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When the Flyers beat the Red Army

The Soviet Red Army was welcomed to Philadelphia by Ed Van Impe (decking Valeri Kharlamov), Dave Schultz and Andre Dupont (jawing with two Soviets) and Dave 'Sign Man' Leonardi.
The Soviet Red Army was welcomed to Philadelphia by Ed Van Impe (decking Valeri Kharlamov), Dave Schultz and Andre Dupont (jawing with two Soviets) and Dave 'Sign Man' Leonardi.Read more
    by BILL FLEISCHMAN, Staff Writer
    Published 

(This story was originally published in the Daily News on January 11, 1976, when the Flyers beat the Soviet Central Army team at the Spectrum and essentially salvaged North American hockey pride in the process. The game was memorable for a lot of reasons, but mostly for an 18-minute walkout by the Soviets after a series of big Flyers hits, and team owner Ed Snider's threat not to pay them if they didn't come back and finish the game — which, not surprisingly, they did.

(With the word that a Flyers alumni team is heading to Russia for a series of games, and that it is possible Vladimir Putin himself might participate in one of them, it seemed a good time to remember the game that Flyers fans will never forget. Included is a video of the broadcast of the walkout, featuring Gene Hart and Marv Albert. By some accounts, Putin was a newly-minted KGB agent stationed in Leningrad when the game was played.)