GAME SEVEN
Canada ties series with 4-3 triumph
By DAN PROUDFOOT
Globe and Mail reporter
Wednesday, September 27, 1972
MOSCOW - Paul Henderson's emergence as an extraordinary performer among the best of the National Hockey League, a stride or two ahead of most others on Team Canada, became complete last night in the 4-3 defeat of the Soviet Union Nationals.
The victory gave the Canadians and Russians three wins each and the last match starts at 12:30 p.m. EDT tomorrow. One game was tied.
Little more than two minutes remained when Henderson took a pass from Serge Savard near his own blue line. Skating hard, he made a move around Gennady Tsigankov that earned the defenceman criticism from coach Vsevolod Bobrov, and was on his way to beat goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. He lifted the shot over Tretiak although he had been pulled down from behind and was falling to the ice at the time.
The dramatic score brought strong reaction from anyone who saw it, including Henderson's lawyer, Alan Eagleson. The goal made Eagleson's wife Nancy cry with joy, but started him thinking.
Minutes later in the Team Canada dressing room he approached Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, for whom Henderson plays.
"Harold, that goal has to be worth $25,000," said Eagleson.
"Why not $50,000," answered Ballard and Eagleson said $25,000 would be fine and pulled Ballard into the dressing room to tell Henderson.
What happens next remains unclear. Henderson admits Ballard said something about $25,000, but the Leaf left-winger refuses to discuss the topic or the possibility of his renegotiating the two-year contract he signed with the Leafs during the summer.
Ballard says the whole thing was a joke.
"Eagleson was in one of his foolish moods. He was joking and yelling like he does when he's all excited. He did all the talking. But he's not spending my money for me. It's a lot of crap."
Eagleson was cheerful when first explaining Ballard's so-called offer, "Paul Henderson and Ron Ellis have both done an awful lot for Canada in this series, and Harold Ballard is a great Canadian.
"I think he will give them plenty of dough for what they've done for their country."
On hearing Ballard's comment that "it's a lot of crap," Eagleson reacted with a more definite statement.
"I have a long memory," said the lawyer, "and if he doesn't give them something for this, they'll both go to the World Hockey Association when their contracts expire, if the WHA is still going.
"It costs Ballard $300,000 or $400,000 for the training camp at Maple Leaf Gardens. What's he worrying about another $25,000?"
Henderson didn't want to discuss money. Dollars don't interest him or any other Team Canada player at the moment. The consuming interest is winning what defenceman Gary Bergman calls the Borscht Cup - victory in the eight-game series.
"We're going to win this thing I know it," Henderson was saying in Stockholm, where Team Canada played two exhibition games against the Swedish Nationals before coming here. And last night didn't change his mind.
The Canadians deserved a win the first game here, but a third-period lapse cost them the game. Last night, the Russians had the edge in play, but Canadian goaltender Tony Esposito was exceptional, especially in the second period when the teams were tied 2-2.
"Of all the goals I scored I never got that much satisfaction before," said Henderson. "I just wish it had come sooner. Let me tell you, it's something to have 18 players like the ones on this team congratulating you."
One reason the players jumped over the boards to congratulate Henderson was that assistant coach John Ferguson ordered them to. The goal light was late, and Ferguson feared a Russian protest to the referee. He remembered an old trick of Toe Blake, his coach with the Montreal Canadiens. On a goal that might be open to debate, Blake sent all his players on the ice to congratulate the scorer - the idea being to help convince the referee that a goal had indeed been scored.
Henderson himself didn't see the goal enter the net. He was tripped by a pursuing defenceman just as he shot.
"I got good wood on it but I went flying after I shot and I couldn't see. I had put it upstairs [shot high on Tretiak's stick side], but the light didn't come on and I was a little concerned. Then I saw the referee with his hand in the air and I knew it had gone in."
Henderson also saw his teammates racing to congratulate him, and realized that never before had he scored a goal like this one, never one so significant.
Russian coach Bobrov said after the game that defenceman Tsigankov had cost his team the game. Soviet coaches seldom single out a player for criticism, but Tsigankov clearly had been victimized, going for Henderson's fake instead of his body.
"I put the pick between his legs and it bounced off the back of one of his skate blades," Henderson said.
Team Canada opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the first period. Phil Esposito, who has five goals and leads the team in points, picked the corner from the slot despite being checked closely by Vladimir Lutchenko.
The Russians bounced back to lead with two power-play goals, by Alexander Yakushev and Vladimir Petrov, but Esposito tied the score near the end of the first period.
Rod Gilbert gave Team Canada a 3-2 lead early in the third period but it stood up for only three minutes, with Yakushev scoring again for the Russians in the sixth minute.
"The bastards are as good a hockey team as I've every played against," said Henderson. "They just never quit, they keep coming back at you."
Henderson believes, however, that Team Canada is better than any team he's seen. "I don't really think the Boston Bruins would be any better than we are. Neither would any other single NHL team."
Team Canada was not at its best last night. It's line, even the Bobby Clarke-Ellis-Henderson trio, had difficulty making plays, and Yvan Cournoyer remained ineffective at right wing with Esposito and J.P. Parise.
But Team Canada's checking against the Russians' short-passing game has improved constantly, and such players as Esposito and Henderson are capable of winning games with their individual efforts.
"We couldn't get anything sustained going," said Bergman. "We would get going and then we would die.
"It was about time we got a break, though. They have all been going against us."
Frank Mahovlich, a spectator last night, bristled at the suggestion that Team Canada hadn't looked like the superior team. "How can you say we didn't look good? What do you expect when you get officiating like that and you have guys in the penalty box all night?
"Lines can't get their timing when there are so many penalties like tonight. We're getting jobbed in the officiating."
Manager-coach Harry Sinden also was irate about referees Rudolph Batja and Uve Daljberg, although he wasn't as upset as he was Sunday with the work of Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader. The latter two have been banned and Batja and Daljberg will officiate the final game tomorrow.
"We were upset with the officiating [last night]," said Sinden. "We're not concerned with the penalties to us, they were clear-cut enough. I am concerned when the Russians use tactics they do for a whole game and spend only two minutes a man short.
"The other thing was some bad offsides."
Bergman started the first fight of the series late in the third period after he was kicked by Boris Mikhailov. "I was amazed. In my whole life, I've never been kicked in a hockey game until now. I looked down and there he is kicking at me," Bergman said.
"He got me one good one, good enough that it left a welt on my shin, right through my shin pad."
The fight itself was inconclusive, with Bergman crediting himself for one blow to Mikhailov's nose. Yvan Cournoyer also pummeled Mikhailov, inconclusively.
Bergman and Mikhailov each were penalized five minutes for roughing. Any fight brings expulsion from a game in international hockey. Bergman and Mikhailov were in the penalty box when Henderson soared into flight.
"Beautiful," said Bergman, who once was a teammate of Henderson's before Punch Imlach acquired the latter from Detroit Red Wings. "Henny is just playing his game. This kind of hockey is perfect for him, and he always was a great hockey player."
Eagleson said it as well as anyone. "They tried stealing it from us tonight, but we stole it back.
"No matter what happens now, this trip was worth it."
Coach Sinden will stick with his plans to start Ken Dryden in goal tomorrow. Last night, he wasn't sure of any other lineup changes.
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