USSR Ice Hockey vs Canada Ice Hockey

Date
Fri 22nd September 1972 (UTC)
Fri 22nd September 1972 (Local)

Timestamp
1972-09-22T17:00:00

Time

17:00:00 UTC (20:00:00 Local)

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League
Summit Series

Season
1972

Round
5

Status
Match Finished

Location
Moscow
Russia
Luzhniki Palace of Sports

		vs
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Description

Team Canada arrived in Moscow for the final four games at the Luzhniki Ice Palace, accompanied by 3,000 Canadian fans. Not long after starting practices in Moscow, Team Canada players Vic Hadfield, Rick Martin and Jocelyn Guevremont left the team and went home for what they felt was a lack of playing time. Team Canada used its practice time in the Dvoretz Sporta to learn the differences of the Soviet rinks. While there had been concern about the wider ice surface, what was most strange to the Canadian players was the fish netting draped at the ends of the rink above the boards instead of glass. Considered "in play", the netting was strung tight, and a slap shot to the netting could catapult the puck back as fast as the original shot.

Game five was held on September 22. Luzhniki was filled to its 14,000 capacity, including Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin and Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny and a large contingent of military in dress uniform. The 3,000 Canadian fans were given seats, but a group of 150 Canadian sports figures were left unseated. The players marched out to the rink for the game to loud cheers, accompanied by the song "No Coward Plays Hockey". During the pregame introductions, Jean Ratelle, captain for the night, was given the traditional gift of bread and salt. The players were all given red and white carnations. Phil Esposito was given flowers, but he slipped and fell on a flower stem, landing on his back. Esposito recovered to laugh at his pratfall, and bowed to the delight of all of the spectators.

Parisé scored the only goal of the first period, and Clarke and Henderson scored in the second to give Canada a 3–0 lead. In the third, Yury Blinov scored for the Soviets at 3:34 and Henderson scored at 4:56 to make it a 4-1 Canada lead. At 9:05, Anisin scored on a deflection to start a run of four straight Soviet goals. Vladimir Vikulov's goal at 14:46 was the game-winner for the USSR, whose 5–4 victory gave them a 3–1–1 series lead. According to Bobby Clarke, "we're not a defensive club, yet we tried to play defensively."

Despite the loss, all the Canadian fans in the arena sang "O Canada" as Team Canada left the ice. The cheering of the Canadian fans was unknown at Soviet hockey games. The Soviet newspaper Pravda noted wryly that the roof of the arena had withstood the loudness of the cheering and had remained in place.

Team Canada was now faced with the daunting task of having to win all three remaining games to win the series. To add to the Canadian struggles, Gilbert Perreault left Team Canada for home to focus on getting into shape for the upcoming NHL season. Perreault had played in game five, practiced with the team the day after, and then asked to return home.

Alexander Yakushev recalled: "After this difficult victory, we decided that everything was done, it was enough to win one match out of three. No one doubted that we would succeed."