The 1987 Labatt Canada Cup was a professional international ice hockey tournament held from August 28 to September 15, 1987. The finals took place in Montreal on September 11 and Hamilton, on September 13 and September 15, and were won by Team Canada.
The final best-of-three series of this tournament between Canada and the Soviet Union is considered by many to be the best exhibition of hockey in history. The United States and Soviet Union teams complained about the neutrality of the officiating in the tournament. Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov said he felt the main reason his team lost the final match was because of "bias and errors in refereeing."
The tournament was the only time that arguably two of the most dominant NHL players of all time, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, played on the same forward unit, Canada led 3–1 after one period, but this time it was the Soviets who came from behind to tie it 3–3 in the second. Canada scored twice more, each time Mario Lemieux assisted by Wayne Gretzky, but the Soviets replied each time. The tying goal was an end-to-end rush by Valeri Kamensky with 1:04 remaining in regulation time. After a scoreless period of overtime, which featured tremendous goaltending from Grant Fuhr, Gretzky and Lemieux hooked up for the third time of the evening at 10:07 of the second overtime. It was the fifth assist for Gretzky on the night and completed a hat trick for Lemieux.
