by Marilyn Anderson, Duet-Media
Here I sit, on the verge of Canadian hockey hysteria, thinking back to the ONE other Russia/Canada game etched into my memory.
I was in a popular Robson Street watering hole, surrounded by a mess of friends who “just happened” to be having a brew while the game was shown on a big screen at the end of the pub. This was way before the whole “sports bar” phenomenon….we’d have been there with our friends anyway, though the guys were certainly more into the hockey than the girls were. Let me set up the game for you.
Wikipedia describes it this way: The Summit Series was the first competition between the full-strength Soviet and Canadian national ice hockey teams, an eight-game series held in September 1972. There was history involved here.
At the time, the National Hockey League, and also its best players, consisted largely of Canadians and was considered to be where the best hockey players played. The public consensus of hockey pundits and fans in North America was that other countries, the Soviets in this case, were simply no match for Canada’s best. The Soviets were not expected to even give the Canadians a challenge, and Canada was going into this series expected to win eight games to zero. Said Harry Sinden, “Canada is first in the world in two things: hockey and wheat.”
The first four games were played in Canada, and then they moved to Moscow.
Heading into Game Eight, each team had three wins and three losses, with one tie. Because the Soviets led in goal differential, only a win in Game Eight would deliver victory in the series. In Canada, the entire country just about shut down for the game, with many watching it at work or school.
Now, up to this point, my friends and I had been paying attention but that night the energy around us was electric. (Sound familiar?). As the game progressed, the tension mounted with the score, the penalties, the coaches ire….all wound up as the score went from 2-2 after the First Period to 5-3 for Russia after Period Two.
Canada pulled even, with the score tied 5-5, and the series 3-3-1, as the Third Period unwound.
In the very last minute of play, an unexpected line change came as Paul Henderson called Peter Mahovlich off the ice as he was skating by. With just 34 seconds left to play, Henderson scored “the goal heard around the world”!!!! giving Canada the series.
It was an amazing moment, forever etched in my mind. I grew up watching my Dad watch these players on the NHL rinks, but this is one of the few games I will always remember.
Like many people in Vancouver, I have had a ‘hockey-moment’ or two this past week. I have watched games on the sofa, called Ernie “Punch’ McLean for his view from the crowd, I have watched games in a club, I have sung and waved and cheered myself hoarse in the street………all for a good cause.
So here we go again! Today, in Vancouver, Canada faces Russia again. Will this be another memory? You can count on it! Mark it down, take a moment; you will talk about this again….one day.
Best of luck, Guys! Go, Canada, Go!
Marilyn Anderson, Communications Strategist and Co-Founder of Duet Media
