USSR Ice Hockey vs Canada Ice Hockey

Date
Sun 24th September 1972 (UTC)
Sun 24th September 1972 (Local)

Timestamp
1972-09-24T17:00:00

Time

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

Poster
no poster thumb

Your Rating (Click a star below)

Star off icon

Total Rating
(0 users)

Thumb
no fanart thumb

Square Poster
no thumb

League
Summit Series

Season
1972

Round
6

Status
Match Finished

Location
Moscow
Russia
Luzhniki Palace of Sports

		vs
	2 No timeline found..		3 No timeline found..

Video Highlights

Home Team Lineup
No lineup players found (Login to add)

Away Team Lineup
No lineup players found (Login to add)

Description

Game six produced a vital Canadian 3–2 victory. After a scoreless first period, Lyapkin scored the first goal at 1:12 of the second, but the Canadians' confidence did not waver. The Canadians caught the Soviets in a lapse and scored three goals in a one-and-a-half-minute span to take a 3–1 lead. Hull flipped a rebound over Tretiak to tie the score after Gilbert had capitalized on a Soviet giveaway. Cournoyer scored on a setup from behind the net by Berenson. Fifteen seconds later, Henderson scored what turned out to be the winning third goal on a 30-foot slap shot. Yakushev scored late in the second on a power play to finish the scoring. At the end of the second period, Kharlamov seemed to level the position, but the judges did not count the goal, declaring that the puck hit the post.

According to Dryden, after the second period the Canadians had a wild conversation in the locker room. They understood that they were losing control of themselves and that this threatened defeat. For psychological reasons, Sinden kept the players in the locker room for five minutes longer than expected before the start of the third period.

According to Montreal Gazette sports editor Ted Blackman, Canadian players Ken Dryden and Brad Park turned in their first big games of the series. Dryden ended a personal losing streak to Soviet teams dating back to his amateur career and two previous games in the series. In his opinion, the Canadian penalty-killing unit of Serge Savard, Peter Mahovlich, Bill White and Pat Stapleton was "brilliant" as it held the Soviets to one power play goal despite a wide disadvantage in penalty minutes. Savard himself was recovering from a fractured ankle during the series. According to commentator Brian Conacher, Team Canada had adjusted its game to not play "dump and chase" but instead retain possession in the offensive zone. The strategy led directly to Henderson's winning goal on an interception of an errant Soviet pass. According to Conacher, "for the first time, the Soviets had opened the door a crack and Team Canada had rushed through like a freight train."

Following the game, the Canadians complained that Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader, the German referees (the same who refereed a controversial Canada-Sweden game), were biased, since Canada was assessed 31 minutes in penalties while the Soviets received only four minutes. Phil Esposito complained that one goal by the Soviets was directly the result of the referee dropping the puck while he was talking to a teammate. The Canadians gave the pair the nickname of "Badder and Worse".

"The Slash"

During game six, Valeri Kharlamov was targeted by Team Canada for attention. According to Conacher, "every time they get a chance, they're taking him for a rough ride along the boards." Kharlamov was the target of numerous body checks by Brad Park. Things started to heat up in the second period. Kharlamov had knocked down Bobby Clarke, who in retaliation rubbed Kharlamov's face with his glove to raise Kharlamov's temper, and the two exchanged punches. Bergman then stepped in and bumped into Kharlamov and harassed him all the way back to the bench. Peter Mahovlich later elbowed Kharlamov, who retaliated by dumping Mahovlich to the ice. Later, Clarke raced down the ice to catch a streaking Kharlamov and deliberately slashed Kharlamov's already sore ankle, injuring it and according to reports, fracturing it. Kharlamov skated over to the Canadians' bench and yelled at them before limping off the ice to the dressing room. The referees handed Clarke a minor penalty for slashing and an additional 10-minute misconduct penalty. Later, with Clarke still serving the misconduct, the referees also gave Dennis Hull a slashing penalty, during which Yakushev scored. Despite his injured ankle, Kharlamov returned to play and very nearly scored on a power play later in the second period. The Soviets' Mikhailov exacted his own retribution, kicking Bergman hard enough to cut his leg through his shin pads.

The incident was widely reported and condemned by the Soviet press. Kharlamov himself believed that "Bobby Clarke was given the job of taking me out of the game." The slash was apparently done at the instigation of assistant coach John Ferguson. "I remember that Kharlamov's ankle was hurting pretty bad. I called Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.' I didn't think twice about it. It was Us versus Them. And Kharlamov was killing us. I mean, somebody had to do it." Dick Beddoes asked Clarke about it later at a team reunion, calling it a "wicked two-hander", to which Clarke replied "Dick, if I hadn't learned how to lay on a two-hander once in a while, I'd never have left Flin Flon."

In a 2006 interview with the Russian Sport Express magazine, Clarke stated that he was unaware of Kharlamov's sore ankle at the time and does not recall Ferguson telling him to target the ankle. Further, he recalled that Kharlamov had used stick work on him, and Clarke's slash was in retribution for Kharlamov's actions:

We were going for the puck together, he pushed me with the stick, then turned around and skated away. I caught up with him and hit him on the leg, not thinking at all where and how I hit. I could hit them on the leg, but don't forget that they did the same things to me. I am all for fairness, so the players who play tough hockey have to be prepared to get the same thing back. And I was ready for that. Soviet hockey had no fights so the players used other methods to get the point across. Like a little bit of 'stick work' here and there, you know. And I personally don't mind this. I am a tough player and I respect toughness in others. But if I am poked with a stick I will do the same. We just had to adapt to the new ways of doing things, that's all.

— Bobby Clarke, in a 2006 interview with Sport Express magazine

On the 30th anniversary of the series, Henderson called the incident "the low point of the series", but would later apologize to Clarke. In his 2007 book, Conacher wrote that "from the broadcast booth I was shocked and disgusted when I saw Clarke viciously chop at Kharlamov's left ankle." He noted "that emotionally these games had clearly gone beyond sport for Team Canada and had truly become unrestricted war on ice." Media opinion is divided on the effect it had on the outcome of the series. The controversy and admissions that have come forth throughout the years have led some to the belief that the incident could be considered a form of cheating. Kharlamov, who had been one of the Soviets' best forwards, missed game seven, when the Soviets could have clinched the series and while he did play in game eight, he was not at 100% and did not score. In Clarke's opinion, there were other factors for Team Canada's turnaround in Moscow: "In Moscow we played much better than in Canada. We were almost equal to the Soviet team physically by then, we passed much better, we shot the puck much better, we became faster and played better on defence. Besides, when you have nothing to lose, it is easier to play. And after the fifth game we had nothing to lose."