Canada's Greatest Sports Moment

My last post, I talked about the Miracle on Ice. Our neighbors up north have a similar story. 1972 was the first ever Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. The event was an eight game series between the two nations in September. Unlike Team USA, Canada was made up of NHL players. Canada was missing two of their best players, Bobby Orr who was out with an injury. Bobby Hall was named to the team but since he signed with a World Hockey Association team, he was ruled ineligible. Team Canada thought they were going to walk over the Soviets.

That changed in Game one at the legendary Montreal Forum. The Soviet Union defeated Canada 7-3. It was the coming out party for Valery Kharlamov who had two goals in the win. Canada came back in the Second game at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. They won 4-1. In Winnipeg, Canada held a 4-2 lead but the game ended in a 4-4 tie.

Game 4 was held in Vancouver and the Soviets took the game 5-3. The fans booed Canada off the ice. Phil Esposito who played for the Boston Bruins went on National Television:

"To the people across Canada, we tried, we gave it our best, and to the people that boo us, geez, I'm really, all of us guys are really disheartened and we're disillusioned, and we're disappointed at some of the people. We cannot believe the bad press we've got, the booing we've gotten in our own buildings. If the Russians boo their players, the fans... Russians boo their players... Some of the Canadian fans—I'm not saying all of them, some of them booed us, then I'll come back and I'll apologize to each one of the Canadians, but I don't think they will. I'm really, really... I'm really disappointed. I am completely disappointed. I cannot believe it. Some of our guys are really, really down in the dumps, we know, we're trying, like, hell, I mean, we're doing the best we can, and they got a good team, and let's face facts. But it doesn't mean that we're not giving it our 150%, because we certainly are."

This statement motivated the entire country. There was two week break. They played two games against Sweden defeating them 4-1 and tying them 4-4. Game one had two officials from West Germany that will pop up later in the series. Three players left Canada for various reasons. They were Vic Hadfield, Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault and Jocelyn Guevremont. 3,000 Canadians made the trip to the Soviet Union.

Game Five Canada had a 4-1 lead but ended up losing 5-4. Canada came back to win game 6 3-2 but was upset with the officiating of the two West German referees. Canada had 31 penalty minutes compared to the USSR’s 4 minutes. The Series changed when John Ferguson, Sr., an assistant coach with Team Canada, was quoted as saying "I called (Bobby) Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.” Bobby Clarke who was part of the Philadelphia Flyers’ “Broad Street Bullies” slashed Kharlamov ankle. The ankle was fractured but continued to play the game. Canada would win Game 7 4-3. USSR’s Boris Mikhailov had a fight with Canada’s Gary Bergman. Boris kicked Gary two times with his skate.

If you asked any Canadian about Paul Henderson, only one thing will come up. "The goal heard around the world". The entire country was shutdown on September 28^th, 1972. Jean-Paul Parise was giving a game misconduct after the Canadians questioned a marginal call. He almost threw his stick at the West German officials. It was tied 2-2 after one period. After two periods the Soviets had a 5-3 advantage. In the third period, Phil Esposito and Yvan Cournoye scored to tie it up. After Cournoyer's goal, Alan Eagleson who put Team Canada together (seated across the ice from the Team Canada bench) caused a ruckus in the crowd because the goal light had not come on. As he was being subdued by the Soviet police, the Canadian players headed over, Peter Mahovlich actually going over the boards to confront police with his stick. Eagleson was freed and the players escorted him across the ice to the bench. In anger, he shoved his fist to the Soviet crowd, as a few other Canadian supporters also gave the finger to the Soviets. The Soviets notified the Canadians that if the game ended in a tie, the Soviets would win the series on goal differential. With 34 seconds remaining, the above mentioned Paul Henderson jammed in a rebound behind Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. It gave Canada 6-5 win and more importantly the Series victory.

The two nations celebrated the 35th anniversary this past summer, with the Super Series. An Eight game event that had Canada's best U-20 players against Russia's best U-20 team. Canada won the series 7-0-1. Milan Lucic, Sam Gagner, David Perron, Jonathan Bernier, Steve Mason, and Claude Giroux all participated for Team Canada. Each have seen time in the NHL this season. Bernier is currently with the Lewiston Maineiacs and Perron played for the Maineiacs last year. Milan Lucic is currently with the Boston Bruins.

Photo on the right Courtesy of The Hockey News

Photo on the left Courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

That’s My Take

Nathan Fournier

(Nathan also is a writer for MVN.com. He's the writer for the Asylum which covers the Lewiston Maineiacs of the QMJHL. He's also a regular contributor to the NHL Source also at MVN.com. He can be reached at fbbhgfan@aol.com)