The Philadelphia Flyers won consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and 1975 and were looking for a three-peat in 1976.
After winning the Patrick Division handily and then getting past the Toronto Maple Leafs in a tough seven-game quarter-final series in the playoffs, the Flyers faced the Boston Bruins in the semi-finals.
The Bruins were good and out for revenge. The Flyers had upset the favored Bruins in the 1974 Final and this was Boston's chance to get even.
This time, though, the Flyers were the favorites.
"Some people thought our first Cup win was a fluke," said Flyers forward Reggie Leach, who led the NHL with 61 goals in 1975-76. "But the second one -- by beating Buffalo [Sabres] -- proved we were for real."
Leach, a native of Riverton, Manitoba, had become a folk hero both in Western Canada and Philadelphia, partly because of his background. One of a dozen children, Leach grew up poor and didn't have his first pair of skates until he was 15.
"I never even dreamed about being a pro in the NHL," he remembered, "but I got lucky to make the Junior team in Flin Flon (Manitoba) and wound up on a line with Bobby Clarke. Eventually we became teammates in Philly. I couldn't ask for a better center.
"With 'Clarkie' my job was simple. All I had to do was find a good shooting spot because I knew that he would get the puck to me. I got into a groove that spring of '76 and figured I couldn't miss."
There was no Leach -- nor Flyers -- magic in Game 1 against the Bruins. They lost at home 4-2.
But the Flyers swiftly rebounded, winning the next three games -- 2-1, 5-2 and 4-2 -- to come within a victory of reaching the Cup Final for the third consecutive season.
"We were super confident," Leach said. "Most of the guys from our Cup teams were still with us. Scorers like Clarke and Bill Barber still were in their prime. And I led the League with 61 red ones."
Game 5 in Philadelphia opened according to plan for the home team. Leach took a Barber pass and rifled a backhander past Bruins goalie Gilles Gilbert at 5:45 of the first period. However, early in the second period Greg Sheppard tied the score for Boston.
It was then that Leach took over. He took a pass from Clarke and beat Gilbert at 2:02, giving the Flyers a lead they never would relinquish.
Less than seven minutes later, Leach found himself on a line with Terry Crisp and Orest Kindrachuk, and he scored again at 8:51. Leach had a hat trick , it was 3-1 for the home team and the Spectrum crowd was overflowing with joy.
In an interview with reporter George Vass for the book "The Game I'll Never Forget," Leach did a play-by-play of what happened next.
"I was on the left side and a Boston player was checking me to the outside. I just figured I'd throw a shot at the net. As it happened, Gilbert went down and the puck hit the upper part of the net."
That was his fourth goal, but Leach was not done.
The game was far from over in the third period when the Flyers nursed a 4-2 lead. Needing to pad their advantage, the Flyers again turned to the red-hot Leach. And he delivered at 8:07 with his fifth goal in what turned out to be a 6-3 win.
"This one was hard to forget," Leach concluded. "I took seven shots in a big playoff game and five went in and now we were in the Final round once more."
Although the Montreal Canadiens dethroned the Flyers with a four-game sweep in the Stanley Cup Final, it wasn't all a downer for Leach.
He led the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 19 goals (the next best total was eight goals scored by Bruins center Jean Ratelle) and 24 points in 16 games.
Despite losing in the Cup Final, Leach won the Conn Smythe Trophy voted as the most valuable player in the 1976 playoffs.
And the Game 5 explosion against the Bruins was his signature moment.
