The 1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish
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SUMMIT PART 2: Clash of the Titans

GAME 4: THE PENDULUM SWINGS

Vladislav Tretiak was not used to Western journalists fawning over him, but he was enjoying the attention. Twice named Player-of-the-Game in the second and third matches, he was already becoming something of a legend in Canada.  "He's only 20 and he's doing this to us!!" a Winnipeg paper complained.

When a reporter asked Bobrov what Tretiak would do with his two MVP rings, the coach replied that he would probably keep the one and give the other to his bride. And for a third? the reporter shot back. "I think he also has a girlfriend," Bobrov said, chuckling.

The Soviets were confident of victory in the series. One official boldly predicted that the series was already over because the Russians would sweep all of the four games in Moscow regardless of the outcome of Game 4 in Vancouver.

Sinden, however, was more concerned about getting a fresh lineup on the ice.  In come Dennis Hull and Gilbert Perreault. Out were Cashman and Serge Savard, who fractured his ankle during a practice. Sinden benched Tony Esposito and mulled between Dryden and Eddie Johnson, then decided on the former because he knew that Dryden was aching for an opportunity to redeem himself.

Team Canada's greeting as it stepped out on the Pacific Coliseum ice was less than warm. A chorus of boos arose from scores of angry throats.  The players were shaken by the reception. The combination of nerves and frustration had already decided the contest even before it began.

At 1:24, Goldsworthy took a bad penalty for cross-checking. Roughly 40 seconds later, Mikhailov stuffed in the rebound from a Vladimir Lutchenko slap shot. 1-0, Soviet Union. The crowd's mood turned uglier.

Five and a half minutes into the period, Goldsworthy, who had promised Sinden not to draw another bad penalty, was whistled for elbowing. At 7:29, the Russians scored their second power play goal on a carbon copy of their first: a pass from Petrov to Lutchenko, a slap shot, rebound and score by Mikhailov.

In the second period, the Canadians managed to get a goal back. Perreault started up from his own defensive zone on a daring end-to-end rush. Spitting the Russian defense, he moved bore down on Tretiak, then attempted to pass laterally to Frank Mahovlich. The puck deflected off of defenseman Valery Vasiliev's skate and went into the net.

The momentum appeared to change. The line of Esposito-Hadfield-Gilbert managed to work the puck in deep.  Hadfield passed to Gilbert, who chipped it past the goalie. The crowd roared, but the officials promptly disallowed the goal, claiming that Gilbert had kicked the puck into the net.

The call completely demoralized the Canadians.  Moments later, on a face-off in the Soviet end, Clarke managed to win the draw, but Henderson coughed up the biscuit to Mikhailov. A two-on-one developed as the defenseman White had to content with Petrov and Yuri Blinov. Petrov deftly completed a pass by

White and Blinov rifled the shot past Dryden who was caught out of position.

Midway through the second period, Soviet forechecking created another scoring opportunity. Maltsev mucked along the boards and won the puck. He fed Kharlamov in the slot, but the Russian forward held his fire. As Dryden committed himself, Kharlamov angled a pass down to winger Vladimire Vikulov, who drilled it home into the empty net. 4-1, Soviet Union. The crowd became increasingly hostile toward Team Canada.

In the third period, the Canadians threw themselves into the attack with the courage of despair. Early in the period, they had outgunned the Russians 23-6, but most of the shots came long range and Tretiak easily knocked them aside. At 6:54, an Esposito long bomb rang the cross bar. Goldsworthy managed to deflect it home.

Not to be outdone, Vladimir Shadrin collected his own rebound and scored, putting the game out of reach 5-2 at 11:05.

With 22 seconds remaining, Hull, the other new player to dress, rammed home an Esposito pass, but the goal meant very little. Despite the fact that Team Canada had lost 5-3 and had outshot the Soviets in the third period, the statistics merely whitewashed the fact that the Russians dominated all facets of the game.

"We were never in the game," Sinden told reporter. "They just took control, and as hard as we tried, we seemed to get a little worse all the time."

Phil Esposito, vanquished, but proud, went to a corner of the rink to be interviewed on TV after being named a star of the game. Amid a shower of insults and thrown garbage, he stared down the crowd, his twisted face gleaming with sweat. Still eyeing his tormentors, he hoarsely spoke into the microphone:

"People across Canada, we tried, we gave it our best. For the people who booed us, geez, I'm really - all of us guys are really disheartened and we're disillusioned in some of the people. … I cannot believe it. Some of our guys are really, really down in the dumps. …

"Every one of us guys, thirty-five guys who came out to play for Team Canada, we did it because we love our country and not for any other reason. They can throw the money for the pension fund out the window, they can throw anything they want out the window - we came because we love Canada."

 

1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish