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Hextall boils over

Broadcast Date: May 11, 1989

Down two goals and facing playoff elimination from the 1989 Wales Conference finals, volatile Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall goes ballistic. With less than two minutes remaining in the game that would end their season, Hextall storms out of the crease and attacks Montreal's Chris Chelios. It's a retaliation for a vicious Game 1 hit on Flyers winger Brian Propp, which left Propp concussed and bleeding on the ice. Fights break out all over the ice, debris rains down from the crowd and even Montreal netminder Patrick Roy considers joining the fray. Welcome to the City of Brotherly Love.

Hextall boils over

• Ron Hextall was a prolific scorer ... for a goalie. He was the first netminder in NHL history to notch an empty-netter and he was also the first to score a playoff goal, which he potted against Washington in 1989, the round before this matchup with Montreal. His two career goals tie him with Martin Brodeur as the highest-scoring goalie in NHL history.

• Hextall owns several other goaltending records, all dubious honours: most penalty minutes in a season (a whopping 113, a record he set in the same season as the Chelios attack), most penalty minutes in the playoffs and most career penalty minutes.

• Hextall is one of only four players ever to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (for playoff MVP) for a team that didn't win the Stanley Cup. He won the award in 1987 after helping the Flyers go to seven games against Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. He was also the third rookie goalie to win the award, joining Hall of Famers Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.

• Montreal went on to the Stanley Cup finals in 1989, but fell to the Calgary Flames, who won their first-ever cup.

Hextall boils over

Medium: Television

Program: Hockey Night in Canada

Broadcast Date: May 11, 1989

Announcer: Bob Cole
Commentator: Scotty Bowman

Duration: 3:13

Last updated:
April 29, 2008