Canada vs. Soviets, 1969

Here's another cool program in The Den's collection, from an exhibition game between the national teams of Russia and Canada at the brand new Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Canadians proved no match for the Soviets getting pounded by a score of 9-3. Canada's coach Jackie McLeod insisted that his team "can skate with the Russians, do everything they do just as well, and when they do it can beat the Russians".

This was the third of an eight game tour by the Soviets across Canada having beaten the Canadian National squad in Winnipeg 5-3 in the first game. Petrov and Maltsev each potted a pair before 8,500 at Winnipeg Arena. Chuck Lefley also had a pair with Billy MacMillan adding the third for Canada. This game was the debut in Canada of Russia's young goaltender Vladislav Tretjyak.

In game two at Winnipeg the Canadians got revenge with a 4-3 win ending a winless drought against the Russians of almost three years. Bob Murdoch scored the winner at 3:09 of the third on Russia's other rookie goalie Vladimir Shapovalov.

In this, the third game in Vancouver, Russian coach Anatoly Tarasov didn't even dress two of his better players Vitaly Davidov and Vyacheslav Starshinov and Evgenie Zimin and Alexsander Maltsev saw no action until early in the third period. 22 year-old Ken Dryden was bombarded with 45 shots by the Soviets in front of a full-house of 13,157 spectators.


Dec 20, 1969 at Vancouver
Russia 9, Canada 3
First Period - 1. Russia Petrov (Kharlamov, Kuzkin) 6:37, 2.Russia Kharlamov (Mikhailov, Petrov) 9:25, 3. Canada Huck (King, Murdoch) 12:33, 4. Russia Solodukhin (Grigorjev, Andreyev) 17:27 Penalties - Mikhailov 13:33, Firsov 14:55, Andreyev 18:31, Huck 19:29.
Second Period - 6. Russia Andreyev (Grigorjev, Solodukhin) 6:18, 7. Canada Bayes (Mott, Poirer) 7:12, 8. Canada Murdoch (Heindl) 10:31,  9. Russia Polupanov (Firsov) 13:05, 10. Russia Petrov (Kharlamov, Mikhailov) 19:08 Penalties - King 4:59, Mikhailov double-minor, Kharlamov, Huck, Heindl 8:09, Petrov 11:10.
Third Period - 11. Russia Grigorjev (Petrov, Andreyev) 3:33, 12. Russia Shadrin (Malysev, Gusev) 16:37 Penalty - Carlyle 4:26
Shots On Goal
Russia    18 14 12 - 44
Canada    7  10  6  - 23
Attendance - 13,157
Below is the itinerary for the Soviets as listed in the program.

Upon travelling to Victoria for the fourth game on Sunday afternoon, coach McLeod declared, "It's hard to talk about a game like Saturday. It is easier to say, for instance, that it might give us enough pride to beat these guys in Victoria." McLeod apparently knew his team quite well as Canada won by a score of 5-1 before a packed house in Victoria. 

The re-instated pros for team Canada, Brian Conacher and Billy Harris actually played like pros with Harris counting points on the first four goals. Wayne Stephenson's shutout was broken by Starshinov with just over seven minutes remaining.

Dec 21, 1969 at Victoria
Canada 5, Russia 1
First Period - 1. Canada Adams (Conacher, Harris) 2:36, 2. Canada Harris (Adams) 6:53 Penalties - Gusev 3:27, Starshikov 8:48, Stephanson 10:18, Carlyle 14:33, Kharlamov 14:56
Second Period - 3. Canada Conacher (Mackenzie, Harris) 9:20 Penalties - Paladjev 0:45, Kharlamov 6:50, Murdoch 10:58, Starshikov 12:23, Paladjev 15:51
Third Period - 4. Canada Poirer (Mackenzie, Harris) 3:15, 5. Canada Lefley (Mott, O'Malley) 4:38, 6. Russia Starshikov (Paladjev, Ragulin) 12:47 Penalties - Solodukhin 5:14, Harris 13:31
Shots On Goal
Tretjyak Russia 11 12 14 - 37
Stephenson Canada 10 10 10 - 30
Attendance - 5,388

 Game five of the tour in Ottawa pitted the Russian Nationals against the Junior A Ottawa 67's reinforced by All-Stars. The juniors proved no match, losing 8-3. The following night, game six of the series,  the Russians trounced the London junior team by a score of 14-2.

McLeod's National team put Canada back in the winner's circle in the seventh game of the tour at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens with a 3-2 victory. Fran Huck, Barry MacKenzie and Bill Heindl marked the tallies for Canada while Vladimir Petrov and Valery Kharlamov scored for Russia. The Soviets outshot Canada 38-28 but 20 of them were in the first period before Canada got their game in gear. They were limited to six in the third period on goaltender Wayne Stephenson. Heindl's winner was scored at 15:01 of the second period, beating Tretjyak with a 15-foot shot that bounced off the goalie's pads. "It was a screaming shot," a jubilant Heindl said afterwards. From across the dressing room someone yelled, "Yeah, it must have been going about three miles an hour."

In the eighth and final match at Montreal's Forum, the previous year's Memorial Cup champions beat the Russians 9-3 before 18,507 spectators. Bolstered by eight minor-pros for the game the winners were led by their own Gilbert Perreault with two goals and three assists. Rejean Houle of the AHL's Montreal Voyageurs added two goals and two assists. The strengthened Juniors outshot the Russians 36-30.

After the final game, Soviet coach Tarasov he would back in March for the World Championships to be hosted in Montreal and Winnipeg "with a surprise for you." The surprise would end up being on the entire hockey world, as Canada would withdraw from hosting and participating in those championships. The dispute arose over the allowing of professional players to compete at the Worlds, and would keep Canada out of the tournament until 1977 when pros were finally permitted to play.

Game action in the program of a previous season's tour



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,
Read more