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

SUMMIT PART 4: SHOWDOWN

PERIOD 3: COUNTDOWN

During the second intermission, the Canadian players calmly listened to Sinden's instructions for the third. Suddenly, a door slammed.  In lumbered Eagleson who was in the middle of a temper tantrum. Interrupting the coach, he blew into a tirade, exhorting Team Canada to score quickly or all was lost.

What had set off Eagleson was a conversation several minutes earlier with Soviet authority Alexander Gresko who remarked that if Game 8 ended in a tie, and the series deadlocked at 3-3-2, the Soviet Union would claim victory on the basis of goal differential. It was the first time the subject had been broached and Eagleson was infuriated.

Tactfully deflecting his colleague, Sinden agreed, but warned not to gamble until after the end change in the last 10 minutes. Until then, he advised, keep the Soviets off the scoreboard.

As the puck dropped to start the third period, the Soviets sensed that one more goal would put the game away. Immediately, they pressed the attack.  Dryden, however, was sharp and withstood an early barrage.

The Canadians counterattacked. Sinden improvised a line of Esposito, Cournoyer and Peter Mahovlich. It was a calculated risk, sacrificing experience for speed, but the gamble paid off.

Working a give-and-go pass with Cournoyer, Mahovlich battled into the Soviet end. As he was tripped, the young forward managed to get a wobbly pass over to Esposito, who paused to knock it down to his stick. He fanned on his first shot, but the goalie flinched and was caught out of position. Esposito managed to get his second attempt off, putting the puck through Tretiak's five- hole at 2:27. The deficit was cut to 5-4.

The goal brought Team Canada back to life. The Soviets began to fall back into a shell to protect their lead. Twice, the Canadians had man-advantages, but failed to convert. Jean Ratelle very nearly tied the game midway through the period, finding an open net on a rebound, but his hurried shot went agonizingly wide.

Tempers began to run short. When play stopped after Dryden gloved Gennady Tsygankov's long slap shot, Rod Gilbert and Evgeny Mishakov simultaneously dropped the gloves and sparred. Gilbert, despite a size disadvantage, pressed the attack and bloodied his opponent without receiving a scratch.  Contrary to international rules that called for fighters to be ejected, both players received five-minute roughing penalties. Gilbert also received the nickname "Mad Dog."

The score remained 5-4 at the 10-minute mark as the teams changed ends for the final time. Team Canada began to open up their offense. Brad Park waited for the line change, weaving past a Russian forechecker. Spotting Esposito rushing down the right wing, he completed a long head-man pass. Four Red Shirts turned and chased down the attacker. Esposito crossed the blue line, cut across center, and bore down on Tretiak.

From 15 feet, he zipped a rising wrist shot that the goalie deflected off his chest pad.  The puck still floating in midair, Esposito swung his stick like a baseball bat and connected, pushing a line drive behind the net. With Vladimir Lutchenko, Mishakov, and Vladimir Vikulov on him, the big Canadian managed to outmuscle his opponents to the puck.

With his side to the net, Esposito tried to get off a centering pass. Tretiak waited on the post and poked the puck aside. Esposito's second attempt was blocked onto the waiting blade of Cournoyer. The three Soviets promptly collapsed on the new threat.

His first shot was blocked. There was a scramble and three Soviet defenders were tangled in a heap in front of the goal. The puck bounced around. Both Esposito and Cournoyer lunged forward in desperation, but the French-Canadian managed to arrive first and flick the puck with a backhand.  Tretiak was mesmerized as the black disk floated and turned end over end, just clearing the fallen forms of his teammates and somehow finding the back of the meshing. Team Canada had tied the game, 5-5, with 7:04 remaining.

The puck was clearly in the net, but the red light did not turn on. To Eagleson, it was deliberate act to deny Team Canada the tying goal. His nerves already frazzled from dealing with the Soviet bureaucracy during the past two days, the Team Canada official snapped.

With blood in his eyes, Eagleson stormed out of his seat and elbowed spectators as he clumsily vaulted down several rows toward the goal judge's table.  To Soviet soldiers posted at rinkside, the man noisily plodding through the crowd was not Canadian hockey lord Alan Eagleson, but a seemingly drunken foreigner.

The soldiers ganged up on Eagleson who instinctively struggled. They roughed him up, one guard twisting his arm behind his back, another contorting him forward to apply a headlock. As the troops dragged him out of the arena, Eagleson reached out toward a cameraman and called out, but the crowd drowned his voice out. The cameraman did a double take, recognizing the Canadian, then averted his gaze.

The commotion caught the attention of Peter Mahovlich, who was skating along the boards. Recognizing Eagleson, he raised his stick and swung, connecting across the backs of two olive-brown-clad infantrymen. Startled, they released their grip on the prisoner. Shouting to his teammates to join him,

Mahovlich clambered over the boards and prepared to renew the assault. A second later, the Canadian players massed along the boards behind him, brandishing their upraised sticks like spears.

Meanwhile, Canadian diplomat Patrick Reid, who was seated near Eagleson called over to his opposite number from the Soviet foreign ministry and asked him to assist. The official agreed and the two men began to wade through the crowd. Reid hoped he could secure Eagleson's release and calm him down before creating an embarrassing spectacle.

He was too late. Mahovlich, backed up by the rest of Team Canada managed to wrest their countryman back. Helped onto the ice, Eagleson was a wreck.  His suit was rumpled and skewed, his hair tussled, and face flushed. Surrounded by an entourage of players and hockey officials, Eagleson took tentative steps across the ice to the Canadian bench.

A chorus of boos rose to the rafters. Forgetting that Europeans whistled rather than boo (his countrymen were protesting his rough treatment), Eagleson defiantly thrust his hand into the air, middle finger extended.  Remembering that the gesture was being watched live by millions of television viewers around the world, he caught himself and shook his fist at the crowd. Trainer Joe Sgro and Eagleson lieutenant Mike Cannon were inspired by the initial reaction, however, and promptly copied it.

Reid, still trapped in the crowd, witnessed the act and winced. He looked up into the dignitary box. There, his boss, Undersecretary of State for External Affairs Ed Ritchie, sat next to Brezhnev and Premier Alexi Kosygin and buried his face buried in his hands.

The ugly incident having run its course, play resumed. The delay gave both teams a moment to catch their collective breath. The energy burst, however, was short-lived. The forwards on both teams were running out of gas and the defensemen began jumping into the attack.

With less than three minutes remaining, Park and Bergman engineered a 2-on-1 break. Bergman took in a lead pass from his partner and fired off a wrist shot. Tretiak managed to kick it aside.

Yakushev took possession and tried to split Park and Lapointe, who were advancing on him. A second later, there was a three-player collision and the Soviet catapulted through the air, head over heels.

The clock dwindled to less than a minute. The line of Esposito-Cournoyer-Peter Mahovlich was about to end its shift. Sinden elected at the next opportunity to replace them with the fresh legs of Clarke-Ellis-Henderson for one last crack at the Soviet net.

Henderson, however, felt moved by a spirit to get on the ice immediately.  Without Sinden's permission, he leaned over the boards and screamed "Peter!"  No response. He called again, and then a third time. Mahovlich, heading down ice, looked at Henderson, paused, then skated over to the bench.

Meanwhile, Cournoyer, exhausted, took a clearing pass from Pat Stapleton and dumped it into the Soviet zone. He was about to go off the ice, but seeing the energetic Henderson on left wing decided to remain. Esposito, too, was ready to leave, but was also inspired to stay despite the calls from his teammates to change up. Doggedly, the three Canadians went in pursuit of the puck.

Meanwhile, Valery Vasiliev picked up the biscuit behind his own goal.  Believing the Canadians were in the middle of a line change, he floated a leisurely clearing pass around the boards.

Cournoyer was shocked to find the puck on his blade and no Russian skater nearby. Glancing up, he saw Henderson crashing the net and zipped a long diagonal pass in his direction. The Canadian left wing overshot the puck and in the process was dumped in front of the crease by Vasiliev.  The puck rebounded into the left corner and three Soviets converged on it, then froze, each expecting the other to take possession.

Esposito muscled his way into the crowd and chipped the puck on net. Tretiak knocked it down with ease, but failed to cover up the rebound. In the midst of the scramble, Henderson arose and found himself with the puck at point-blank range. He pulled the trigger, but the Russian goalie made a pad save and flopped onto his backside.

The rebound came back to the Henderson who frantically shot a second time.  The puck squirted through the narrow opening between Tretiak's body and the right post. In an image frozen in time by photographer Frank Lennon, Tretiak lay on his side in dejection as the triumphant Henderson turned and leaped into Cournoyer's arms. The Team Canada bench spilled onto the ice and mobbed Henderson. Even Dryden slogged down ice to join in the celebration.

Thirty-four seconds remained. With the pent-up emotion released, a sense of panic began to settle in as the Canadians cleared the ice and prepared for the ensuing face-off. They still believed the Soviets could rally and tie the game almost at will. Sinden kept Esposito on the ice and matched him up with Ellis and Peter Mahovlich, the team's best defensive forwards. Stapleton was paired with Bill White. The order was to fall back into a shell and hit anyone who came near Dryden.

But Henderson's goal completely demoralized the Russians. Half- heartedly, they went through the motions. As the Canadian fans noisily counted down the last seconds, Alexander Gusev threw a weak shot on net. Dryden easily stopped it and steered it aside to Stapleton. The defenseman started from behind the net and passed along the boards to Mahovlich, who let the puck go up ice. The final siren wailed and, as Team Canada celebrated, Stapleton went off in pursuit of the now famous puck.

In typical a understatement, Foster Hewitt, described the crowd's reaction: "The fans are going wild!"  

1972 Summit Series
A 4 Part Series by Bruce Kish