The 1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish
Brought to you buy Decisive-Action Sports

SUMMIT PART 2: Clash of the Titans

GAME 1: AMBUSHED

The Soviet National Team filed out of the dressing room onto the ice. There was nothing fancy about their appearance, plain old white sweaters with a tiny CCCP in red sewn across the front. With their red helmets, the Soviets resembled cosmonauts or robots.

They were tough men with hatched-hard faces. The cleanly shaven faces, devoid of expression, was intimidating to the crowd. In truth, however, behind the facade the Russians were already intimidated. The rocking building from the boisterous crowd was something they were not used to. And then there were the reputations of the North American professionals, some imagined and others real, as hard-shooting and hard-fighting players.

The Canadians took the ice and the arena volume turned up from the 18,818 spectators in attendance. The players looked flashy in their new uniforms, a red jersey with a white maple leaf exploding across the front. The gait with which they skated warm-up laps was light and easy. Confidence gleamed in their eyes.

The Forum crowd fell silent as the teams lined up on opposite blue lines for the opening ceremonies. The public address system echoed through the arena as the name of each visiting player was called. The spectators politely applauded, but to them the names were but garbled sounds. At the time, they could not appreciate that the Soviet arsenal had already developed an equivalent of an Esposito, an Orr, or a Dryden.

When it came time to introduce Team Canada, the roar returned. The loudest cheers were reserved for the representatives of the Montreal Canadiens: Yvan Cournoyer … Peter Mahovlich … Guy Lapointe … Frank Mahovlich … Ken Dryden.

As the players sized each other up, PM Trudeau strode across a red carpet and met with the opposing captains for the traditional gift exchange: Alexander Ragulin, Victor Kuzkin, and Vladimir Vikulov for the Soviets, and Jean Ratelle, Phil Esposito, and Frank Mahovlich for Team Canada. Esposito then won the ceremonial opening face-off, but the assistant captain was feeling tired and sluggish, having been unable to sleep during his usual pre-game nap.

With the raising of the flags and the playing of the national anthems complete, the players could finally concentrate on the game. Coach Vsevolod Bobrov assembled his team and intently reminded them to stick to their game plan. True, the Canadians might notch an early tally, he stated, but the match was long and in the end, the Soviet's superior skating and passing would wear down their opponents. Bobrov had shuffled his lineup, only going with three complete forward lines. Instead, he dressed seven defensemen whom he would frequently rotate.

The Canadians were filled with nervous energy. Cournoyer anticipated the dropping of the puck too soon and drove off-side. When the puck was finally dropped, Vladimir Petrov easily beat Esposito to the puck and the game was on.

The Canadians broke up the Russian attack and counterattacked. Defenseman Gary Bergman fired a sharp pass to the stick of Esposito who skated unimpeded into the Soviet zone, flanked by his linemates. Team Canada swarmed the net. In the midst of the confusion, Frank Mahovlich found himself alone on the left corner of the doorstep with the puck. He flipped a weak backhand shot that Tretiak managed to deflect with a kick save, but the puck rebounded directly to Esposito who swung his stick like a baseball bat and connected. Bang! Team Canada had seized a 1-0 lead just :30 into the first period.

The game began to turn around 33 seconds later when Paul Henderson was whistled off for tripping. During the ensuing power play, the Soviets' superior movement and passing skills dominated play. The Canadians were constantly turning back and forth to defend, but managed, with great difficulty to kill the penalty.

Finishing up his first shift, Henderson skated to the bench, his face flushed and gasping for air. He greedily took down several gulps from a water bottle, turned to linemates Bobby Clarke and Ron Ellis, and muttered, "This is going to be a long, long series."

Despite the fact that the Soviets were getting the better of the play, Team Canada managed to net the game's second goal at 6:32. In the Soviet end, Clarke won the draw and passed back to Ellis on his right. The winger zipped a pass across the top of the circle to Henderson, who drilled a one-timer past Tretiak before the goalie could even react. The Russian was stunned, disoriented, and affected by the strange sounds of a foreign crowd.

"I remember the organ man," Tretiak later recalled. "He started playing funeral music. For the first five minutes it was as if I was in darkness, I couldn't get out in the light."

Rather than lose their composure, the Soviets became more physical, figuring they had nothing to lose at this point.  The Russian defensive scheme began to work and their defensive pairs spiked the big guns of the Hadfield-Ratelle-Gilbert G-A-G line from the New York Rangers. By now, Tretiak had regained his composure and prevented a third goal when he managed to snag Esposito's booming slap shot at the last second.

The Soviet passing game continued to grind down Team Canada midway though the period.  At the right point, defenseman Evgeny Paladiev dropped the puck down to Alexander Yakushev in the corner. The Canadian defense shifted, but were caught flat-footed. Yakushev launched a pinpoint pass through a screen

to Evgeny Zimin who stood on the left corner of the net. The left winger angled his shot high past Dryden before he could turn.

Late in the period, Team Canada appeared to regain the momentum. The Soviets took a careless penalty. They stubbornly withstood the Canadian pressure, but no sooner had the penalty ended, then Ragulin got the gate for tripping.

Sinden put all five of his Rangers on the ice for the ensuing power play, the G-A-G line supported by defensemen Brad Park and Rod Seiling. The ploy backfired.

Petrov won the ensuing face-off in his defensive end and worked the puck over to Borris Mikhailov, who stormed past Seiling and closed in on net.  From 15 feet out, he launched a wrist shot which Dryden gloved, but the puck squirted loose to Petrov who backhanded the rebound in.

The first period ended with the score knotted 2-2. The intense heat inside the Forum combined with the ice created a slight fog. Team Canada skated through the clouds back to their dressing room, looking as though it were the end of the third period, not the first.

"We've got serious problems," Esposito told Cashman. "These guys can really motor. Whoever scouted them should be shot." Sinden winced and tore into his team. He reminded them to stick to basics and to avoid giving up the head-man pass, which the Soviets used so effectively during the opening period. Yet Team Canada was ill-prepared for the wide-open style of hockey the Russians played and defensive fine-tuning was going to work on this evening.

Just over two minutes into the second period, center Alexander Maltsev fed Valery Kharlamov, a tiny, fleet-footed left winger. As he approached the Canadian blue line, defenseman Don Awrey charged forward to tie him up. The Russian faked one way, then swept around his opponent controlling the puck with one hand and making the Canadian look bad in the process. He closed in on Dryden and stuffed a shot between his pads. 3-2 Soviets.

Eight minutes later, Kharlamov streaked out of his end with the puck. The Canadian defensemen, remembering how the Russian had undressed them, held back. The attacker abruptly stopped and fired a slap shot over Dryden. The Canadian goalie lunged and flailed his glove hand helplessly, but the puck had already slapped the twine. The Russians had completely taken over the game.

During the second intermission, Sinden scanned the long line of players who were slouched over in various stages of exhaustion. He began to regret only suiting up five defensemen, but he figured the extra offensive line might still give him a tactical advantage.

Early in the third period, Team Canada rallied. Henderson passed to Ellis who fired a one-timer on net. Clarke smartly deflected home the rebound.

By the 10-minute mark, as the game paused for the teams to change ends, the crowd came to life, chanting and clapping hands in unison. The break, however, stymied Team Canada's momentum. As play restarted, the Soviets took control. Mikhailov backhanded a shot between two defended for the hat trick.  5-3 Soviets.

Moments later, Zimin faked a shot which drew Bergman out of position. Park nearly poke-checked the puck off the forward's stick, but Zimin still managed to recover and shovel it past Dryden. Seeing their team trailing by three, the crowd fell silent. What was happening was just too unreal to believe.

For good measure, the Russians attempted to run up the score. Yakushev toyed with Dryden. He faked a shot which caused the goalie to flop prematurely, then flipped the biscuit over his fallen body: 7-3.

The situation became ugly. The crowd turned on its team. They jeered Dryden when he stopped a soft shot. Enraged, Lapointe swung his stick like an ax at Mikhailov. Esposito charged Petrov after the whistle blew and punched him in the face. Instead of retaliating, the Russian stuck out his chin defiantly and grinned.

"[Team Canada] judged us very superficially, without much thought," Yakushev later remembered. "We could see from their gestures, the way they acted and the remarks they made … that they didn't consider us worthy opponents. … We could all feel it - that arrogance."

When the final siren wailed, the Soviet bench emptied and the ecstatic players gathered at center ice, congratulating each other. They were stunned to see Team Canada storm off the ice without taking part in the traditional post-game handshake. Dryden and Red Berenson, who both had prior international experience, and Peter Mahovlich remained in their end and waited for their teammates to return. When it was apparent they weren't coming, they reluctantly turned and skated off. As he approached the gate,

Dryden faced the Soviet players and saluted them with a nod and a wave of his big blade.

The crowd was appalled by Team Canada's lack of sportsmanship and enthusiastically cheered the visitors. The surprised Soviets raised their sticks in reply and skated out of the rink.

As this was going on, Eagleson stormed into the Canadian dressing room and berated Sinden for breaking protocol. The coach sheepishly ordered his players, who were in various stages of undress, to put their jerseys on and return to the ice. But the Russians were long gone by the time they came back out.

Eagleson promptly got on the PA system and issued an apology for Team Canada's conduct. It was of little matter to the Soviets, however.

"That night in Montreal was so beautiful for us," said Petrov. "It showed everyone we could compete with the Canadians."

NATIONAL DISASTER

Foster Hewitt, the beloved broadcaster of the Toronto Maple Leafs, had come out of retirement to work the Summit Series. From the gondola in the Forum rafters his voice betrayed his disbelief:

"And the game is over! And the USSR have defeated Canada in the first game of an eight-game series by a score of 7 to 3! The Soviets 7, Canada 3. The final score, the Soviets 7, and Canada 3. … This is Game 1 from Montreal!"

The national media very grudgingly accepted the notion that Canadian hockey players were not superior to all others. The McGuinness distillery ran the same "If they can play hockey, we can make vodka" ad. The word "if," however, was x-ed out.

Columnist Dick Beddoes of the "Toronto Globe and Mail" had egg on his face after seeing his prediction of a total Canadian sweep go up in smoke. Just prior to Game 1, he had publicly vowed to "eat this column shredded at high noon in a bowl of borscht on the steps of the Russian embassy." True to his word, he appeared at the Soviet consulate in Toronto, along with a photographer from his own paper and a journalist from "Pravda."

Making the defeat even more bitter for Team Canada were the harsh remarks from NHL President Clarence Campbell on the following day. Campbell criticized Sinden's player selection, in particular Lapointe and Dryden, and accused him of selecting French Canadian players in order to pacify the Montreal crowd. The remarks infuriated Montreal residents, who still vividly remembered the Forum riot 17 years earlier after Campbell had suspended Maurice Richard.

On the plane flight to Toronto for Game 2, Sinden held a team meeting and told his players not to blame any one individual for the defeat. "All of us lost this game tonight. Every coach and every player had a hand in it, even the ones who weren't dressed," he stated. "We accept that because we're a team."  

1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish