By: Mike Brophy

Right from the opening faceoff on Sept. 2, 1972 of the famous Summit Series it was abundantly clear Team Canada players planned not only to beat their Soviet Union counterparts, they were going to rub their noses in it.

Canada won the opening draw and the puck eventually found its way to left-shooting centre Phil Esposito who was fresh off leading his Boston Bruins to their second Stanley Cup championship in three years and winning his second of three straight NHL scoring titles. Esposito, who would very soon learn a lesson in humility, got the puck along the right boards, cut to the net and at the last second, switched his hands on his stick and shot right.

The message was clear: We are so good we can beat these Commies shooting the opposite way!

The shot went wide, but a few seconds later – 30 seconds into Game 1 of the eight-game series – Esposito scored to give Canada a 1-0 lead. Paul Henderson made it 2-0 at 6:32.

The rout was on. Or so it seemed.

“We scored those two quick goals and everyone was thinking, ‘Here we go; it’s over,’ ” said Team Canada defenceman Serge Savard, who did not dress for Game 1.

Before the first period concluded, the Soviets evened the score. Hmm, that wasn’t part of the script, was it?

Team Canada goaltender Ken Dryden said he and his teammates were suddenly aware of how good their opposition really was.

“Brad Park’s defence partner was Gary Bergman,” Dryden said. “He was sitting beside Gary in the dressing room after the first period and they had played the last shift of the first period. They both came in and were huffing and puffing. One said to the other, ‘How are you feeling?’ The other responded, ‘We’re in trouble.’ ”

The Soviets apparently didn’t get the notice that they were to bow gracefully to the mighty NHLers and wound up whipping Team Canada 7-3 before a stunned audience of 18, 818 at the Montreal Forum, not to mention a dumbfounded televised audience of millions across Canada.

It was an eye-opener to be sure.

“Well, there was certainly overconfidence,” said Dryden while speaking at the Ontario Minor Hockey Association’s annual general meeting in Toronto in June. “I think we took them seriously to the extent that we knew.”

By that Dryden meant he had played against the Soviets a few times with Canada’s National team of amateurs. On one occasion, in Victoria, B.C., Dryden and the National team got their lunch handed to them by the Soviets, losing 9-3. So yes, Dryden was aware that the Soviets were good.

However, coming into the Summit Series nobody on the planet was giving the Soviets a chance to win against Canada’s top professionals. Even Dryden, who admitted he should have known better.

“Whatever the Soviets did differently from us, which was passing more often and shooting less and the kind of quickness they had, up against this opposition they wouldn’t be able to do that and we would be much better,” Dryden had predicted.

The Soviets were fast, skilled, in tip-top shape and, most importantly, they were not intimidated by Canada’s best pros. Their best players could easily keep up with the Canadian NHLers. Centre Alexander Yakushev’s game was very reminiscent to that of Montreal Canadiens slick pivot Jean Beliveau; speedy winger Valeri Kharlamov could skate stride for stride with Canada’s fastest players and rugged defenceman Alexander Ragulin could punish opponents with the force of a Broadway Bully.

Savard also played against the mighty Soviets as a junior player; one game as a guest of the Toronto Marlboros along with fellow pickups Bobby Orr and Danny O’Shea, a 4-3 loss, and then the next night with the Montreal Junior Canadiens. In that game, pro goalie Jacques Plante came out of retirement and played superbly in a 2-1 Montreal victory.

“Going to training camp in Toronto, everyone kept telling us, ‘You won’t lose a game,’ ” Savard said. "After hearing that for a month and a half everyone believed that. Even our coach, Harry Sinden, told us everyone would play at least one game. We were so overconfident we only dressed five defencemen for Game 1.”

Shocked and embarrassed, Canada rebounded to defeat the Soviet Union 4-1 at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. Savard, who played in Game 2, does not buy into the notion that the Canadian players were not in shape early in the series.

“We were prepared,” Savard insisted. “Some guys will tell you we were not in very good shape, but I can tell you that I was in good shape. We had a tough, tough training camp in Toronto; twice a day we were on the ice. If we were not in good shape how did we manage to win 48 hours after Game 1?”

Savard said Team Canada was guided by fear – the fear of losing.

“If you’re not scared before a game, you’re in trouble,” Savard claimed.

After a 3-3 tie in Winnipeg in Game 4, Canada lost 5-3 in Game in 4 in Vancouver which prompted fans at the Pacific Coliseum to boo the players off the ice. Esposito, the leader of Team Canada, was interviewed after the game and made a passionate plea for Canadian hockey fans to continue to support the team even though it trailed the Soviets 2-1-1 in the series which would shift to the Soviet Union for Games 5-8.

All these years later Dryden and Savard both agreed they could understand Canadian hockey fans frustration.

“I’m not really a big cheerer or booer, but if I was a big booer I would have booed,” Dryden said. “We were hugely disappointing. This was a big, big disappointment. This was going to be a party and it didn’t turn out to be a party.”

“The players didn’t listen to Phil’s speech; they were in the room,” added Savard, who cracked his ankle in Game 3 and wasn’t in the lineup for Game 4. “Nobody knew what was going on outside. Personally it’s tough to take, but when we played a game like that, they are allowed to do that. We played bad.”

Canada needed to regroup for the Soviet portion of the Summit Series and began by playing a pair of exhibition games against Sweden; winning the first 4-1 and tying the second 4-4. While Dryden didn’t feel the games against Sweden did much to enhance Canada’s chances of beating the Soviets, his teammates disagreed.

“I remember Sweden to be a disaster, but most of the players I have spoken with think Sweden was great,” Dryden said. “Off the ice we had a chance to actually get to know one another. You really get to know somebody when you are up against it. Yes we had three weeks beforehand in training camp to get to know each other, but that’s not an up-against-it circumstance.”

Things went from bad-to-worse for Team Canada in Game 5. After building a 4-1 lead, Canada watched helplessly as the Soviets scored four unanswered goals to win the game 5-4 and take a commanding 3-1-1 lead in the Series. To win the Summit Series Canada now needed to win Games 6, 7 and 8.

That is exactly what happened. With Dryden in goal, Canada took Game 6 by a score of 3-2. Tony Esposito was in net for Game 7, won 4-3 by Canada and set up a one-game showdown for all the marbles.

Paul Henderson’s goal at 6:36 of the second period in Game 6 held up as the game-winner. He scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 with 2:06 remaining in the third period.

In game eight, with time running out and the score tied 5-5, Henderson called for teammate Peter Mahovlich to come off the ice. Henderson hopped on the ice and made a beeline for the Soviet net, was fed the puck, but missed on his first scoring attempt. Esposito scooped the puck, got it to Henderson who jammed it past Vladislav Tretiak for his third game-winner in a row. Canada came back from a 5-3 deficit after 40 minutes to win 6-5 and claim the Summit Series.

“Paul has been living off that goal,” Savard said with a chuckle. “That is the most important goal in the history of hockey. But we won as a team. If the (Yvon) Cournoyer goal doesn’t happen (to make the score 5-5), you don’t about Henderson like we do today.”

Canada won the Series, but the Soviet players proved beyond any reasonable doubt that they, too, were world class players. Not long afterward European players began filtering into the NHL and there was a greater emphasis on speed and skill over intimidation and brawn.

As Canada continues to celebrate its win in the biggest international hockey gathering to that point in history, Dryden looks back fondly on how it brought the country together.

“I remember the Canadian fans, the telegrams along the walls that started to come in,” Dryden said. “They were put up on the wall outside our dressing room. With each day and with each game there were more and more. It was reading the messages, but to me, even more than the messages, it was reading the names of the towns. It was towns from everywhere in the country that was so moving.”

This September, eight members of Canada's fabled hockey team will tour the four Canadian cities that hosted the Series in 1972 and share, first-hand, their memories - stories from the dressing room and away from the rink; untold stories of how personal rivalries were resolved and how a team was forged in the crucible of competition - stories that will make you laugh and bring tears to your eyes. Check 72summitseriestour.ca for more information.