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

SUMMIT PART 3:  FIFTY AGAINST THE WORLD

GAME 5: NADIR

The introductions of the two teams for Game 5 were ominous. As Phil Esposito stepped onto the ice, he lost his footing and took a spill in front of his teammates. Rising to one knee, he made an exaggerated bow to spectators which drew howls of laughter from the Canadians and smiles from the otherwise stony Russian faces. One Russian who was not smiling was Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev, flanked by other leaders and militia bodyguards. Esposito raised his eyes to the top level of the building. For a moment, his eyes met Brezhnev's and the two stared at each other. Then Esposito blew a kiss up to the Soviet dignitary and flashed a toothy grin for the camera.

It almost seemed to Team Canada that it was playing a home game. The 3,000 spectators were making their presence felt.  Loud cheers were accompanied by blaring trumpets, jangling cowbells, and rattling noisemakers of various sorts. The arena was awash in a sea of red and white signs and banners, and waving Maple Leaf flags.

To the Soviets fans, who were customarily quiet and only politely applauded from time to time, the scene was bizarre and nerve-wracking. At the same, however, tickets on the black market had increased 10 times the face value - approximately a month's salary. The majority of Russians in attendance were Soviet elite, most of who were not knowledgeable about hockey.

"Our most passionate hockey fans were not present," Tretiak would tell Ken Dryden years later. "We felt we were losing to your team as far as spectators were concerned, even at home. And it was very sad for us."

As the game began, the characters of the two teams appeared to have reversed. The Soviets, who had surprisingly dominated the series to this point, were self confident almost to the point of swaggering; and the Canadians were playing with an air of desperation, to prove that they could compete on foreign ice.

Sinden threw the Clarke-Ellis-Henderson line against the Soviets' big line of Kharlamov-Maltsev-Vikulov, hoping to get an edge by giving his opponents a different look. He also elected to put Tony Esposito in goal.

For the first 15 minutes of the first period, Esposito and Tretiak matched each other save for save.  Team Canada, despite the jet lag, was playing well, but the Soviets were dictating the pace of the game. At 15:30, however, J.P. Parise managed to slip behind Vladimir Lutchenko into the slot area as Gilbert Perreault drew away the defenseman. Perreault threaded the needle and Parise slapped home a shot between Tretiak's pads. 1-0, Canada.

Two and a half minutes into the second period, Team Canada scratched out a second goal. From a face-off in the offensive zone, Clarke pulled the draw back to Henderson, then received a pass back. Alexander Maltsev all but draped himself around Clarke's neck and shoulders. The big centerman steamed in on goal and managed to loosen his shadow by using the referee as a screen.  Clarke lowered his shoulder and beat Tretiak on a backhander at 2:36.

The Canadians continued to press the attack mid way through the period. Guy Lapointe's long slap shot was blocked in front by defenseman Gennady Tsygankov, but the rebound popped over to Henderson who took aim and beat the Soviet goalie inside the right post. With the score 3-0 at 11:58, the Canadians had reached their high-water mark for the evening.

Disaster struck late in the period. Maltsev slashed and tripped Henderson while he was coiling for a slap shot. The Canadian spun backward and catapulted shoulder-first into the boards, snapping his head back.

Henderson's body fell in a twisted heap and lay motionless. The arena fell silent as trainer Joe Sgro attempted to revive him. After the third ammonia capsule, Henderson weakly revived and he was picked up and helped off the ice.

Team physician Jim Murray determined that the forward had only received a slight concussion; the injury would have been more severe had it not been for the helmet. Henderson pleaded with Sinden to keep him in the lineup and the coach reluctantly agreed.

Despite Sinden's warning not to sit on a three-goal lead, the Canadians were unprepared for the Red storm in the third period. Defenseman Vladimir Petrov stood Pat Stapleton up at the Russian blue line and fired a long pass up ice to Yuri Blinov. As the Soviet forward closed in on goal all alone, Esposito gambled by moving out of his crease. He dove at the attacker with pads stacked, but Blinov swerved passed and buried at shot at 3:34.

A little over a minute later, Canada retaliated on a goal that was a carbon copy of the previous one. Clarke found Henderson on a long pass, and the forward found himself on a breakaway. With his head throbbing, the Canadian had the presence of mind to time his wrist shot while Tretiak was back-peddling in his crease.

With 15 minutes remaining, Team Canada seemed to have the game in hand at 4-1, but the Soviets rallied. At 9:05, Vyacheslav Anisin tipped in Yuri Liapkin's shot from the point to cut the lead in half. The goal seemed to breathe fresh life into the Russians. The Canadians were clearly on the defensive now.

On the ensuing face-off, the puck drifted into no man's land between the Canadian defensemen and the goalie. Alertly, forward Vladimir Shadrin streaked through the Canadian line, picked up the puck and banged it past Esposito before he was prepared. It had only taken the Soviets eight seconds

to score again. The normally placid Russian crowd was now on its feet and roaring.

With 10 minutes remaining, play paused for the teams to change ends, but the break did nothing to stop the Soviet momentum. A minute and a half later, the Soviet defensemen baited Team Canada with the puck, passing it back and forth. Alexander Gusev, from the left point, took a pass from Alexander Ragulin at the right point and zipped a rising slap shot which bounced through a screen past Esposito. Within a span of 2:36, Russian firepower had scored three times to even the game, 4-4.

As the minutes dwindled, Team Canada collapsed. The Soviets stepped up their forechecking pressure. While attempting to break out of his zone, Clarke found himself trapped along the boards.  Panicking, he passed back across his own blue line. Defenseman Ron Seiling was caught by surprise and had to reach back to get the puck, but Vladimir Vikulov swooped down and robbed him before he had control. Esposito advanced then flopped in a futile attempt to snuff out the breakaway, but guessed the wrong side. The Russian forward dragged the puck back across to his backhand and steered the shot home at 14:46. The Russians had taken their first lead of the game. Esposito arose and hurled his stick to the ice in frustration.

In the final five minutes of the game, the Canadians had several opportunities to even the contest. They received a power play at 15:48 when Victor Yakushev got the gate for hooking, but couldn't generate any offense.  In the last minute, Sinden put Yvan Cournoyer, Phil Esposito, and Henderson onto the ice as a provisional line.

The change very nearly paid off. Cournoyer stole the puck from Kharlamov and moved in alone on Tretiak. He waited until the last second, firing a bullet at the goalie. Just as it appeared Team Canada had tied the game, Tretiak reached out his glove and knocked the puck away at the last possible instant.

The Soviets counterattacked with a series of crisp passes. Petrov faked out Tony Esposito and had the goalie sprawling on his back, but the netminder managed to swat the puck away from the Russian's stick before he could get the shot off.

The clock ran out on Team Canada. Rather than boo, the Canadian fans arose and cheered. Sinden stormed off the ice and barricaded himself in the coaches' room. His hands trembled with rage as he poured a demitasse cup of coffee.  He took a sip, but the warm brown liquid tasted especially bitter on this occasion. His temper snapped and he hurled the cup against the wall, shattering the china and splashing coffee all over his suit.

Ferguson heard the crash and entered the room. He observed Sinden's pathetic state, but didn't say anything.

"There wasn't any right thing to say after this," he angrily blurted out to his assistant. "I've said all I could for six weeks. They've listened to me enough. Now they've got to come up with their own answers."

DAMAGE CONTROL

All was not well when Team Canada returned to the Intourist Hotel later in the evening. Walking through the hotel restaurant, few gave any thought to the patrons who were dining on steaks.  It was something unusual, considering that fresh meat was in short supply. In the morning, however, the players learned that their stocks of beef, milk, and beer that had been shipped from Canada was pilfered by the Russian black market and being sold to the guests at the same hotel.

"That's when we got mad," Rod Gilbert would later say. "When they stole our beer after the fifth game."

Team Canada's defections had not ended. Gilbert Perreault decided he'd had enough and received permission from Sinden to go home and prepare for the Sabres' season. As he watched the Buffalo star leave, Eagleson bitterly concluded that it was no coincidence that both Perreault and Martin had quit after talking with their NHL coach, Punch Imlach, who was in attendance as a special correspondent for the "Toronto Sun."

At the team's practice before Game 6, Sinden advised his players not to think about the next game, but instead the next period, and then the following period, and so forth. Over a chalkboard talk, he diagrammed what he had identified as a Soviet weakness, their poor defensive play in their own third of the ice. Ironically, while the Russians were masters of the wide-open game, they were unable to defend against it.

For the first time, the Canadians abandoned the traditional three-lane system and began practicing new plays. Forwards were no longer restricted to imaginary lanes, but criss-crossed and executed a variety of passes.  Defensemen learned to use head-man passes on occasion to surprise opposing forecheckers.

When the session was over, the players felt more confident. What remained to be proved was whether they could play consistently for three periods.  

 

1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish