Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Star on Sept. 25, 1972, following Canada’s 3-2 win in Moscow the day before, and is part of Summit Series At 50 — celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic eight-game hockey series between the Soviet Union and Canada.
MOSCOW — People were beginning to think Ken Dryden had some sort of mental block about tending goal against the Soviet Union. You may include Ken Dryden himself in that group.
“In three games against their national team, I’d given up 21 goals and had lost three times. It’s bound to make a man wonder a bit,” Dryden said after playing a critical role in Team Canada’s 3-2 victory over the comrades before about 17,000 spectators at the Moscow Sports Palace.
“I had to re-examine everything I was doing and I came to the conclusion that I would have to make a complete change in my style. I’ve always been a goalie who slid out toward the play to cut down the angles. Against the Russians, that was wrong.
“I realized that the Russians were getting behind me with quick passes, so I consciously began to drop back into the goal and stay there.
“Of course, I had no idea when the game began whether I’d be able to play that well, but it seemed to work out quite satisfactorily.”
Indeed it did. Dryden was especially good in the first period when there had been no goals and the Soviets pumped 12 shots at him. In the second period, he played without a stick for at least 30 seconds while the Canucks were two men short.
He stopped Valeriy Kharlamov’s pet manoeuvre, the deflection of a slap shot from the point while standing at the edge of the crease. His glove hand snaked out from nowhere to flag down a short Vladimir Petrov drive. And he got in front of two screened shots while Ron Ellis was serving a rather ill-advised tripping penalty right at the end of the game.
“What you must understand about playing the Russians is that not everything which looks like a shot actually turns out to be one,” Dryden explained.
“If you keep that in mind, you can prepare yourself a bit. Take the Kharlamov deflection as an example. The defenceman was winding up for what looked like a big shot. But I was cognizant of the fact he doesn’t always shoot under those circumstances. So I didn’t commit myself fully. Sure enough, he was sending it in to the man at the edge of the crease. So I was able to get there.
“The ones that scared me were the drives while Ellis was off. They were honeys, right along the ice, but fortunately I got a look at both of them just at the last minute.”
Dryden hadn’t been in uniform for last Friday’s game here, at least partly because he’d seemed so unsteady in 7-3 and 5-3 defeats against Russia back home earlier this month. And Eddie Johnston, who’d played so well in Stockholm a week ago last night, was ready to go.
“Look, Dryden is a great goaltender and the way we figured he was overdue to have a good game against the Russians,” said coach Harry Sinden.
“I thought Kenny was the guy I had to go with in a game we had to win. If he’d started out badly I’d have yanked him and put Johnston in. But he did one hell of a job for us just at a time when we needed it desperately.”
Team Canada’s win was its second in six encounters with the Soviets this month. There was a draw in there, too. So the Canadians selected from the entire National Hockey League can still win the first world series of hockey by taking the remaining matches tomorrow and Thursday evening also at the arena which forms part of the Lenin sports complex.
Team Canada was short-handed for more than a third of last night’s 60 minutes as the West German referees Franz Baader and Josef Kompalia gave the visitors 10 of the 12 penalties they imposed.
But excellent penalty killing formed a major component of a generally splendid defensive performance by the Canucks, who checked diligently right through the third period instead of stopping after two as they had done last Friday evening in blowing a 4-1 lead.
Pete Mahovlich, Phil Esposito, Bobby Clarke and Ron Ellis were especially outstanding while Team Canada was short-staffed. Bill White, Pat Stapleton, Gary Bergman, Serge Savard and even Brad Park pitched in to give the Canadian defence its best night since first squaring off against the Soviets. And Ellis continued to keep a tight rein on the most dangerous of the comrades, the Derek Sanderson of Moscow, Valeri Kharlamov.
Yuri Lapkin drilled in a shot Dryden didn’t see to begin the scoring in the second period but Dennis Hull erased that in a few minutes, getting control of Rod Gilbert’s rebound in the goalmouth and flipping it past Russia’s Vladislav Tretiak.
Hull’s goal was at 5:13 of the second period. At 6:36, it was 3-1.
Several attackers, including Rod Berenson, had whacks from long range before Yvan Cournoyer hopped in and tucked the puck past Trekiak. Fifteen seconds later, Paul Henderson used a defenceman as a screen and fooled Tretiak with a long blast.
That was Henderson’s fifth goal against the Russians and it turned out to be the winner because Alexander Yakushev got one for the Soviets before the second period ended.
The Canucks kept their opponents pretty well under control throughout the third period and Dryden didn’t really have a difficult chance to handle until Ellis drew his late penalty.
After last Friday’s fizzle, when the Soviets won by pouring in five final-period goals, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see a discouraged Canadian team step out on the ice. Instead, they broke swiftly from the starting gate and never slackened stride, a tribute surely to coaches Harry Sinden and John Ferguson. All three Team Canada lines were excellent, although Phil Esposito reduced the effectiveness of his by taking a double-minor for charging the same man twice and a major for nicking Alexander Ragulin’s nose.
Red Berenson and Pete Mahovlich were the extra forwards and both were able to fill in at centre when Esposito was doing time and when Bobby Clarke was serving a misconduct penalty apparently for arguing a minor penalty.
Dennis Hull stepped in at left wing with Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert and Serge Savard skated on defence with Guy Lapointe. It was a night when everything Sinden attempted turned out well.
Boris Kulagin and Vsevolod Bobrov, the Soviet coaches, used their three rookie forwards, Alexander Volchkov, Yuri Lebedev and Alexander Bodunov with no visible effect on the entire operation.
To sum up, it was a hockey match to remember, as last Friday’s was an evening which indicated just how magnificent hockey’s big-leaguers can be when they make up their minds and when they’re happening to approach proper condition.
More from Summit Series At 50:
Summit Series Game 5: Canadian collapse in Moscow makes clear the Soviets are ‘the better team’
Summit Series Game 4: Canadians hit rock bottom vs. Soviets as boos rain down in Vancouver
Summit Series Game 3: Canadians tie Soviets, but there’s no doubt they lost something too
Summit Series Game 2: Canada shows why they’re the NHL stars, evening series vs. Soviets
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