GAME SIX
Team Canada is confident it can win series
By DAN PROUDFOOT
Globe and Mail reporter
Monday, September 25, 1972
MOSCOW - Winning the eight-game series with the Soviet Union Nationals may just be possible after all, Team Canada proved last night.
The players believe their 3-2 win came under such trying circumstances that the remaining games can't be more difficult. After all, they suggested they beat not only 19 Russians but two West Germans, referees Franz Baader and Josef Kompalla.
"They'll never beat us again," said standby goaltender Ed Johnston, who had a perfect view of two Team Canada plays that were called offside but weren't.
"They had every break in the world tonight and we still won. The officiating was unbelievable."
Team Canada won even thought it played the equivalent of almost a period 17 minutes and nine seconds short one man and two minutes of that time short two men.
Dennis Hull, Yvan Cournoyer and Paul Henderson score in a gap of one minute and 23 seconds during which Team Canada was at full strength.
Yuri Liapkin gave the Russians a 1-0 lead early in the second period and Alexander Yakushev got the only power-play goal late in the same period to make it 3-2.
The Canadians realized now that of they hadn't sagged for one period Friday they could have a series lead. The Russians now need only one point to earn at least a tie in the series. They've won three, the Canadians two, with one game tied.
The referees and Team Canada met in Sweden and took only one game to develop a violent dislike for each other. After a second game, their feelings were even more intense. And last night they met again.
Fortunately, Rudolf Batja and Ule Daljberg, the referees who handled the first game here, will return for the third tomorrow. The Russians have the right to choose the officials for the final game.
By Thursday, when that potentially deciding contest is held, Team Canada may have disciplined itself sufficiently to hold back the outbursts at officials which only make things worse.
"We agitated them," said Gordon Berenson. "Next time if we don't bother them maybe they'll referee better.
"There's no use making a big deal of the officiating. Forget it and play hockey. We won the game under trying conditions."
It would be incorrect for anyone to suggest Baader and Kompalla started last night's game with the idea of favoring the Russians. But their incompetence is unquestionable, and the Canadians made the mistake of angrily pointing each error out. Soon the officials were ready to make any debatable call against their rude critics.
Between the second and third period, Team Canada manager-coach Harry Sinden pointed out to his players that they should tolerate, silently anything. They listened, and the third period went by with only one penalty, a legitimate high-sticking call that the officials named holding.
"That tall guy, that Baader, is so incompetent. I can't believe they'll ask him back," said Henderson.
"He was blowing his whistle for offsides before our guys touched the puck. He just doesn't know what he's doing.
"When Bobby Clarke got the minor penalty for slashing, a guy gave me a two-hander right on the leg. The guy axed me and I swore at him.
"And what does that tall so-and-so do, he gives Clarke a misconduct.
"If anyone should have got the misconduct, it was me. But I get axed and we get the penalty.
"He's so incompetent he doesn't even look like a referee. Ragulin gets a penalty and he goes to our bench [near the Canadian goal]. We tell Baader and he goes and tells Ragulin, but then he doesn't even wait to see if he moved. Ragulin didn't move, of course, and we had to tell Baader again before he moved him."
Johnston noted two three-on-one Canadian breaks that were incorrectly called off-side by the officials. "Plus on their second goal, [Phil Esposito, taking a faceoff] was talking to Bergy [Gary Bergenson] and he drops the puck and it goes back to the point and into the net."
The other major grievance was with the penalty to Hull that led up to that second goal. Hull was slashing for the puck when he was called for slashing a Russian.
Joe Krycza, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, was infuriated. Between periods he went to the officials' room and complained mightily. Baader and Kompalla informed him they were in charge.
Major factors in the Canadian win once the emotionalism concerning the inconsistent referees was forgotten was the excellence of Ken Dryden's goaltending, the superb checking, and the penalty killing of Peter Mahovlich, Serge Savard, J.P. Parise, Phil Esposito and Bergman.
Dryden silenced all critics who had concluded he couldn't play well in international hockey. His previous record, a 9-3 loss in 1969 with the Canadian national team, and 7-3 and 5-3 losses with the present National Hockey League selects, had suggested that somehow the outstanding player of the 1971 NHL playoffs couldn't stand international pressure.
Dryden didn't accept any of the negative theories, but he did realize some adjustment was necessary. "I had to sort of change everything around. I normally play out of the net, covering angles, but I had to change and play further back.
"The reason is that with the Russians ability to pass, I would come out to cover an angle and they would pass behind me and the puck would be tapped in."
Best example of the successful adjustment came when Team Canada was two short late in the second period. Esposito had been penalized five minutes for high-sticking Ragulin and drawing blood. Coach John Ferguson had drawn a bench minor after extended ranting and raving.
The play was exactly the kind Dryden had been troubled by. This time he played back in the net as Boris Mikhailov's pass snapped from one side of the net to Valeri Kharlamov at the other. "When I am back in the net, they have to beat me."
"He [Kharlamov] took the shot and I just kicked out and I got a bit of it and it bounced off the post and into my glove. Nothing to it."
The rest of the show was beautiful for more than 2,500 Canadian fans who dominated the noise in the Palace of Sports, Lenin Central Stadium. There was Serge Savard's beautiful twisting circling patterns while killing penalties. There was the news afterward that his broken ankle wasn't comfortable but that it was tolerable. Savard broke his ankle in practice before the third game in Canada.
The Russians never were impressive, with Canadian checking breaking up their pass patterns.
Brad Park flattened four Russians with stiff checks, and the Canadians dominated physically while avoiding illegal tactics.
Manager-coach Sinden may not make any lineup changes for the seventh game tomorrow. Defenceman Pat Stapleton was limping after he was struck by a shot in the third period, but the injury wasn't believed to be serious.
The Canadians were outshot 29-22 but they weren't outchecked. Never was there less shooting in this series. But then, Team Canada has decided that checking, not shooting, is talent that may win this confrontation.
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