GAME FIVE
Angry Canadians blame selves for 5-4 Moscow loss
By DAN PROUDFOOT
Globe and Mail reporter
Saturday, September 23, 1972
MOSCOW - The players were astonished, they were angry, they were everything but confused. Everyone on Team Canada believed they knew exactly what happened in yesterday's 5-4 loss to the Soviet Union Nationals.
Team Canada led 3-0 with only one period to play, but the Russians took 11 of the remaining 20 minutes to score five goals. The Russians didn't stop. The Canadians tried unsuccessfully to play it safe.
"The bastards should have been in Siberia instead of on the ice after the second period," said Paul Henderson, who scored two goals and assisted on another by his centre, Bobby Clarke.
"Hell, you have to give them credit. It's unbelievable how they came back."
Henderson, Clarke, and Phil Esposito agreed that the game was lost because Team Canada tried to become defensive in the final period, and the Russians took control.
"If you look at our players," said Clarke, "not many of them are they type to become defensive. We're just not that kind of team. And yet we tried to be defensive."
Esposito: "It reminds me of the game we [Boston Bruins] lost two years ago to Montreal in the playoffs. We're ahead 5-2 going into the third period and Tom Johnson [coach of the Bruins] tells us to take it cool, don't give anything away. We try going into a shell and it's not our style. We lose 7-5."
"The same thing happened tonight. It wasn't Harry's doing [manager-coach Sinden]. Nobody said anything, we just automatically tried to go into a shell and it was wrong."
"Kitty-bar-the-door hockey," said Henderson, "is not for us. Our line is probably the one defensive line, but the others are offence. Not that I'm faulting anyone. It's just that we made a mistake."
None of the players thought the loss will hurt the team psychologically with games remaining tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday. "We know now which is the better team," said Esposito, "we played two period. We're getting closer."
The Russian Nationals earlier won two of the four games in Canada, losing on and trying one.
The sellout crowd of 14,000 included Leonid Brezhnev, the Communist Party general secretary, Premier Alexei Kosygin, and President Nikolai Podgorny.
Mr. Brezhnev, Mr. Kosygin, and Mr. Podgorny were out of their seats and cheering during their team's winning rally.
Team Canada players competed to take the blame. Goaltender Tony Esposito blamed himself, even though he was selected by Russian experts with Henderson as the outstanding Canadians.
"They didn't have that many chances," said the goaltender, "but when they did have the chances, I didn't come up with the big save. I don't know who judges for the best players, but I have to fault myself when they score five on me in one period. I'm not used to that. I'm not used to losing. But we'll be working just as hard in the next game and over the long haul we'll show which is the better team."
Esposito, the goaltender, wouldn't predict whether Team Canada can win all remaining games, however, The Russian team now has seven of a possible 16 points.
Vladimir Vikulov scored the winner with about five minutes remaining. Defenceman Rod Seiling seemed to be at fault on the play. Clarke corrected that impression, insisting that he be blamed.
"I went to pass it back to Rod, a bad play. I should never have tried at that time of the game, passing back into our zone. It was a bouncing pass and I don't think it ever really got to him."
Vikulov took over and approaching Esposito's goal from a sharp angle, showed the characteristic of the Russians to beat the goaltender with a twisting move at the crease.
Yuri Blinov scored in the fourth minute of the third to ruin Esposito's shutout, and then the Russians took over. Henderson shot his second goal to give Team Canada a 4-1 lead but little more than four minutes later the home team score twice in eight seconds with Vyacheslva Anisin deflecting the first past Esposito and passing to Vladimir Shadrin for the second.
Defenceman Alexander Gusev scored the tying goal in the 12th minute and Vikulov the winner three minutes later.
The crowd had been dominated by its Canadian content for most of the game with at least two dozen flags and banners and Go-Canada-Go chants resounding. But the red-and-white flags gave way to the red as the Russian passes began to snap.
The impact of the Russian comeback was made all the stronger by the dismal period the home players had against the hard-skating visitors in the second. The Canadians appeared to be easy winners. Between the second and third periods, a Canadian fan started a fight between two Russian spectators by offering to trade some bubblegum bonus cards for Russian pins. The demand for picture cards of National Hockey League players was so strong that police broke up the scuffle among the competing traders.
The Nationals were established local favourites again by the end, however, and the Canadian coaches Harry Sinden and John Ferguson were so piqued that they ignored the official post-game press conference, although both later talked to Canadian newsmen.
Local reporters listened to head coach Vsevolod Bobrov's explanation of what happened. "After the first two Canadian goals, our team sort of fell apart. But after the second period, our team returned to form."
What changed in the third period? Did the Canadians slow down, or did the Russians take over?
"We played a better game. The Canadians spent a lot of energy in the first two periods. We changed our tactics in the third period. How we changed our tactics, I will say after the fourth game of this series in Moscow."
Bobrov thought his team played well in the first period, when both teams had several good chances. Tony Esposito made a glove save on Valery Kharlamov. Tretiak stopped Guy Lapointe on a Canadian power play.
Parise got the only goal after Gilbert Perreault left defenceman Vikto Kuzkin bewildered and passed in front.
Clarke's 2-0 goal, early in the second, came when he won a faceoff, got the puck to Henderson and took a return pass. Henderson converted Guy Lapointe's rebound to make it 3-0.
But in the third, when the Canadians held back slightly and hesitated before skating on the offensive, the game changed. The players insisted they weren't tired, they merely made a mistake by trying to protect the lead.
"What NHL team ever thinks they have a chance when they're down 4-1 in the third period?" asked manager-coach Sinden. "But these Russians whether they're up three or down three, they skate the same."
The Canadians sagged particularly noticeably after Anisin's 4-2 score. He deflected Liapkin's shot from the blueline. The play appeared to be extremely lucky, but it is practiced by the Russians.
"He had his back to me," said Esposito, "and deflected with his stick through his legs."
Esposito thought the next Russian goal gave the game to the Russians. Shadrin made it 4-3. "When our defenceman was carrying the puck and this guy whacked his stick and it goes inside the post."
Gusev's tying goal, set up by three passes, came from the point and curved high in flight. "I think it deflected off one of their players," said Clarke.
Both teams showed improvement over their four games in Canada. Clarke, Team Canada's best man of faceoffs, noted improved Russian abilities on draws. And Robrov said he believed Team Canada profited by the training time and exhibition games with Sweden, which separated this portion of the series from the Canadian games.
Best news for Team Canada was the condition of Henderson, who slid into the boards in the second period, left the game, but returned in the third. "My neck feels a little stiff and they're making a collar for me to wear."
"Eddie Johnston said somebody got me from behind as I was going to shoot, but I don't know. I lost my balance and I knew I was sliding into the boards but I couldn't do anything."
"I was out cold, but I could see stars and that kind of nonsense. The helmet saved me, I guess."
The departure of left-wing Vic Hadfield and Richard Martin makes Henderson's condition more important. But Henderson believed he would be able to play tomorrow. Both coaches Sinden and Bobrov plan lineup changes, but neither would reveal details.
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