Canada Ice Hockey vs USSR Ice Hockey

Date
Sun 3rd September 1972 (UTC)
Sat 2nd September 1972 (Local)

Timestamp
1972-09-03T00:00:00

Time

00:00:00 UTC (20:00:00 Local)

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League
Summit Series

Season
1972

Round
1

Status
Match Finished

Location
Montreal, QC
Canada
Montreal Forum

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Description

Game one was held in Montreal in a very warm Montreal Forum on September 2 before 18,818 fans. The gamesmanship between the teams started before the opening puck drop. Canada was assigned the home team for all games in Canada, while the Soviets would be the home team in Moscow. The Soviets would not release their lineup until they had seen their opponents', which was the opposite order, considering they were the visitors. The official scorer had to return to the Soviets' dressing room and demand the lineup. Sinden wanted to put the Ellis-Clarke-Henderson line on against Valeri Kharlamov's line. The Soviets did not start Kharlamov's line and Sinden named Phil Esposito's line for the opening faceoff.

The move paid off as Esposito scored for Canada after just 30 seconds of play, knocking a puck out of the air behind Tretiak. But even after a few minutes, Sinden felt the Soviets were coming on and having no difficulty getting through Canada's defence. Henderson scored after six minutes to give Canada a two-goal lead on a faceoff win by Clarke (the only advantage that Team Canada had, in Sinden's estimation). To the Canadian spectators and media, the second goal gave the appearance that the pre-series predictions of a rout were being proven correct. But the Soviets got over any awe of the NHLers and scored twice to tie the game 2–2 before the end of the first period. Yevgeni Zimin scored on a pass from behind the net, and Vladimir Petrov scored a shorthanded goal on a Soviet 2-on-1 break, with Petrov potting the rebound after an initial Dryden save. According to Sinden, the Canadian players had lost their poise, "running all over the ice" trying to establish their hitting game, while the Soviets used an unexpected tactic, the long pass, to break a man out of their defensive zone. The Canadian defence was also dropping to the ice to block shots, while the Soviets simply skated around them to get a closer shot. Although Tretiak had given up two goals on Canada's first two shots, he recovered later in the period to make two critical saves off Esposito at point-blank range. According to Esposito, "at Christmas time, it would have been 4–0 for us."

In the second period, Kharlamov scored on a great individual effort to put the Soviets ahead 3–2. Kharlamov deked Don Awrey, skated around him, faked a backhand shot on goaltender Ken Dryden, then scored on the forehand. Kharlamov then scored a second goal to give the Soviets a two-goal lead at the end of the second period. During the period, the air temperature in the Forum (which had no air conditioning system) increased. By the end of the second period, the temperature in the Forum had reached 115 °F (46 °C).

For the third period, Sinden benched Awrey and the Jean Ratelle line, going with just three lines. In the third, Clarke scored to bring Canada within one. In the Canadians' attempt to tie the game, Yvan Cournoyer put a puck off the post, but the Soviets broke out afterwards and Boris Mikhailov scored on the counterattack to restore their two-goal lead with six minutes to play. Mikhailov skated across the Canadian net about 20 feet out, lured Dryden away from the goal crease, then back-handed the puck between the goalie's legs into the net. The strategy of three lines, combined with the heat in the arena, had left the Canadians exhausted, and the Soviets scored twice in the final minutes to finish with a 7–3 victory.

"I was stunned by their performance" was Sinden's assessment. Former Montreal Canadiens' coach Claude Ruel commented that the Soviets' forwards were one of the most finely honed units he had ever seen. "They are always moving, never standing around, they head-man the puck as well as anyone has ever done—and they always seem to be in the right place." According to Dryden: "We didn't play our game at all. After they tied it up, we started playing a panic type of game. Sometimes there were five men going for the puck at once." At the end of the game, Team Canada accidentally snubbed the Soviets by returning to the dressing room directly without shaking hands with the Soviets after the game.

The win by the USSR team was celebrated into the early hours back home, and many took the next day off work. Valeri Kharlamov's father Boris held an impromptu party at his Moscow apartment. Dick Beddoes fulfilled his promise - he came to a hotel in Toronto, where Soviet hockey players lived, and ate a printed copy of his column after covering it with borscht.