Ice War Diplomat by Gary J. Smith

Author:Gary J. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Diplomacy, Anecdotes, Canada, USSR, Russia, Canada-U.S.S.R. Hockey Series, History, Hockey
ISBN: 9781771623186
Publisher: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
Published: 2022-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

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The previous day I had been over to the Chateau Champlain, where Hockey Canada reps and Team Canada were lodged. An elevator door had opened, with Don Awrey inside carrying a case of twenty-four beers. The amber brew was a staple for most of the Canadian players, but I wondered how that would work out now that he was one of only five defencemen for Team Canada. Sinden had decided to load up on offense with four complete forward lines and to pare back on the defence. He was expecting a turkey shoot and wanted as many players to participate in the attack as possible.

Bobrov took a different, more cautious approach, dressing only ten forwards while utilizing seven defencemen. It was a significant difference in coaching.

Sinden wasn’t wrong, at least to start with. Esposito opened the scoring in Game One with only thirty seconds gone after the opening faceoff. Just over five minutes later, Paul Henderson made it two to nothing. The expected blowout was on, or so it seemed. The Forum organist played the funeral march. For some unexplained reason, I felt a touch of sorrow for the Soviet players. The match was going to be a humiliation for them.

Bobrov called his players over to the bench. They were shell-shocked by all the pomp and circumstance of the lengthy opening ceremonies. No Soviet leader had ever dropped a puck at centre ice. I could hear Bobrov, supported by Mikhailov, tell the players to settle down, to skate, to play their own game. Yakushev would later say that the long, tumultuous introductions, raucous crowd and presence of the prime minister had left them temporarily dazed and overwhelmed. It was hot in the packed Forum. The omnipresent lights required for enhanced television coverage seemed to raise the temperature even further. The ice was on the soft side and mist started to rise. Conditioning was going to play a big role in the outcome.

Then, at 11:40 of the first period, Evgeni Zimin, the Soviet player who so admired Bobby Hull, put the puck into the net to cut the lead in half. He became an instant hero in Moscow as the first Soviet player to score against the Canadian professionals. Petrov followed suit with a short-handed goal at 17:28, and all of a sudden, the game was tied. At first intermission the crowd was buzzing with wonderment. How could this be? Who were these guys with CCCP on their jerseys?

By the end of the second period, the Soviets had scored two more unanswered goals, both by the sudden sensation Valeri Kharlamov—assisted each time by another speedster and slick stick-handler, Alexander Maltsev. The USSR was now up 4–2. Ken Dryden, in net for Canada, was used to moving out of the crease to cut off the angle of shooters in NHL games, but the Soviet forwards weren’t shooting into his pads but holding onto the puck and then passing to line-mates who had an open net. The fans’ wonderment turned into disbelief, then deep concern.

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