Канада - СССР 3:7 Суперсерия 1972 года 1 матч | Обзор игры | Canada - USSR 3:7 Summit 1972

The material for this review was borrowed from the "Lara A" channel:    / %d0%9b%d0%b0%d1%80%d0%b0%d0%90-511   Game One Several million people in Europe watched the first game of the series, while more than twenty-five million Canadians and Americans, and approximately twenty million television viewers in the Soviet Union, watched the game at home. However, due to the time difference in the USSR (it was 4:00 AM in Moscow when the game started), the game was only shown at 12:00 PM on September 3, and was rebroadcast again that evening. The game began at 8:00 PM local time. The Montreal Forum was packed. The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Paul Trudeau, was present. The spectators warmly welcomed the USSR players and gave a standing ovation when the names of the Canadian team were announced. This was unusual for the Soviet players and had a somewhat overwhelming psychological impact. The ceremony lasted almost 30 minutes and concluded with a symbolic puck drop by P. Trudeau. Thirty seconds into the game, Phil Esposito volleyed a puck deflected by Tretiak into the net. At the start of the seventh minute, Bobby Clarke won the faceoff. The puck went to Ron Ellis, who passed it to Paul Henderson. A shot followed, and the puck found the net. The Soviet players, continuing to pass and execute plays, began to correct the situation. First, Zimin scored in a positional attack after a well-placed pass by Yakushev, and then, shorthanded, Mikhailov and Petrov broke away on a counterattack, the latter finishing off a puck deflected by Dryden. During the break, head coach Bobrov encouraged the players: "Guys, you can see you can play them on equal terms." According to Boris Kulagin, the USSR team's defensemen were instructed to handle the puck as little as possible in their own zone, immediately passing it to the forwards, who had already picked up speed. A tense silence hung in the Canadian locker room, as the players began to realize they were facing an opponent of equal strength and skill. The USSR team took the lead in the second period thanks to two goals by Valeri Kharlamov. Both goals were so memorable to Canadian goaltender Dryden that he described them in detail in his book, highlighting the Soviet player's skill. At the end of the period, the Canadians headed to the locker room with their heads down. At the start of the third period, Canada launched an assault on Tretiak's goal, and Clarke managed to score a goal in one of the episodes. However, the Canadians, as they later admitted, no longer had the strength for more. The Soviet hockey players, for their part, continued to increase the tempo, which ultimately resulted in a 7-3 final score. A sour note from the game was the Canadians' deliberate rudeness in the final minutes and their reluctance to shake hands afterward. Dick Beddoes, a journalist for the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail, declared before the series that he would eat his article if the Russians won even one game. After the Canadians' defeat in the first game, he went to the Toronto hotel where the Soviet hockey players were staying and fulfilled his promise—he ate the newspaper containing the article, dunking it in a bowl of broth. Another Canadian journalist noted after the first game that the professionals played just one goal better than the amateurs from the Lindshurst Motors club, which represented Canada at the 1954 World Championship and lost to the USSR in the deciding game 7-2. Legend has it that the very morning after the game, Valeri Kharlamov was offered a million dollars to join the NHL. "I can't agree to the transfer without Petrov and Mikhailov," Kharlamov jokingly replied. The Canadians took his words at face value: "Oh, we'll work it out. They'll get the same." Information about the fee first surfaced on September 4 in the Globe & Mail, which quoted Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as saying he would pay a million for this "best young forward in the world." The captain of the Soviet national team thanked Ballard for the invitation and, "naturally, declined." Match highlights: Canada vs. Clarke; USSR vs. Kharlamov