1976 Flyers-Red Army game
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| Date | January 11, 1976 | |||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Spectrum | |||||||||||||||
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  United States
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| Attendance | 17,007 | |||||||||||||||
The Flyers–Red Army game was a famous international ice hockey game played on January 11, 1976, between the Philadelphia Flyers of the North America-based National Hockey League (NHL), and HC CSKA Moscow (Central Sports Club of the Army Moscow, Russian: ХК ЦСКА Москва, also known as the "Red Army Team") of the Soviet Union.
The game was notable for an incident where, after a body check delivered by the Flyers' Ed Van Impe, CSKA's top player, Valeri Kharlamov, was prone on the ice for a minute. When officials did not call a penalty, the Red Army coach, Konstantin Loktev, pulled his team off the ice in protest. Flyers' Chairman Ed Snider told CSKA to return to the ice and finish the game, which was being broadcast to an international audience, or the Soviet Hockey Federation would not get paid the fee to which they were entitled. They eventually complied and lost 4–1.
The Flyers were the only NHL team which managed to defeat the Red Army.
HC CSKA Moscow was one of the most dominant sports teams in history, winning the Soviet championship for 13 consecutive years between 1977 and 1989. CSKA played many games against NHL clubs, including a North American tour in 1975 and 1976. In total, the Red Army Club played 36 games against NHL teams from 1975 to 1991 and finished with a record of 26 wins, 8 losses, and 2 ties.
The 1975–76 series between various NHL teams and two touring Soviet teams, the powerhouse Red Army team and the somewhat lesser Soviet Wings squad, was another pivotal moment in the tenuous relations between the NHL and the Soviet hockey program. The games, like the subsequent Canada Cup Tournaments which also began in 1976, were not treated like exhibitions. Coming into the final match of their NHL series, the Red Army was still undefeated, having tied the Montreal Canadiens and beaten the other NHL teams they faced. Their final game was to be played in the Spectrum in Philadelphia against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers. It should be noted, however, that both Soviet teams were supplemented by other All Stars from their league.
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