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PRESS ROOM 1974: Game 8
MONTREAL GAZETTE
by BRODIE SNYDER
October 6, 1974
Moscow
"They just played too damn good."
That's Gordie Howe's feelings about the Soviet
Union's national
hockey team, which with five of it's super stars
resting, closed
off the series against Team Canada 74 with a 3-2
victory here
last night and probably justified the headlines
in the Moscow
newspapers: "Russia world hockey champions".
The Russians won four of the eight games played,
with three ties,
and last night they looked as good as ever, even
with goalie
Vladislav Tretiak, defenceman Valery Vasilyev -
the best in the
series - and Gennady Tsygankov, and forwards Boris
Mikhailov,
and Vladimir Petrov sitting it out.
Mikhailov's replacement at left wing, Victor Shalimov
- who had
played in only three of the previous seven games
- scored two
goals and assisted on the other by Aleksandr Yakushev.
Second-string goalie Aleksandr Sidelnikov was as
good as he had
to be in a game that wasn't as close as the score,
and young
defencemen Yuri Shatalov, and Yuri Tuirin were outstanding
as
they had been in all four games here - three wins
and a tie -
after not playing at all in Canada.
Bobby Hull with his seventh of the series, and
Ralph Backstrom
with his fourth scored for Canada.
That the game would be played was never in doubt,
although Team
Canada manager Bill Hunter went through the formality
of asking
a players meeting to vote on it after Saturday nights'
wild finish
when Hull's apparent winning goal was disallowed
on the grounds
that time had run out, despite the fact the red
light went on
before the game ending green light.
Hunter said the vote to play was unanimous based
on the millions
of Canadians at home interested in the series the
obligation
to the World Hockey Association, which provided
the players,
the obligation to 15,000 Soviet fans who had bought
tickets and
the obligation "to ourselves as professional
athletes."
However Hunter added. "Team Canada will record
this officially
as a 5-4 victory." He means presumably that
he figures the series
ended 3-2-3.
There was another crisis a building as the teams
took their warm-ups
before last nights game. Andrei Staravoitov the
chairman of the
Soviet Ice Hockey Federation had a statement read
over the public
address system twice, which declared that the Canadians
had broken
the agreement signed on adhering to international
rules with
their "dirty play" and that Game Eight
would be stopped "at the
first infringement of the above-mentioned agreement."
Hunter promptly said that if the Soviets proved
over-rough Team
Canada would leave the ice, but coach Billy Harris
denied that
was ever considered.
"I found it quite humorous", he said
at a post-game press conference.
I never thought of taking the team off the ice.
These decisions
are made above my head."
Whatever, the Canadian team did not play its' usual
robust brand
of hockey in the first period as the Russians forced
the play
most of the way. But Team Canada scored the only
goal, although
out-shot 9-7, on a power play with Yakushev off
for hauling down
Hull at the Canadian blue line.
J.C. Tremblay started the play by holding the puck
in the Soviet
end at the blue line and sent a low soft shot toward
the net
. Backstrom got his stick on it during a scramble
in front but
couldn't get it past Sidelnikov. Hull poke it in
for a 1-0 lead.
The Soviets came out flying in the second period
and were unlucky
to do no better than tie the score. Yakushev getting
the goal
in easy fashion after Vladimir Shadrin fed him a
pass through
the goalmouth. It came with Jim Harrison off on
one of his three
penalties of the night - two minors and a major.
Gerry Cheevers in goal for Canada, was sharp throughout
but the
Russians could also blame their poor shooting for
failing to
run up the score as at least half-a -dozen dangerous
shots missed
the net.
Harrison got his major for drawing blood on Vladimir
Lutchenko
with a slash at 18:11 and Mark Howe helping kill
the penalty,
was called for cross-checking at 19:02. Father Gordie,
Tremblay,
and Whitey Stapleton did a magnificent job of killing
off the
last 58 seconds of the second period two men short
- so good
in fact, that the Soviet fans were whistling in
derision at their
players.
But the pressure told, finally, and Shalimov scored
his first
goal at the 53 second mark of the third period,
with Team Canada
still playing two-men short. Cheevers made a spectacular
stop
on defenceman Victor Kuznetsov's shot from the blueline,
but
couldn't hold the puck in his glove. It popped loose
and Shalimov
shot it high over the goalie by not stretched out
on the ice
for a 2-1 lead.
Minutes later Shadrin cut Stapleton with a high
stick cutting
him above the eye. It didn't look like West German
referee Josef
Kompalla was going to call it until Whitey skated
over, yelled
"What the hell's this?" and rubbed his
hand into the blood on
his own face and then smeared it across Kompalla's
cheek.
For that Stapleton got a 10-minute misconduct,
Canada's fourth
of the series - the Soviets had none - and Shadrin
went off for
5 minutes.
Canada had the man advantage at 4:06 after Harrison
returned
but it proved to be no help. The Russians had the
best scoring
chance and only great stops by Cheevers thwarted
Alexandr Malstev
and Valery Kharlamov.
But the Soviets finally broke through to score
their first short
handed goal of the series, matching Canada's total
when Shalimov
and Yakushev broke way on a two-on-one and passed
the puck back
and forth as if it were on a string. Shalimov finally
scoring
into an open net on a perfect pass across the goalmouth.
That came at 6:59and Canada got back into the game
six minutes
later, Backstrom scoring a nifty goal to cap a nifty
play. Rick
Ley started it deep in his own end with a long outlet
pass to
Gordie Howe at center ice. Howe broke in, pulled
the lone defenceman
over and got the puck to Backstrom who went right
in, faked Sidelnikov
to the left then moved right and tucked it behind
him.
That made it 3-2 but the Canadians had nothing
left, two games
within 27 hours taking their toll. The death knell
sounded at
17:50 when Gordie Howe was caught hooking.
He sat in the penalty box, his gray hair wet with
perspiration
after doing everything in this series that a 46
year old man
- or one 20 years younger for that matter - could
do, and he
banged the end of his stick on the top of the sideboards
in a
terrible rhythm of anger and sorrow.
Harris pulled Gerry Cheevers with a minute to go,
looking for
the tie but the Russians held them off easily. Gordie
came out
of the penalty box with 10 seconds left and someone
jumped out
of the Canadian bench in confusion and Team Canada
was penalized
for having two many men on the ice.
With one second left in the game it was the final
frustration.
"I'm glad it's over", Gordie said later
in the dressing room.
" They just played too damn good. Control of
the puck is the
name of the game and they're great at it."
Hull too seemed happy it was finished. " There
was a lot of pressure
right from the beginning," he said, unwrapping
the elasticized
bandage he's been using on his left knee since he
damaged a ligament
in a training game a month ago. "But our guys
had something to
prove and I thought they played superbly all the
way."
"With the acquisitions we've made this year
- from the NHL and
junior ranks - we've made great steps toward equalization
with
the NHL and the Soviet Union."
Hull also explaining the seeming letdown in Moscow
where Team
Canada couldn't win a game as it got just one tie
after winning
one and tying two of four in Canada.
"I felt we had proven ourselves in Canada",
he said. "I sense
we showed those people who said we couldn't play
with the Russians
that we could. We outplayed them in three of the
four games in
Canada, but we were not all together here, for sure.
Maybe we
coasted a little, I don't know, maybe they got better.
Over here
we had to make a helluva play to get a scoring chance."
Other players spoke of the problems here with room
accommodations,
tickets, refereeing. "Next time," said
Andre Lacroix "play the
first four here and if they treat us the way they
did this time,
treat them the same way in Canada."
Said manager Hunter: "The Russians lack dignity,
and any sense
of fair play." Staravoiov's warning he added
"was shocking and
disappointing".
Backstrom, a great player in this series said:
"I don't want
to come back. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,
but once
is enough".
"The Russians? I respect the players, but
I don't respect the
management that much."
Soviet coach Boris Kulagin had high praise for
the WHA stars
and picked three of them - Stapleton, Gordie Howe,
and Hull
on the wings - to his all-star team for the series.
From his
own club he chose goalie Tretiak, defenceman Vasilyev,
and winger
Kharlamov.
Harris picked only stars of the series: goalies
Tretiak and Cheevers,
Malstev from the Soviets "because he hurt us"
and Backstrom from
Team Canada "because he was so consistent."
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