Fansided

Today in Flyers History: Remembering the infamous Fog Game

By Ariel Melendez |
Fans of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team pose for a photo wearing their helmets topped with hammers at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early 1970s. The fans are known as Schutz's Army because of their devotion to star player Dave Schultz, also known as 'The Hammer.' (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
Fans of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team pose for a photo wearing their helmets topped with hammers at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early 1970s. The fans are known as Schutz's Army because of their devotion to star player Dave Schultz, also known as 'The Hammer.' (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)

An air conditioning-less building led to an interesting scenario for the Flyers and Sabres in 1975.

Bernie Parent, Philadephia Flyers (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
Bernie Parent, Philadephia Flyers (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images) /

It was the third game of the 1975 Stanley Cup Final. The Flyers had won the first two games back at the Spectrum, a building that was not even eight years old. Air conditioning was a prime feature, something particularly necessary in the hotter months.

Heading to Buffalo, there was a key feature missing from a building that was built back in 1940. It was missing a few key things, one of which being air conditioning. It turned out not having that feature would play a big role in the game.

The Sabres typically didn’t have to worry about playing this late into spring. The weather essentially turned their arena into a sauna. Temperatures near the ice were almost 90 degrees, while it was in the low 80’s outside. By the time the game began, the humidity was at 62 degrees and rising throughout that night.

That’s when the fog began. Throughout the first three periods, it caused things to be paused five times. The play was stopped another seven times during overtime. Player’s bodies began to disappear on the ice and it was hard to follow the puck as the game went on.

A bat decided to join the party as well. It flew around the ice, even coming down during a faceoff. It didn’t take much to take care of it as Sabres Jim Lorentz raised his stick and hit it out of midair. Rick MacLeish would pick the bat up with his bare hand to dispose of it in the penalty box.

During all of this, the Flyers had three separate leads during the game, but couldn’t keep any of them. A Sabres goal midway through the third period ended up sending the game to overtime.

It actually took a while to end the game, despite it being hard to see where the puck was going. That’s exactly what happened on the game-winning goal by Rene Robert. Bernie Parent had no idea where the puck was going.

“I saw Robert’s shot too late for me to come out and stop it. I’m surprised the overtime took so long. It was hard to see the puck from the red line. If three men came down and one made a good pass from the red line, you couldn’t see the puck. A good shot from the red line could have won it.”

The Flyers would end up returning to Buffalo a week after this game, capturing their second consecutive Stanley Cup in game six.

Home / History