January 6, 1980: The NHL's Longest Unbeaten Streak

Left to right: Andre "Moose" Dupont, Captain Bobby Clarke, Reggie Leach.

January 6, 1980: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. This ended up being the last of 35 straight games the Flyers played without a loss, a record for North American major league sports: Played 35, won 25, tied 10, lost exactly none.

They had started the season on October 11, 1979, with a win over the New York Islanders at The Spectrum. On October 13, they went down to The Omni and lost 9-2 to the Atlanta Flames. The next day, they came home, and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, and the streak was on.

There were ties on November 17, away to the St. Louis Blues; November 24, away to the Edmonton Oilers; December 1, away to the Leafs; December 2, home to the Detroit Red Wings; December 4, home to the Boston Bruins; December 9, home to the Chicago Black Hawks; December 16, away to the New York Rangers; December 20, home to the Pittsburgh Penguins; and December 26, away to the Hartford Whalers -- but no losses.

In between, the Flyers had 3 wins over the Sabres; 2 wins each over the Wings, the Rangers, the Whalers, the Quebec Nordiques, the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings; and 1 win each over the Islanders, the Flames, the Leafs, the Blues, the Oilers, the Bruins, the Montreal Canadiens, the Minnesota North Stars, the Winnipeg Jets and the Colorado Rockies.

They got through Halloween, Election Day (Philadelphia elected Bill Green as Mayor to replace Frank Rizzo), Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Weekend, Christmas and New Year's without losing.

The streak came to an end on January 7, when the North Stars clobbered them, 7-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center, in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

The Flyers were considered favorites for the Stanley Cup, and did reach the Finals, but lost to the Islanders when Bobby Nystrom's overtime goal won Game 6. To this day, there are Flyer fans who believe that offside should have been called on 2 Islander goals, including Nystrom's.

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January 6, 1980 was a Sunday. There were 4 other NHL games played that day:

* The New York Rangers and the Atlanta Flames played to a tie, 5-5 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Hartford Whalers, 2-1 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. This is where the Whalers played while the roof of the Hartford Civic Center was repaired following its 1978 collapse. The Hartford building reopened on January 17. This was also the 1st time that Gordie Howe -- and his sons Mark and Marty -- had played against the Wings.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Kings and the Winnipeg Jets played to a tie, 4-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

There were 5 NBA games played:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 108-100 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.) Mike Newlin scored 34 points for the Nets.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-103 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Denver Nuggets, 120-101 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.)

* The San Diego Clippers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 105-103 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (It's now named the Pechanga Arena.) Lloyd Free scored 34 for the Clippers. Nicknamed "All-World," he legally changed his name to World B. Free in 1981.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Pistons, 119-102 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

Baseball was out of season. But the Conference Championships were held in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Houston Oilers, 27-13 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Steelers thus advanced to their 4th Super Bowl in 6 season. While the Los Angeles Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 9-0 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa. It advanced the Rams to Super Bowl XIV, their 1st NFL Championship Game under any name in 24 years. The Steelers beat them.

The Oilers wouldn't get this close again for another 21 years, and, by that point, they were the Tennessee Titans. The Buccaneers wouldn't get this close again for another 23 years.