Soviets Still Contend Eagleson Incident Was Staged
Vancouver Sun, September 26, 1992

The Soviet hockey players who contested the 1972 Summit Series were initially afraid they had stepped onto the ice to play against infallible 'gods.'

But then came the telephone call from Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev and the wild sight of a Toronto sportswriter eating his own newspaper article, flavoured by a little borscht. 

Those two incidents buoyed their spirits as they dominated the Canadians early in the series.

But it was a fight in the stands that the Russians contend was deliberately staged by series promoter Alan Eagleson that turned things around in the Canadian's favour in the final showdown.

At least, that's the way three members of the Soviet team remember it today.

"We fell behind 2-0 in the first few minutes of the opening game in Montreal," recalls Vladimir Shadrin, then centre of the team's No. 2 line with Alexander Yakushev and Evgeni Zimin.

"You Canadians may have thought we were supermen, unemotional robots. But I tell you seriously, we were afraid. We thought maybe all the experts were right and we were going to get blown away by seven goals in each game.

"I remember asking myself: Are these guys really gods or can we find the strength inside ourselves to get out of this situation?"

"The answer wasn't long in coming. The Soviets rallied to stun the Canadians 7-3 in game 1.

"Brezhnev called after we son the first game to congratulate us on our victory for socialism," Vladimir Yasinev, a Communist party official who travelled with the team, recalls with a laugh.

Yasinev, now 57 and an official with the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, says the series was not hyped in the Soviet Union the same way it was in Canada - as a showdown between democracy and communism, West and East, good and bad.

"But everything in those days had a political element,'' interjects Igor Romishevsky, 52, a defenseman in '72 who was injured just before the series opened and did not play in any of the 8 games.

"We were trying to prove that our system was better."

The three men agreed, however, that the only memory that has not faded over the 20 years - besides Paul Henderson's winning goal with less than one minute to play in Game 8 - was a stunt by the late columnist Dick Beddoes, then with the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Beddoes wrote that he was sure the Canadians would win every game - and that he would eat his newspaper article if they lost one.

True to his word, Beddoes showed up at a reception the day after the opening game and proceeded to eat the article, washing down the pulpy mass with a bowl of borscht, the Russian beet soup.

"I've never seen anything like it," Yasinev says with a laugh, shaking his head at the memory.

"We felt like heroes at that moment," Shadrin, now 44 and coach of the Russian national junior team. "But that incident made us so overconfident that we got hammered in the next game in Toronto."

But the trio insists that Eagleson, who helped organize the 1972 series, deserves credit for the Canadians' spirited play in the final period of the game 8. Yvan Cournoyer tied the game 5-5 at 12:56 of the period, but the goal light did not go on.

"Eagleson, thinking the goal was being disallowed, made a beeline for the scorer's table but was intercepted by security staff. A scuff ensued and several Canadian players, led by Peter Mahovlich, entered the stands to come to his defense.

Shadrin, Yasinev and Romishevsky all say they still think Eagleson deliberately staged the incident to fire up the Canadians.

"That incident really changed everything," says Shadrin.

Eagleson denies his actions were premeditated.

"In retrospect, it may not have hurt the team to see somebody escape from the Russian militia for the first time in history, but it sure wasn't planned," said Eagleson in Toronto.

I could not deliberately have staged that incident. But if it changed anything, then I'm happy I did it."

Cournoyer's goal ended up counting and Henderson added the historic series winner with 34 seconds left.

Shadrin was on the ice at the time and says he often relives the scene in his head "like a bad video."

"To this day, I'm still upset when I think of it. We made some silly mistakes with only seconds to play and we lose."

Yasinev begs to differ.

"It was a really wonderful time," he says. "We can only dream that such a thing might happen again."