The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (), or Series of the Century (), was an eight-game ice hockey series 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 It was the first international ice hockey competition for Canada after they had withdrawn from such competitions in a dispute with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The series was organized with the intention to create a true best-against-best competition in the sport of ice hockey. The Soviets had become the dominant team in international competitions, in which the Canadian professionals were ineligible to play. Canada had had a long history of dominance of the sport prior to the Soviets' rise. The Canadian embassy in Moscow learned of the Soviets' interest in a series initially through reading an article in the Soviet Izvestia newspaper in the winter of 1971–1972. Diplomat Gary Smith, responsible for sport and cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union, read In December 1971 that the Soviets were looking for a new challenge in ice hockey.
The two sides agreed on the terms: four games in Canada in early September, and four games later in the month in the Soviet Union. Kryczka also announced that two games were to be held in Sweden before the Moscow segment of the series as part of a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of ice hockey in Sweden. He also announced that Team Canada hoped to play a game or two in Czechoslovakia in return for previous visits by Czechoslovak teams to Canada. NHL President Clarence Campbell issued a statement that the league fully supported the proposed series.
The two sides agreed to hold the series in September and play the games under international rules. The Canadians agreed to IIHF amateur referees in the Canada part of the series, and European referees in the Moscow games. The refereeing would use the international two referee system, not the one referee, two linesmen system in place in the NHL, and, at the time, being introduced into international play. The Canadian side agreed to the terms under the belief that the Canadians would have no difficulty winning under any set of conditions. Kryczka felt that the Soviets had demanded the concessions for their own benefit, believing that their team was already equal to any NHL team. The agreement stipulated that Soviet players were to be paid per game in Canada, and Canadian players were to be paid 5,000 Rbls per game in Moscow. It also stipulated the choice of referees was acceptable to both parties. A game in Prague, at first proposed following the Swedish games and before travel to Moscow, was moved to take place after the Moscow series.
NHL players' union executive director and Hockey Canada director Alan Eagleson, while not involved in the initial negotiations, became a central figure in the organization of the series.
The Canadian team would be known as Team Canada for the first time. The name and sweater design was done by advertising agency Vickers and Benson. Eagleson wanted to call the team the "NHL All-Stars", but the agency convinced Eagleson otherwise, as the teams were from the USSR and Canada. The name Team Canada was inspired by the contemporary auto-racing team Team McLaren. The name is attributed to copy writer Terry Hill, whose first choice "The Dream Team" was rejected. The design of the sweater by designer John Lloyd utilized an enormous stylized maple leaf, like the Canadian flag, that covers the front. No numbers were on the sleeves, only on the back with the wording "CANADA" above the number. The sweater used only two colours: red and white, the maple leaf, numbers and letters in one colour and the rest of the sweater the other. The name, sweater design and a team song were all prepared in 24 hours, in time for a previously scheduled news conference. The series itself was simply known at the time as the Canada-USSR Series, although the name "Friendship Series" had been suggested by the Government of Canada Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Preparation
Along with coaching, Harry Sinden was given the task of selecting Team Canada, which would be the first true "team" composed of NHL all-stars. When Sinden announced the list of 35 Canadian players on July 12, one of the conditions of playing was revealed: players would have to have a signed NHL contract by August 13. His list of players included Bobby Hull, who by that time had already signed with the rival World Hockey Association (WHA) league. Phil Reimer, a governor of Hockey Canada, resigned over the matter.
Prior to training camp, there were several changes in the roster. Jacques Laperrière withdrew and Guy Lapointe was selected as his replacement. Dennis Hull, brother of Bobby, considered turning down his invitation, but accepted because Bobby wished him to. Cheevers was replaced by his Boston teammate Eddie Johnston. Stan Mikita replaced Sanderson. Rick Martin replaced Bobby Hull. Bobby Orr, who had been selected although he was injured, remained with the team during the series and practiced with them, but did not play in any games.
Team Canada assembled in Toronto and started training camp on August 13. Sinden named four alternate captains: Esposito, Mikita, Frank Mahovlich and Jean Ratelle.
The Soviets named 31 players for its roster on August 11. The roster included four goaltenders, led by 20-year-old Vladislav Tretiak, Olympic and two-time world champion. The defence was led by Alexander Ragulin, who had played in three Olympics and nine world championships. The team was a veteran team with only a handful of players to make their national team debut. Several players were named provisionally, depending on their performance in the Sovietsky Sport tournament being held during August. Boris Kulagin, coach of Krylia Sovietov, was named the assistant coach. Among the forwards, the team did not name Anatoli Firsov, regarded as the "Bobby Hull" of the Soviets, who had reportedly spoken out against his new coach. Most of the players named were from the Soviet "Red Army" team HC CSKA Moscow, the team managed by former national coach Tarasov.
Along with their regular training, Bobrov had the Soviet players take boxing lessons in preparation for the series. The Soviets arrived in Montreal not long before the series, on August 30. Staying at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel, the team began two-a-day workouts at the St. Laurent Arena the next day. They were already acclimatized to the time zone as the team had been training on Montreal time for two weeks before travelling there. They brought 15 forwards, nine defencemen and three goaltenders. Veteran defenceman Vitali Davydov did not accompany the team to Canada. The reason given was injury, but the media questioned if Davydov had fallen out of favour with Bobrov. Firsov was reported as having a knee injury to explain his omission from the team.
During the pre-series period, two observers of the opposing team were allowed to scout the teams. Toronto Maple Leafs' coach John McLellan and Bob Davidson, the Leafs' head scout went to the Soviet Union to observe the Soviets in the Sovietsky Sport tournament. McLellan and Davidson observed two games, while Kulagin, along with Arkadi Chernyshev, a former assistant to Tarasov, observed all of the Canadians' practices in Toronto.
While the Soviet team was in Canada, Rick Noonan, a trainer for the University of British Columbia’s sports teams, was assigned by Hockey Canada to assist the Soviets. Noonan, who would be later be named general manager of Team Canada for the 1980 Winter Olympics, was the only Canadian to have regular access to the Soviets' locker room, and he was behind the Soviets' bench during the first four games of the Summit Series.
Expectations
At the time, the National Hockey League was considered to be where the best hockey players played, and its best players consisted largely of Canadians. The public consensus of hockey pundits and fans in North America was that other countries, the Soviets in this case, were simply no match for Canada's best. The Soviets were not expected to even give the Canadians a challenge, and Canada was going into this series expected to win handily. Sinden opined, "Canada is first in the world in two things: hockey and wheat." Alan Eagleson said, "We gotta win in eight games. Anything less than an unblemished sweep of the Russians would bring shame down on the heads of the players and the national pride."
Vladislav Tretiak recalled: "The Canadians said that they were professionals, and amateurs played in Europe. Tarasov had been calling them to face off for a long time. But NHL responded: "Why do we need this? We will beat you with a double-digit score, we will kill everyone so that in the second period there will be no one on the court. Have you become amateur champions again? So study there, you have nothing to play with us." At the same time, Phil Esposito perceived the upcoming series as "a real fight — capitalism against communism: "Do you know how we hated the damn communists? We had no right to lose. I didn't want to know the Russians. They were against our way of life, against private property." Soviet hockey players, also feeling responsible for the country, did not hate Canadians. The gamesmanship between the teams started before the opening puck drop. Canada was assigned the home team for all games in Canada, while the Soviets would be the home team in Moscow. The Soviets would not release their lineup until they had seen their opponents', which was the opposite order, considering they were the visitors. The official scorer had to return to the Soviets' dressing room and demand the lineup. Sinden wanted to put the Ellis-Clarke-Henderson line on against Valeri Kharlamov's line. The Soviets did not start Kharlamov's line and Sinden named Phil Esposito's line for the opening faceoff.
The move paid off as Esposito scored for Canada after just 30 seconds of play, knocking a puck out of the air behind Tretiak. But even after a few minutes, Sinden felt the Soviets were coming on and having no difficulty getting through Canada's defence. Henderson scored after six minutes to give Canada a two-goal lead on a faceoff win by Clarke (the only advantage that Team Canada had, in Sinden's estimation). To the Canadian spectators and media, the second goal gave the appearance that the pre-series predictions of a rout were being proven correct. But the Soviets got over any awe of the NHLers and scored twice to tie the game 2–2 before the end of the first period. Yevgeni Zimin scored on a pass from behind the net, and Vladimir Petrov scored a shorthanded goal on a Soviet 2-on-1 break, with Petrov potting the rebound after an initial Dryden save. According to Sinden, the Canadian players had lost their poise, "running all over the ice" trying to establish their hitting game, while the Soviets used an unexpected tactic, the long pass, to break a man out of their defensive zone. The Canadian defence was also dropping to the ice to block shots, while the Soviets simply skated around them to get a closer shot. Although Tretiak had given up two goals on Canada's first two shots, he recovered later in the period to make two critical saves off Esposito at point-blank range.
The win by the USSR team was celebrated into the early hours back home, and many took the next day off work. Valeri Kharlamov's father Boris held an impromptu party at his Moscow apartment. Dick Beddoes fulfilled his promise - he came to a hotel in Toronto, where Soviet hockey players lived, and ate a printed copy of his column after covering it with borscht.
Game two
thumb|alt=plaque with series information in English and French|A historic plaque at [[Maple Leaf Gardens on the Summit Series and game two at the Gardens.]]
The second game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on September 4. Sinden scratched several players from the first game, including Dryden, Awrey, Ratelle, Red Berenson, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Mickey Redmond and Rod Seiling. Hadfield took the scratch hard, as he was from the Toronto area and felt he was being embarrassed in front of his hometown. On defence, Serge Savard, Pat Stapleton and Bill White were added, as were forwards Mikita, Wayne Cashman and J. P. Parisé. Tony Esposito, Phil's brother, took over goaltending duties. Sinden's changes were made to get "the diggers into the game and try to grind the Russians down. We had went for speed and quickness in our first lineup, yet the Russians were still faster and quicker."
Team Canada responded to their previous defeat with stronger play in this game. The first period was scoreless, but the Canadians used the period to intimidate the Soviets with hard body checking, especially from Cashman, Gary Bergman, Peter Mahovlich and Parisé, to throw the Soviets off their game. In the second period, Esposito again scored the first goal of the game, this time from a feed from his regular Boston Bruins' linemate Cashman, who had retrieved the puck deep in the Soviets' zone after colliding with USSR defenceman Vladimir Lutchenko. In the third period, Yvan Cournoyer wheeled around Alexander Ragulin and beat Tretiak to give Canada a 2–0 lead. Yakushev got the Soviets on the board after teammate Yevgeni Zimin missed on a breakaway. Yuri Lyapkin pounced on the rebound and fed it out front for Alexander Yakushev to bury the puck behind Esposito. Peter Mahovlich then scored a critical shorthanded goal, deking out the Soviet defender one-on-one, then Tretiak, to again give Canada a two-goal lead. His brother Frank then finished the scoring on a feed from Mikita, who had circled around a Soviet defenceman. Team Canada's 4–1 win tied the series at one game apiece.
The Soviet coaches blamed the loss on the officiating. Bobrov complained that the pair of American referees, Frank Larsen and Steve Dowling, let the Canadians get away with everything. After the game, the head of the USSR Hockey Federation, Andrei Starovoytov, charged the door of the officials' dressing room and kicked chairs over, exclaiming: "American referees allowed Canadian hockey players to act like a gang of outlaws." The two referees, scheduled to work game four in Vancouver, were replaced by the pair who had refereed games one and three, Gord Lee and Len Gagnon. Team Canada agreed to the Soviets' request to change referees, apparently not aware of Starovoytov's tantrum after game two.
Game three
Game three was played in the Winnipeg Arena on September 6. After the second game, the Soviets said that they had strayed into playing too much of the Canadian style, as individuals, and promised to return to their team style for the third game. Canada went with the same lineup as game two, with the exception of Ratelle replacing Bill Goldsworthy. Team Canada held leads of 3–1 and 4–2, but the Soviets rallied and the game ended in a 4–4 tie.
Canada took the lead only 1:54 into the game on a goal by Parisé, but Petrov replied shorthanded at 3:16 to tie. Petrov stole the puck from Frank Mahovlich for a breakaway and deked Tony Esposito to score. After a strong forecheck by the Canadians in the Soviets' zone, Ratelle scored off a turnover to put Canada ahead 2–1 after the first. In the second period, Wayne Cashman dug the puck out of a scrum in the corner to feed the puck to Phil Esposito, who scored to put Canada ahead 3–1. But on another Canadian power play, Kharlamov circled behind the Canadian defence and gathered a breakaway pass, then beat Tony Esposito to score the Soviets' second shorthanded goal. Paul Henderson scored unassisted seconds later to restore Canada's two-goal lead. However, the Soviets' "Youngster's Line" of Yuri Lebedev, Vyacheslav Anisin and Alexander Bodunov scored twice to tie the game at 4–4 after two periods. The third period was scoreless, creating what would prove to be the only tie of the eight-game series (there was no provision for overtime).
Team Canada assistant coach John Ferguson felt that the Canadians had gotten overconfident. "I was fooled again. I felt that after we had taken a 3–1 lead, the final score might be something like 7–1. But those two shorthanded goals. When you score one shorthanded goal it can turn it all around. But two? That's almost fatal." According to Tim Burke of the Montreal Gazette, both goaltenders, Tony Esposito and Vladislav Tretiak, reached great heights, or the outcome could have been 10–10. Soviet coach Bobrov complained about the officiating and the play of Wayne Cashman, stating that "if that game had been played in Europe, he would have spent the whole game in the penalty box."
Game four
thumb|alt=Large building|Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver in 2006. The fourth game of the series was held at the arena.
Game four was played in Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum. The game started with two consecutive penalties by Bill Goldsworthy, and Boris Mikhailov converted both into power play goals to give the Soviets a 2–0 lead. Goldsworthy, starting in place of Cashman, was trying to counter his teammate's truculence, but only ended up hurting his team and was criticized privately by Sinden. In the second, Gilbert Perreault scored when a Soviet deflected his shot past Tretiak, but Blinov scored less than a minute later to restore the two-goal lead. Rod Gilbert scored a questionable goal that was disallowed, and Canada's protests went unheeded. To Sinden, that was the turning point of the game, and the result could have been different had the goal been allowed, although Sinden admitted that it was "a beating". Vikulov scored to put the Soviets ahead 4–1 after two periods. In the third, Goldsworthy made partial amends with a goal to get Canada to within 4–2, but then Shadrin scored to put the game out of reach. Dennis Hull scored a too-little, too-late goal in the final minute.
All the Canadian goals were scored by players Sinden had inserted in place of players who had played in Winnipeg. Still, Sinden felt that changing the lineup had been a mistake. According to Sinden, Ken Dryden, who had replaced Tony Esposito in goal, did not have a good game; he was shaky and Tretiak was great. According to Conacher, the Soviets used cross-ice passing in the attacking zone, a tactic that caused problems for Dryden. Serge Savard missed the game after fracturing his ankle in practice.
Team Canada was booed off the ice at the end of what was the final game of the series played in Canada. Responding to the negative public and media reaction in light of the expectation for an overwhelming Team Canada sweep of the series, Phil Esposito made an emotional outburst in a post-game interview: