PRESS ROOM 1974: Game 4
MONTREAL GAZETTE
by BRODIE SNYDER September 23, 1974
Vancouver
The Russians got away with the worst period of
hockey they've
ever played against Canadian professionals, coming
from 3 goals
down to tie Team Canada 74 5-5 at the Pacific Coliseum
in Game
4 of the eight game series.
The scene now shifts to Moscow for the final four
games, starting
October 1, with the team tied after the Canadian
leg of the series,
each with one win and two ties.
The WHA all-stars, after a shaky start, took it
to the Russians
in the final 10 minutes of the first period and
held a 5-2 lead
at that point as Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak
could find no
miracles to top the three greatest scorers still
playing the
game - Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, and Frank Mahovlich.
Howe scored his first goal of the series - he missed
most of
Game 2 with bruised ribs, and sat out the third
game in Winnipeg
Saturday after defenceman Valery Vasilyev had given
the Russians
a 1-0 lead at 3:34 from the point. Paul Shmyr would
was in trouble
on defense most of the night, couldn't handle Valery
Kharlamov
in the corner. He got it back to Vasilyev, who hit
a low slap
shot past Gerry Cheevers.
Gordie got that back within a minute, capping off
a pretty passing
play with Pat Stapleton and Ralph Backstrom. He
waited until
Tretiak started to go down, then coolly fired it
high into the
net just under the crossbar.
"Any higher," he said later, " and
it would have hit the lights.
No I came in, took a look, and I had quite a bit
of room."
The Russians got the lead back at 5:49 on a power
play with Shmyr
in the penalty box for roughing. Cheevers made a
great stop on
Alexandr Gusev from the point, but couldn't control
the rebound.
Vladimir Petrov scooped it out to team captain Boris
Mikhailov
and put it in the net on a bang-bang-play.
The Russians leading 2-1 and controlling the play,
suddenly seemed
to sag just past the midway mark of the period and
Hull took
command. He had three goals before it was over -the
first a
power play job at 12:45 when he hammered a slap
shot from the
point past Tretiak, the second at 15:51 when he
burst down the
middle on a perfect pass from Stapleton and scored
on a medium
wrist shot, and the third at 17:49 when Andre Lacroix
dipsy-doodling
inside the Russian blue line sent him down the middle
for another
wrist shot.
That one capped a four-goal burst with 5 minutes
and 4 seconds.
Frank Mahovlich having tucked a backhander high
into the net
at 17:10 after cutting in front on a perfect pass
from Rejean
Houle.
"It just went in", said Frank later.
"Perfect pass."
Hull who now has 6 of Team Canada's 17 goals in
this series,
after being kept out of the 1972 edition because
he jumped from
the National Hockey League to the WHA said,"
I just shot them
as they came. I just blasted away. Nothing was really
planned."
The Russians seemed dazed as they skated to the
dressing room
after the first period down 5-2 and with Tretiak
looking a lot
less than superhuman.
But Kulagin said he never thought of pulling him
in favor of
backup man Aleksandr Sidelnikov.
‘That would have been unfair", the Soviet
coach said. "Tretiak
could not be blamed for the goals scored. Rather
it was the team's
fault."
Tretiak came back to play solidly in the nets,
holding the Canadians
off as his team-mates chipped away at the lead.
In a second period
in which the Canadians still had the edge, they
narrowed the
gap by one with Yakushev just overpowering Cheevers
with a slap
shot from about 50 feet out after he picked up a
loose puck.
It was the big Soviet left wings fifth goal of the
series, although
he's hurting with a groin pull suffered in the first
game a week
ago. He didn't play in the third period last night
and coach
Boris Kulagin said, "It flared up again. We
had no choice but
to keep him off the ice."
Yakushev who had a hat trick in Winnipeg in Saturdays'
8-5 Soviet
win will be back in the lineup in Moscow although
Kulagin said
it will be up to the team doctors to decide for
which game.
That goal narrowing the lead to 5-3, seemed to
give the Soviets
life and they gradually began to take the initiative
in the third
period, particularly when Johnny McKenzie went off
for consecutive
penalties when he was caught with the elbows up
as he ran at
Soviet players.
But Team Canada with Paul Henderson, Bruce MacGregor,
Ralph Backstrom
and Mark Howe doing a superb job of penalty killing,
held them
off and with four minutes to go the big crowd of
15,772 began
to roar in expectation of a Canadian win.
But Alexandr Malstev scored a quick goal off a
face-off in the
Canadian end and it was 5-4, and then Gusev drilled
one from
the point just 51 seconds later at 16:59 and it
was a 5-5 game.
"We just weren't alert on their fourth goal",
said Canadian coach
Billy Harris, indicating that was the one that hurt
the most.
"We were in control for 56 minutes, but we
got tired. And when
you are tired you are not alert."
McKenzie had another version. "The referee
dropped the puck before
we were ready," he said. "Andre (center
Lacroix) is pretty good
on face-offs and he just wasn't ready. J.C. (Tremblay)
was back
talking to Cheevers I think. We just weren't ready.
But they're
always ready when they drop the puck."
Harris was as usual, unperturbed after the heartbreaker.
‘The players were quite disappointed', he
said in a masterpiece
of understatement, "after having a three goal
lead in the second
period. But" he added reasonably, "we're
in better shape than
Team Canada 72 was when they were going to Moscow."
McKenzie, again felt differently. "Hell"
he said, ‘we should
be ahead 3-1 in this series now. We should have
won the first
one (a 3-3 tie in Quebec in which Tretiak was spectacular
in
the dying minutes) and we should have won tonight."
Gordie Howe, outstanding after a standing ovation
- his fourth
in four cities - agreed. "Bobby (Hull) winged
one off the post
when it was 5-3", he said. "If that one
goes in, we're three
up and I think they fold."
Gordie in addition to his goal, skated miles, played
good defense,
and administered perhaps the games best body-check
to Mikhailov
in the second minute of the game.
"He tried to come between the net and myself,"
Gordie said, ‘and
that's a no-no. But my aim was bad. He ended up
on the net instead
of into the post."
Marty Howe, Gordie's elder son who played with
Stapleton and
had a solid game as Harris juggled his defense pairs,
was the
unfortunate victim on the key fourth goal by the
Soviets.
"Yeah, it went in off my stick," he said.
"Not much I could do
about it. Everything happened so fast."
Kulagin on the Russian side, said he wasn't really
worried at
any time.
"No" he said, "I'm not surprised
because these players have been
many times before in fat worse situations than this
game and
always pulled themselves together and found the
strength to comeback."
After they did come back to 5-5, however there were
still some
uncomfortable moments for Kulagin.
They came after Gennady Tsygankov went off for
pulling down Mark
Howe as he burst across the blue line at 17:51.
Harris sent out
his old guys - Gordie and Hull at the points, and
Lacroix: the
Big M, and McKenzie up front - but they couldn't
score.
Howe drifted one in from the point on which Tretiak
had to be
alert and then Gordie just missed with a minute
left on a set
up by Hull.
But that was the last gasp and the Russians skated
out the final
seconds to be sure of going home with a tie - assuredly
not as
much as they expected from an underrated and underdog
Canadian
team, but probably more than they deserved.
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