"Our coaches didn't allow us to shoot the puck into their zone. We were instructed to cross the blue line only by passing. The Canadians would dump the puck into our zone and chase after it. I don't know why our coaches thought this was a bad play. They scored a lot of goals this way."

Gennady Tsygankov



Team Rosters: U.S.S.R.
     


Position: D
Shoots: Left
Height: 5-11
Weight: 187
Born:
8/16/1947
Vanino, USSR

Club 1972:
CSKA Moscow

Gennady Tsygankov
Team USSR # 7

Gennady Tsygankov belongs to group of the top ranking Soviet defense players of the 1970's. He was an extremely fast and fearless blueliner who never hesitated to block shots or to fight for a puck in the corners. As a team player, he always put team interests above his personal accomplishments. Tsygankov was a key penalty killer on the Team USSR roster. In the late 1960's, he was a part of the so-called "systema" (or "system", also known as “torpedo”) experiments by legendary coach Anatoly Tarasov. Needless to say, Gennady Tsygankov was the first defense partner of Slava Fetisov. Overall, Tsygankov was arguably one of the best team players in the Soviet hockey.

Career Statistics
Competitions Years GP G
USSR League 1966-1980 362 52
Team USSR 1971-1979 198 8

CAREER HIGHLIGTS:

  • Played in the following clubs of the USSR Elite League: CSKA, SKA Khabarovsk, SKA Leningrad
  • USSR Gold (9): 1970-1973, 1975, 1977-1980
  • WC Gold: 1971, 1973-1975, 1978-1979
  • Olympics Gold: 1972, 1976
  • National Awards:
    Merited Sports Master (USSR ZMS) 1972

PERFORMANCE IN THE 1972 SUMMIT

"What can we say about the performance of Tsygankov, one of our best scoring defensemen? He didn't score because he was too busy checking the Canadian forwards. "

Igor Kuperman, Soviet Sports Writer

1972 Summit Overall Statistics
GP G A P PIM SOG SAG +/-
8 0 2 2 6 8 25 -5
 
 


Game-by-Game Performance: Scoring

Summit 1972: Scoring
Game   Period Time Scoring Notes
Game 3212:56Assist 
Game 7116:27AssistPPG
- Game Summaries -
 
 


Game-by-Game Performance: Penalty History

Summit 1972: Penalty
Game   Period Time Description
Game 2219:54slashing
Game 5310:25highsticking
Game 8106:28interference
- Game Summaries -