From the archives: Flyers win first Stanley Cup

This was published in the Daily News on May 20, 1974, the day after the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup. It was retrieved from microfilm through Newspapers.com, where a few of the words were illegible.

Barry Ashbee (was) on the fringe of the Flyers first Stanley Cup celebration, a solitary figure observing the wall-to-wall people from behind sunglasses.

“You might never see another bunch like this,” the ram-rod straight defenseman said in a quivering voice. “I don’t cry much, but I was in tears that last minute and a half. I’ve never been so proud of a bunch of guys in my whole life. We’ve had so many setbacks … “

Ashbee’s frightening eye injury in the semifinals was one setback. Injuries to Bob Kelly, Bill Clement and Gary Dornhoefer were others. But these irrepressible Flyers – the Miracle Mets on skates – overcame. And yesterday, in a splendid hockey show, they beat Boston, 1-0, to win the cherished Cup. If defeating favored Boston four games to two doesn’t convince the few remaining skeptics that the deserving team won, nothing will.

When the NHL’s engraver starts working, Ashbee will be included, along with (the) other wounded. Bernard Marcel Parent’s name will also be inscribed in silver, presumably heading the list.

Parent was simply sensational in goal as he has been all season. A writer’s panel acknowledged Parent’s performance by voting him the Conn Smyth Trophy as the Stanley Cup playoffs’ most valuable player.

Bobby Clarke thinks Parent deserves another award, the Hart Trophy.

“If Bernie isn’t the Most Valuable Player [for the season], then he was robbed,” Clarke said.

Teammate Simon Nolet went further.

“The was Bernie played this year, all the trophies should be his.”

Editor’s note: Boston’s Phil Esposito was the regular-season MVP.

Parent will settle for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

“Winning the Cup is a dream,” he said. “When you’re growing up, you try to figure what it would be like to be on a team [that] wins it. Now that we’ve won it, it’s not like what I thought. It’s a feeling you can’t buy or describe.”

Then Parent referred to what Ashbee said, a theme heard frequently amid the dressing room sauna and champagne bath.

“What makes it so great is not because we won the Cup, but what we had to go through.”

Parent meant the immediate epidemic of playoff injuries, but the [illegible] uphill struggle, could be included. So could Parent’s itinerary, (which) took him from the Flyers to Toronto to Miami to rock bottom, (to) the WHA Blazers and back home.

Home is the Spectrum and yesterday for the 90th time this season, Parent was superb. Before Rick MacLeish converted Andre Dupont’s shot into the only goal at 14:48 of the first period, Parent stopped Bobby Orr twice, Terry O’Reilly from 15 feet and Gregg Sheppard from 20 feet.

Shortly after MacLeish’s 13th playoff goal, Boston rookie Dave Forbes walked in on Parent, but he deflected a backhander. Much later, with less than three minutes remaining and the crowd sensing the wonderfully sweet victory, Boston’s Ken Hodge unloaded a slapshot that Parent almost casually rerouted to the corner. Hodge’s shot was the Bruins’ last bolt.

“I was with Bernie before and I saw him with the Blazers last year,” said Nolet. “I knew he was good, but not this good. When you’ve got a guy like Clarkie giving 150 percent, and Bernie making save after save, if you don’t work too, you don’t have any guts.”

Clarke knew Parent briefly before he was swapped to Toronto. He says the only change in the man is as a goaltender.

“He does a few things in goal better, but as a person he hasn’t changed. The times we didn’t play good, he didn’t come in and start hollering. He’d stop 20 shots in the first period and come in telling us to hang in there.”

“Not playing in Pittsburgh could have cost him the Vezina,” Clarke continued, “but they [didn’t play him] and it was good for the team. He’s the reason we won the Cup.”

Editor’s note: Parent shared the Vezina with Chicago’s Tony Esposito in 1973-74. Back then, the trophy was awarded to the primary goaltender on the team that allowed the fewest goals. Chicago was able to tie the Flyers, who lost 6-1 at Pittsburgh in the final road game of the season.

Bill Clement, who played the game of his life just five days after returning from torn knee ligaments, remembers his reaction to the trade that brought back Parent and shipped popular Doug Favell to Toronto.

“People asked me about the trade, especially after Favvy’s great playoff last year,” Clement said. “I thought Bernie would help our team with his consistency. He’s the ideal player. You know game in and game out what he’ll do, how he’ll react.”

Then Clement, who was still in full uniform and skates nearly two hours after pandemonium erupted, cited another reason for yesterday’s perfect ending.

“A goaltender is only as good as his defense,” said the young forward who may be lost in the NHL expansion draft. “And our defense was unbelievable, especially the way they played after Ashbee got hurt. Nobody on this team played for himself. Everybody sacrificed. It’s so unbelievable it makes you want to cry.”

Bill Clement didn’t cry. Neither did other Flyers. Some, like Dave Schultz, kept shaking their heads in disbelief. Others, like Ed Van Impe, sat wearily clutching a champagne bottle and believed.

“It’s sunk in for me,” the original Flyer said. “We all worked so hard it had to come. The way Bernie played, it was only just for us to win.”

Parent’s effect was summarized by Clarke when someone asked about his party plans:

“I’ll just follow Bernie. I’ll walk across the water with Bernie.”