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Game 1: Montreal
Sept. 2, 1972.
USSR 7 - Canada 3.

Game one was played at the Montreal Forum. One of the best arenas in the NHL at the time. It raised some of hockey's most talented players such as Ken Dryden, Joe Malone, and Maurice 'Rocket' Richard.

The place was buzzing with Canadian fans (obviously) and all the talk was about how easy the win would be for Team Canada, fourteen 25-goal scorers and the best goalie ever, Ken Dryden. But it did not turn out the way everyone had anticipated.

Canada jumped on the first opportunity they got, thirty seconds into the game. Frank Mahovlich took the shot, Vladislav Tretiak with the save, but Phil Esposito jumped on the rebound and scores. Six minutes and two seconds later, Paul Henderson scored. No problem. 2 - 0 Canada.

But after that goal, it looked like Team Canada was beginning to loose it. By the end of the first period, the score was tied. Valery Kharlamov scored twice for Team Soviet in the second, and Bobby Clarke followed with Canada's last goal of the night. The Soviets added three more goals.

Game 2: Toronto
Sept. 4, 1972.
Canada 4 - USSR 1.

Things began to get ugly. It was more than just a tournament now, it was a war.

The next game took place two nights later, and Canada had made some changes. Nine player changes were made to their line up -- Tony Esposito replacing Dryden, and the Ratille-Gilbert-Hadfield line was replaced by the Serge Savard line. But that was not the only thing being replaced, Canada's 'goals,goals,goals' strategy was replaced by 'defence,defence,defence.'

Serge Savard told the media, "All through training camp, I don't think we really put enough emphasis on defence. All the time, it was goals, goals, goals...how many goals are we going to beat them by!? But in this game, we brought some defence into the game."

The games first goal was scored by Phil Esposito after a quiet first period. Barely into the third period, Yvon Cournoyer scored a powerplay goal. About four minutes later the Russians pulled within one when Alexander Yakushev also scored a powerplay goal, but the Canadians would have none of that.

'Little M' closed it up for good when he scored one of the prettiest goals of the series. Shorthanded by two men, he passed the center line, faked a slapshot and manoeuvred past a Russian defender to get in the clear. He faked a forehand shot and went to his backhand. He then fell on top of Tretiak and with his stick, slipped the puck into the net. Canada gained their confidence back.

Game 3: Winnipeg
Sept. 6, 1972.
Canada 4 - USSR 4.

In the last two games, the world had seen two different versions of Team Canada. Everyone wondered which team would show up. Well, both of them did. The good version built up two 2 goal leads, but the bad version blew both of them. They tied the game despite outshooting the Russians.

After what looked like a tight first period, the game blew open and the Russians unleashed the deadly 'kid line.' Never been used before. Made up of -- Yuri Lebedev, Alex Bodunov and Viacheslav Anisin, the trio was a big reason why this game ended in a tie.

Paul Henderson scored two but his efforts were put to waste... with approximately five minutes to go in the second period, the kid line started the riot. They scored one goal at the 14:59 mark to pull within one, and with less than three minutes to go, Alexander Bodunov scored. Despite outshooting the Russians, 38 - 25, the game ended in a tie.

Team Canada coach Harry Sinden said, "They put out that young line we hadn't seen before and they dominated us."

Game 4: Vacouver
Sept. 8, 1972.
USSR 5 - Canada 3.

At this point, Canadian fans were extremely frustrated with Team Canada's unimpressive effort. That night would not be home sweet home for Team Canada...

Because of injuries, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard were out of the lineup. That did not help them one bit, and minutes into the game, Team Canada had already gotten themselves into penalty trouble. Scratching Lapointe and Savard from the linup was critical because the man to replace them was Bill Goldsworthy. He played with great energy that he could not contain so twice in the opening six minutes he was penalized. Two powerplay goals by Boris Mikhailov gave the Russians a commanding 2-0 lead.

Every now and then, a goalie has a great game and they are practically unbeatable. In this game, that goalie was Vladislav Tretiak. Tretiak was outstanding stopping 38 of 41 shots, including 21 shots from Canada in the final period.

On a positive note, Gilbert Perreault scored a beautiful goal to get Canada on the board but the Russians replied with 2 more in the second period. Team Canada's defenders were lost and hopelessly out of position. Canada's best period of the game came in the third, took 21 shots and scored two goals courtesy of Dennis Hull and Goldsworthy.

By the end of the game, the once enthusiastic fans that flooded the Vancouver arena were now frustrated and in disbelief. This was the last game Canada would play on home turf, and their Canadian 'fans' were booing them off the ice. Team Canada definetly did not appreciate that, something had to be done. So Phil Esposito made his famous speech to the people of Canada,

"To the people across Canada, we tried. We gave it our best. To the people who booed us, geez, all of us guys are really disheartened. We're disillusioned and dissappointed. We cannot believe the bad press we've got, the booing we've got in our own building.

Game 5: Moscow
Sept. 22, 1972.
USSR 5 - Canada 4.

After being booed off home turf, Team Canada renamed themselves 'Team 50' consisting of only the players, they felt like they had no support. They were about to take on the mighty Russians all alone. But that was not the case. it was only a matter of time before thousands of Canadian fans took the trip to Moscow to support their heroes. The fans did play a major role in Canada's successes in Russia.

Over 3000 noisy Canadian fans showed up at the arena and watched as their heroes played their best forty minutes of the tournament. Going into the second period, they led 2 - 0 and opened the second period with a 3 - 1 lead. Canada was clearly the better team. Jean Paul Parise scored first, making him the first Canadian professional to score a goal in Russia.

But the real fairytail story was Paul Henderson. With already one goal in the game, he crashed uncomfortably into the boards and lay motionless on the ice. They found out he had a concussion, but despite his injury, he refused to listen to doctor's and even his teammates who urged him to sit for the rest of the game. Henderson, being the courageous Canadian hero that he is, came back, and his next shift on the ice he scored! The goal gave Canada a brilliant 4-1 lead.

Everything was going their way, until the third period... When they entered onto the ice, they were not the same. They did not have that same hard pumping adrenaline running through their veins, and they made a number of errors. The errors proved to be costly, because the Russians capitalized on them. They scored five third period goals on a measly 11 shots. The Russians won.

Game 6: Moscow
Sept. 24, 1972.
Canada 3 - USSR 2.

After that heartbreaking loss for Canada, you would expect the Russians to be the ones playing with true emotions and the Canadians to just loose it. Well, that was not the case with our heroes. Russia's overconfidence and Canada's positive attitude would get them back in the series.

The first period was very quiet in terms of scoring, but the whistles did not cease especially against the Canadians. That's right, the referees, Kompalla and Bata from West Germany, were calling absurd penalties and questionable offsides. Not only that but the Russians didn't have any penalties called against them. At the end of the game, Canada had 31 penalty minutes, Russians had only 4.

This was when Canada's brilliant penalty killing abilities came into play... they had to because everyone knew how dangerous the Russians were on the powerplay. The second period was a wild one, and the game opened up. The Russians were first to get on the board courtesy of Yuri Liapkin.

But the Canucks refused to back down. Instead of dwelling on the bad calls being made, they responded three goals in just 1 minute and 23 seconds. The Canadians gained momentum once again.Their first goal came when Hull jumped on Gilbert's rebound and lifted it over Tretiak. Then Berenson centered the puck to a wide open Cournoyer who scored the second goal. 15 seconds later Paul Henderson scored the game winning goal by intercepting a pass and with his bullet shot, fired it past Tretiak. Canada was back in the series.

Game 7: Moscow
Sept. 24, 1972.
Canada 4 - USSR 3.

The win in game 6 excited Canadian fans everywhere and thousands more telegrams were sent to congratulate their heroes. This built up Team Canada's confidence and they knew they were ready for game 7.

The games were getting more and more intense, and the play much more physical. A centering pass from Ellis led to Esposito's goal and Canada's 1 - 0 lead. But moments later the Russians tied it up on a Park error. After one period the score was 2-2, and it remained that way until the third period.

In the third, Gilbert scored at 2:13 to give Canada the go-ahead-goal. But less than three minutes later, Alexander Yakushev tied it up at three a piece. That's when things got physical. Five minutes until the end of the game, a fight broke out. Boris Mikhailov, while pinned to the board when he took a couple of wild kicks at Garry Bergman. He nearly punched him between the two referees.

When the two players returned to their respective penalty boxes, the game continued. With less than three minutes to go, Henderson came racing across the blue line, passing the Russian defenders. Just as he was falling he flipped the puck over Tretiak's shoulder into the corner of the net. Canada forced an eighth game.

Game 8: Moscow
Sept. 28, 1972.
Canada 6 - USSR 5.

The Canucks had the advantage when it came to momentum. They knew they had to win this game, even if they tied it the Russians would win the series because they scored one more goal in the tournament. The Russians had a lot of pride and really could not afford to loose, they would do anything to win, even cheat, which is exactly what they did.

The night before game 8, the Russians put their plan to work. They switched the referees. The original referees were supposed to be Swedish referee Uve Dahlberg and Czechoslovakian referee Rudy Bata. The story was that they had fallen ill of food poisoning, whether it was true or not, no one knows.

The Russians said that the game had to be refereed by West German officials Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader, the same referees that did a horrendous job of refereeing game six. Canada wanted no part of that. The referees were clearly biased against the Canadians, and it showed on the scoresheet. They had been given much more penalties than the Russians.
Canada refused. Alan Eagleson had threatened to leave without playing game eight, and, on the night prior to game 8, he had his players support. By doing so the Soviets would lose out on thousands of dollars of television money.

Hours before the drop of the puck, they came to an agreement and each team chose one referee. Canada chose Bata, while they chose Kompalla. The Russians had obviously thought they got the better deal, but it actually just made Canada stronger. Canada was extremely angry and carried that momentum into the game as well as the intensity and confidence they had gained in the previous two victories.

But they did not get off to a good start. It was still very early in the game when Kompalla started calling penalties.. against Canada. The game was only three minutes old when Canada was already shorthanded by two men. 33 seconds later, Yakushev scored. Then, Kompalla started again. At 4:10. Parise wad given a very questionable minor penalty. He was extremely furious slamming his stick on the ice so it shattered while he argued with the ref. Kompalla added a 10 minute misconduct. Unable to contain his anger, Parise skated over to Kompalla, raised his stick over his head and was about to whack the referee. But he thankfully contained himself but that wasn't enough, Kompalla added a game misconduct.

From then on, the referees seemed to turn around. They were handing out penalties to both teams now and not quite as often, which meant they could get on with the game.

Esposito scored to tie the game at one a piece, but it didn't last long because Vladimir Lutchenko added a power play goal to give the Russians the lead. The period ended tied at two courtesy of great passing by Park. Canada was fired up.

All was well until a fluke goal was called fair. Vladimir Shadrin tapped in a wild rebound from behind Dryden. Yakushev fired the puck high over the net, hitting the mesh on the boards(instead of glass in NA rinks). The mesh caused the puck to bounce back into the slot where Shadrin was waiting.

Canada had their spirits deflated, the Russians knew it and took full advantage. It looked as if the Canucks had given up despite great saves posted by Ken Dryden. After two, the Russians took a commanding 5 - 3 lead.

To this day the players say that in the locker room, during that intermission, there was not one player that believed Canada wasn't going to make a dramatic comeback. They all knew it and they carried that positive energy into the final period of the series.

Esposito led the attack and had his most dominant period of the whole tournament, and maybe even his whole hockey career. Esposito scored the early goal at 2:27 in the third, building Canada's momentum and pulling the Canucks within one. But he would not stop there. At 12:56 he tied the score as he shook off two defenders and took the shot at Tretiak, he made the save, but he was unable to stop Cournoyer's tap in on the rebound.

Oh but no. Just when you thought the drama was over, it starts. The Russian goal judge did not turn on the red light to signal that the goal had been scored. Alan Eagleson was watching in the stands and became infuriated thinking the Russians would scream, 'no goal.' He made his way to the public announcer's booth to make sure it was a goal. He angrily pushed his way past many military men who were not exactly fond of Eagleson's actions. They began to take him away. But then Mahovlich jumped the boards, pushed his way through the crowds and poked the military men with his stick. His teammates followed him. They escorted Eagleson across the ice to the Canadian bench. Then, Eagleson shook his fist at the crowd, and the whole world saw trainer Joe Sgro stick up his middle finger.

Once the scrum was finished and the game started again, it looked like the Russians were just defending. They would be willing to accept the tie because that would give the the series win, and for awhile that's what everyone thought would happen until the single most amazing moment in Canadian hockey history took place...

Yvon Cournoyer intercepted a clearing attempt by the Russians and fired a cross ice pass to the speedy Paul Henderson, who called off the Cournoyer's left winger Peter Mahovlich in order to get on the ice.

But the pass was behind him and after he was tripped he took a wild spin into the boards.

But then came Phil Esposito, he followed up on the play. Henderson got up and headed for the net. With the little strength Esposito had left in him, he poked the puck towards Tretiak for an easy save, but Henderson jumped on the rebound and shovelled the puck towards the goal line, Tretiak made the save, But left a rebound. Henderson, wide open, flipped the rebound over a diving Tretiak! Henderson has scored for Canada!

Foster Hewitt made the call that forever touched a nation. Henderson jumped into Cournoyer's arms so Denis Brodeur could take the most famous photograph in hockey history. The bench cleared out as everyone mobbed the two. But the game wasn't over yet, Canada was fully aware that the Russians were completely capable of tying the game in a second. So they composed themselves for the last 34 seconds of the series.

Canada sent out Esposito with Mahovlich and Ellis and when the buzzer sounded to end the game, 3000 Canadian fans sang loud and proud our national anthem, as did Canadians all over the world. The team embraced each other, tears filled their eyes as they looked into the crowd. Canada had done the unthinkable, came from behind, and won the series. They beat the Russians.

30 years have passed, but no one has forgotten. This will be something that Canadians will remember forever and pass on from generation to generation. The story, the pride, the controversy, the memories, and the fact that our heroes were able to overcome all that was thrown at them. The years may pass but no one will forget how that game brought pride to a country, and united a nation. This will go down as one of the proudest moments in Canadian history.

- Laurie

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IMPORTANT:I am just a fan, I am in no way associated with Bryan McCabe, the NHL, the NHLPA, or any of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Please note my pictures were taken from various websites. If you have a problem with a picture I have please let me know! But PLEASE don't take my pictures without asking because I will find out. Please note that information has been used, but not directly copied from various websites.