Dornhoefer unsung hero who helped Flyers win Stanley Cup twice in 1970s

Legendary hockey writer Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
This week, Fischler recalls the role Gary Dornhoefer played in helping the Philadelphia Flyers win consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and '75.

Few major league sports teams transformed as swiftly from ragged, expansion franchise to championship team than the Philadelphia Flyers.
From the club's birth in 1967 to the spring of 1974, when they won their first of two straight Stanley Cup titles, the Flyers developed a unique, rugged identity orchestrated by owner Ed Snider.
During an interview with me in 1973, Snider laid out his thinking.
"For our first few years we had a team that had been pushed around more than we had done the pushing," Snider explained. "It started in our first year when the [St. Louis] Blues outhit us and knocked us out of the playoffs.
"It took a while to change things around, but we eventually found enough gritty players to go with our stars and, by the Fall of 1973, we had just the right blend of gut-guys to go with our goal scorers."
One of those players was forward Gary Dornhoefer, who had played his teen hockey with the Boston Bruins' Junior team in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
"The Bruins brought me up to the big club for three brief tries (between 1963-66)," Dornhoefer recalled, "but I never became a full-timer until the NHL expanded in '67."
Dornhoefer was the No. 13 pick by the Flyers in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. Few could predict it at the time but the tall, gangly right wing would become a quintessential power forward and key cog helping the Flyers win the Stanley Cup twice.
"There was no way of knowing it at the time but Gary would become an ideal choice for us," then Flyers general manager Bud Poile said. "He was fearless, tireless and knew how to score goals from outside the crease."
Dornhoefer scored an NHL career-high 30 goals in the 1972-73 season and mastered the art of crowding the crease in front of enemy goalies better than most power forwards.
"It can be hectic trying to screen the goalie while getting cross-checked and muscled around," Dornhoefer said. "But the good news is that goals are my rewards. And if not goals, I know I'm helping the team."
Dornhoefer scored 20 or more goals for the Flyers five times, finishing his NHL career with 214 goals and 542 points in 787 regular-season games and 36 points (17 goals, 19 assists) in 80 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
In 1973-74 the Flyers were 50-16-2 and poised to be a legitimate Cup contender.
"We had become a formidable team," then coach Fred Shero said. "There was a sense of confidence that we could match up with any club, even the best of the Original Six."
While captain Bobby Clarke and skilled forwards Rick MacLeish and Bill Barber were the headliners, Dornhoefer emerged as one of Shero's favorites. The coach admired his tenacity and, especially, his commitment to the team.
"It's like ham and eggs," said Shero on the difference between contribution and commitment. "The chicken makes a contribution, but the pig, he makes a commitment."
The Flyers opened the playoffs in 1974 with a first-round win against the Atlanta Flames. Next up were the formidable New York Rangers.
"This round would tell us a lot," Shero recalled. "New York was one of those strong Original Six teams. The feeling we had was that beating the Rangers would be our gateway to the Final. Our motivation was very strong."
Ditto for the Rangers, who had not won the Stanley Cup since 1940. Armed with future Hall of Famers Brad Park, Rod Gilbert and Ed Giacomin, the Rangers were the favorites.
But you'd never know it by the first two games at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Flyers won handily, 4-0 and 5-2. Undaunted, the Rangers pulled even, winning the next two at home, 5-3 and 2-1 in overtime.
The seesaw continued -- 4-1 Flyers at home; 4-1 Rangers at Madison Square Garden -- leading to the decisive seventh game in Philadelphia. The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period. Early in the middle frame Orest Kindrachuk scored to put the Flyers ahead 2-1. And then it was Dornhoefer's turn to shine.
In the book, "The Game I'll Never Forget," Dornhoefer told reporter George Vass that he got his stick "on a rebound and flipped it past (goalie) Ed Giacomin."
The Rangers rallied to make it 3-2 with more than half of the third period remaining, however.
"It was touch and go after that," original (1967-68) Flyers defenseman Larry Zeidel told me. "Meanwhile, all of Philadelphia was on edge, hoping our guys would hold the lead."
Their "cushion goal," -- and eventual series-winner -- was scored by Dornhoefer, on a 15-foot shot after a pass from behind the goal line by Ross Lonsberry at 9:01 of the third.
Still, the Rangers fought back on a Peter Stemkowski goal at 14:34. But from that point on, Flyers goalie Bernie Parent shut the door and for the first time in franchise history, the Flyers reached the Stanley Cup Final.
Dornhoefer scored eight points (three goals, five assists) in the series win against the Rangers.
The Flyers defeated Bobby Orr and the Bruins in the Final to win their first Stanley Cup, even though Dornhoefer missed three games due to injury. It marked the first time a team from the 1967 NHL expansion had won the Cup
And if any cynic happened to suggest that the feat was a fluke, the Flyers won the Stanley Cup again in 1975, this time defeating the Buffalo Sabres in six games in the Final.
The Flyers also reached the 1976 Final, but the Canadiens ended their championship run in a four-game sweep.
Philadelphia's consecutive titles underlined a key point in the growth of the NHL, that expansion worked and successfully would continue in the decades ahead, right up to the present 32-team League.
As for Dornhoefer and the rest of those Flyers, nobody said it better than their coach, Shero:
"Win together now and we walk together forever!"