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CANADA VERSES RUSSIA ICEHOCKEY

The Summit Series, or Super Series (in Russian Суперсерия СССР — Канада; Superseriya SSSR — Canada), known at the time simply as the Canada–USSR Series, was an eight-game series of ice hockey between the Soviet Union and Canada, held in September 1972. It was the first competition between the Soviet national team and a Canadian team represented by professional players of the National Hockey League (NHL), known as Team Canada. It was the first international ice hockey competition for Canada after Canada had withdrawn from international ice hockey competitions in a dispute with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The series was organized with the intention to create a true best-on-best competition in the sport of ice hockey. The Soviets had become the dominant team in international competitions, which disallowed the professional players of Canada. Canada had had a long history of dominance of the sport prior to the Soviets' rise.

The first four games of the series were held in Canada and the final four in Moscow. The Soviet Union surprised the Canadian team and most of the Canadian hockey media with an opening game victory, 7–3. Many Canadian sportswriters had predicted an overwhelming victory for Canada in the series. Canada won the next game 4–1; the third game was a tie and the Soviets won game four to take a two games to one lead after the Canadian segment. The series resumed two weeks later in Moscow. The Soviets won game five to take a three games to one series lead. The Canadians won the final three games in Moscow to win the series four games to three, with one tie. The final game was won in dramatic fashion, with the Canadians overcoming a two-goal Soviet lead after two periods. The Canadians scored three in the third, the final one, scored with 34 seconds left by Paul Henderson.

The series was played during the Cold War, and intense feelings of nationalism were aroused in fans in both Canada and the Soviet Union and players on the ice. The games introduced several talented Soviet players to North America, such as Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Alexander Yakushev, Valeri Kharlamov and goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. Team Canada, the first NHL and professional all-star team formed for international play, was led by Phil Esposito, who led the series in scoring, as well as contributing in other roles. The Canadian line of Bobby Clarke, Ron Ellis and Henderson, which was not expected to start for the team, as none were yet stars, played a surprisingly large role in the Canadian win with Henderson scoring the game-winning goal in each of games six through eight.

 The series was filled with controversy, starting with the exclusion of top Canadian player Bobby Hull because he had signed a contract to play in the new World Hockey Association, and disputes over officiating, dirty play on the part of both teams, and the deliberate injury of Kharlamov by Clarke in game six. Hull had been the second leading goal-scorer in the NHL the previous season (and had led the league in goal-scoring seven times), and with a knee injury forcing superstar defenceman Bobby Orr, the second leading point scorer in the league the previous season (and scoring champion two years prior) to sit out, Canada was arguably playing without two of its best three players (the other being Esposito, the three-time and defending league scoring champion).

Background

From the beginning of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships in 1920, Canada would send a senior amateur club team, usually the previous year's Allan Cup champion, to compete as the Canadian entry. These teams were often university players, or unpaid players playing ice hockey while being employed in some other profession full-time. From the 1920s until the 1950s, Canadian amateur club teams won most of the World Championship and Olympic titles. As a career, Canadian players would play instead in the various professional hockey leagues, the best reaching the NHL. Their professional status made them ineligible to play in the World Championships or Olympics under the rules of the time. The last Canadian amateur club to win the world championship was the Trail Smoke Eaters in the 1961 championship.

In the earliest days of the Soviet Union, bandy or "Russian hockey" was played, not "Canadian hockey", and the Soviets did not compete in the Olympics or World Championships, which played the Canadian game. Post-World War II, a goal of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union was world supremacy in sport. The decision was made to transfer resources to the Canadian game.

 Starting in the 1940s, the Soviet Union started a Soviet hockey league playing the Canadian game. The elite sports societies of the Soviet Union, such as CSKA Moscow (Central Sports Club Army), Dynamo and Spartak, soon became the elite teams of the hockey league and supplied the players for the national team. Ostensibly amateurs, the players played hockey full-time, paid by the government. The players had other titular professions; for example Moscow Dynamo players became officers of the KGB; CSKA Moscow players became officers in the army. This preserved a player's amateur status for Olympic and World Championship eligibility and the players would have a career after their hockey playing days ended.

Entering international play in 1954, the Soviet national team under the tutelage of Anatoly Tarasov started to dominate the international competitions, and won nine consecutive championships in the 1960s. Canada, in response, developed a national team of its own. But Canada's best players usually became professionals and the national team featured mostly university players. The Canadian team did not win any championships and was looked upon as a failure.

 By 1969, the Government of Canada had formed Hockey Canada, an organization to co-ordinate Canadian international play with its amateur organizations and the NHL. In July 1969, on a trial basis, the inclusion of nine professional players for any event for one year was agreed to by the IIHF. Canada entered a team with five professionals in the Izvestia tournament at Christmas in 1969, and nearly won the tournament. The IIHF then convened an emergency meeting in January 1970, and the rule allowing professionals was rescinded. In response, Canada withdrew from IIHF play. The 1970 IIHF World Championships, scheduled to be held in Canada for the first time, were transferred to Sweden after Canada refused to host the event

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