Riveting finish

Canada dug deep to overcome deficit heading to Russia

By Jim Kernaghan, SLAM! Sports

The Series An exhibition which turned legendary 1972 Summit Series Game Recaps Defining event in Canadian history Russian hockey changed drastically Oppression bred creativity on ice From SI Eliot: A lasting impression Flashback: Still blushing Flashback: Off to Hockeyland Flashback: Narrow victory Features Q&As: Henderson | Tretiak Team Stats: Canada | Soviet Union More stories Canada bodychecked communism Slap in face to Canadians Hopes were dim heading to Moscow Too much garbage with series

Napoleon's foray into frigid Russia was tough. So was Hitler's.

But in their wars, they didn't have referees and if Team Canada didn't already have enough to contend with, up stepped refs Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader, along with a mountain of turmoil that had more than one Canadian player asking "What am I doing here?"

In retrospect, it must be said one of the best things that ever happened to Canadian hockey was the Summit Series of 1972, the first full meeting of Canada's best professionals and the perennial Olympic and world champions from the Soviet Union.

It brought out some of the worst in our hockey but it also brought out much of the very best. In a real sense, what we witnessed was the birth of a new game, one that began to fuse the fiery and aggressive style of the National Hockey League and the fast-skating, puck-control European approach.

But oh, the labor pains.

The series began as a sports encounter that broke out into a bipolar ideological confrontation. Our hockey against theirs was a platform for our entire way of life against theirs in the depth of the Cold War. In the end, a more compelling script could not be written. The denouement was delicious, the final chapter riveting.

But the darkest hour was as bleak as it could possibly get. Scorned by some segments of the public and the media, Team Canada departed for Moscow on an odyssey into the unknown. They'd won a single game of the four in Canada and while they'd gained a better level of fitness and had begun to decipher the Soviet style, they'd be playing on a larger ice surface in the unfriendly confines of Luzhniki Stadium.

The two-week break between the Canadian four-game set and the beginning of the Soviet one was critical. This was an era when NHL players would come to camp in pretty good shape and work their way toward a peak through the exhibition games. An August training camp wasn't good enough, not against a team that trained 11 months a year.

But there were signs Team Canada was pulling it together. After their shock 7-3 opening-series win in Montreal, the Soviets lost 4-1 in Toronto. For Game 3 in Winnipeg, the visitors inserted a line of youngsters Aleksander Bodunov, Viacheslav Anisin and Yuri Lebedev and it showed. The troika scored the third and fourth Russian goals in the 4-4 tie.

"Which was the new line?" asked Chicago Blackhawks' Pat Stapleton, now residing near Strathroy. "They all look the same to me."

And so they did, as the Soviet system rolled five-man units each shift change, one quintet resembling the other and only Aleksander Ragulin, at 220 pounds the series giant, instantly recognizable. Soviet coach Vsevelod Bobrov had sent a strong message: He had plenty of firepower in reserve.

Team Canada departed for a two-game exhibition set against Sweden to prepare on the larger European ice surface with the boos of Vancouver fans still ringing in their ears. They'd lost 5-3 and would be leaving for the Moscow part of the eight-game series with a win and a draw in four games.

The moment they hit Moscow, more problems arose. There were accusations the Russians had filched beer and steaks brought especially for them (true). They complained their telephones were being tapped (which they undoubtedly were). One humorous outcome was when a player decided to unscrew what he thought was a bug beneath the carpet, thereby sending the attached chandelier crashing to the floor below.

Frank Mahovlich, whose disdain for the Soviets was matched by Phil Esposito and Wayne Cashman, called up coach Harry Sinden late one night to suggest the team camp in tents rather than stay in their hotel.

Buses to practice were late. Tiny but aggravating details of daily life, though all within the normal scope of daily Russian existence, were neglected. The players began to feel as though they were victims of a massive setup. Paranoia was setting in.

To make matters more untenable, cracks were beginning to appear within the team itself. Each of the 35 players, the cream of the NHL, felt entitled to some measure of ice time and some didn't get it as each team could dress 21 players.

As many as a dozen Canadians spoke of bolting. Organizer for Hockey Canada, Al Eagleson, convinced most to stay. Vic Hadfield, Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin and Jocelyn Gouvrement ultimately did take off.

Well before this, the team dubbed the Blaney-Pasternak all-stars (Eagleson's law firm) was questioned on its player selection.

Bobby Hull's slapshot would have been handy. Forget that he left the Chicago Blackhawks for the World Hockey Association Winnipeg Jets. Veteran NHLer and international coach Billy Harris was an experienced European hand (and one of the few who predicted Canada would have a difficult time winning). Toronto Maple Leaf Dave Keon had the style and experience to be a real asset.

Bobby Orr was named but, due to knee surgery, never played a game in the series.

The turmoil wasn't restricted to the team. Reporters were at the throats of reporters, Eagleson was at the throat of at least one reporter, politicians at home seeking profile were demanding answers to the growing catastrophe.

It is always darkest before dawn, it has been said many times, and Team Canada certainly experienced it first-hand.

If fans of Canada's Olympic women's hockey team had to overcome bad officiating to secure the gold medal at Salt Lake City, they should have got a load of Kompalla, whose curious, uneven and often wrong-headed decisions nearly drove Team Canada crazy. Canadian refs gained new appreciation from players after his awful work, work that might never have continued had an enraged J.P. Parise ever followed through with his infamous hockey stick swing at the shocked ref in the final game.

As low points go, it could hardly match the one that ignited a recent furor involving Bobby Clarke and his Team Canada linemate, Paul Henderson. That an incident 30 years old could stir up emotions today is testimony to the enormity of the series.

Henderson likened Clarke's slash on series-long nemesis Valery Kharlamov to "a golfer going out and whacking a guy in the leg" or "shooting a guy in the hallway."

Clarke, 30 years ago the burgeoning leader of what would become Philadelphia's infamous Broad Street Bullies, laid a two-hander on Kharlamov that brought winces even on this side of the pond. The slash broke Kharlamov's ankle and cut deeply into the Soviets' chances for success.

"It was a dirty series," Clarke said. "It was a war. We did a lot of dirty things to them and they did a lot of dirty things to us. It got crazy out there."

To be fair, the only real difference in the dirty tactics was style. Team Canada's fouls were obvious, the Soviets' were anathema to Canada's hockey sensibilities. The Soviets kicked, they spat, they speared, all of it so cleverly even a relative pacifist like Rod Gilbert was prepared to duke it out with Evgeny Mishakov for kicking him in the back of the leg.

And by the fifth game the Russians were combining that with their own superb play and friendly officiating to really cast a pall over all Canadians.

Game 5, after all, plunged Canada even further in arrears, it being the team's third loss against a single win and a draw. But what really hurt was the way it came. Some 3,000 Canadians fans in Luzhniki Stadium watched as Team Canada built a commanding 4-1 lead -- then sank in growing desolation as the Soviets came back with four straight goals to win.

But remember that darkest before dawn dictum. It never applied more accurately than in this epic series.

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