before the next season commenced.
From a Flyers perspective, the pain was only temporary. Hunter couldn't save the Caps as the upstart New Jersey Devils took Washington to seven games, at home in the second round, and won a one-goal contest to reach the Wales Conference Finals.
Washington finished atop the Patrick for the first time in 1988-89, and Philadelphia only managed to end up fourth. The memory that lingered from the previous Spring was washed away when the underdog Flyers dispatched the Caps in a six-game first-round shocker in Holmgren's playoff debut behind the bench.
* * *
You'd think that a terminal game in a best-of-seven playoff series between two of the best teams in the NHL over the past half decade would be a roller-coaster ride from the start, but it wasn't.
The Capitals blew four straight power-play chances in the first period, and totaled only four shots. The Flyers mustered just six in a tentatively-played opening 20 minutes. It would have been a total snoozer, if not for the fact that Grant Ledyard speared Rick Tocchet in the groin during a Flyers advantage, and an attempted cross-crease centering pass from Tim Kerr to Brian Propp fell through the crook of Peeters' arm and into the net for the game's first score.
Propp then converted a Kjell Samuelsson rebound at 1:35 of the second period, and after Howe's score, confidence was high for the visitors.
But then, the Capitals began to do what they had all series long, and started to cruise the Flyers' crease to disrupt Hextall's rhythm. Kevin Hatcher was the primary suspect in most of the strafings, but his presence wasn't necessary when Garry Galley's right-point drive slid home at the 6:42 mark to put the hosts on the board. Nonetheless, Hextall raged to anyone who would listen that he was interfered with on the shot.
The tension and excitement from 18,130 in attendance was finally ratcheted higher when the Caps won a left-circle draw and kept pushing the puck towards Hextall, until Kelly Miller's swipe found some space under his pads and in only 80 seconds later.
Hatcher's blast tied the game with 2:06 left before the second intermission, and if there was any doubt the tide turned in Washington's favor for good, Hunter emphasized it just six seconds into a Samuelsson penalty when he cut down a Garry Galley point shot in the left circle and beat an over-committed Hextall to the far side at 5:19 of the third for a 4-3 Capitals lead.
The delirium lasted all of 1:02, however, when Peter Zezel won a left-circle draw back to Brad Marsh, and his low shot zipped by traffic and Peeters for his final playoff goal in his Flyers career to tie the game once more.
In overtime, Howe was forced to drag down Mike Gartner to prevent a breakaway. Samuelsson smothered a Dave Christian chance with his goaltender out of the crease, then Gartner hit the junction of the crossbar and right post with Hextall on his backside and Hatcher put the rebound over the net. Hexy later came up with a sprawling save off a 2-on-1 by Peter Sundstrom after Gartner curiously elected to pass, but was somehow caught unawares on Hunter's shot choice.
"Hextall is standing there and I'm waiting. He's got to do something before I can do something. Or at least that's what I'm figuring," said Hunter. "But he didn't do anything. I made a little deke because I just didn't see any room to shoot. Finally, he opened his legs and it was just enough room for me to put it in."
BTW, the player who breaks his stick in two on the top of the net in the video is Greg Smyth, most famous here during his one season in Orange and Black for his out-of-control play and mohawk haircut.
"He gave us the opportunity to win it," said Flyers captain Dave Poulin to the Washington Post. "In overtime, the Capitals should have scored three, maybe four times before they did. He gave us a chance. I don't think the finger will ever be pointed at Ron."
In the closing minutes of the postgame segment, Hart delivered some poignant words regarding the Flyers' playoff fate:"It has been an unusual decade of the 1980s, in which the even-numbered years have been particularly cruel to Philadelphia....out in the first round in '88, eliminated in the first round in 1986, eliminated in the first round in 1984, and in the (first) round in '82. Otherwise, it's been feast or famine, making the Finals in 1980, '85 and '87."
In a quarter century, the Flyers have lost only two Game 7s, and just one of those on the road: in 2004 at Tampa Bay. The other one, at home to the Devils in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals of 2000, also kicked off a period of sweeping change for the on-ice product after a 3-1 series edge evaporated.
Neither carried the sneering, snickering, snarling feel of defeat like the one Dale Hunter provided.
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