🇨🇦 Canada 3-3 Soviet Union 🇷🇺
Summit Series, Game 1
Colisée de Québec, Québec 🇨🇦
Tuesday, 17 September 1974

The ceremonial puck drop was just supposed to be a photo op when Pat Stapleton and Boris Mikhailov lined up at center ice at La Colisee de Quebec in Quebec City.

In attendance was Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who’d pushed hard for the series as part of his government’s efforts to promote more trade with the Soviet Union. Sharing the puck was Georgi Regulsky, vice-chairman of the Soviet Sports Federation. With wide smiles, Trudeau and Regulsky leaned in between the two captains. Either the Soviets didn’t get the memo, or they used the moment to send one to the Canadians.

The mercurial Mikhailov, who’d nearly kicked off a brawl in Game 7 of the first series by kicking Gary Bergman, played it like a faceoff in a tie game, hacking at the puck and pulling it away from Stapleton with a clear backhand win into his own end. He then skated away, much to the shock of Trudeau.

“I think we were all taken aback by the way he did it, not necessarily that he did it,” Brad Selwood says. “We all went, ‘What was that?’ ”

Mikhailov returned to shake hands with the prime minister, but the message had been sent. The Soviets were ready.

Unlike two years earlier, so were the Canadians, especially Gerry Cheevers, who, like Bobby Hull, had been left off the roster in ’72 after leaving the NHL for more money in the WHA. After the series, the Soviets would call Cheevers the best goalie they’d ever faced.

The vaunted Team USSR offence had embarrassed an unconditioned and under-prepared group of NHL stars 7-3 in Game 1 in ’72. But two years later, with Cheevers in net for the WHA stars, the Soviets could muster only three goals in a 3-3 tie. Hull evened the score late in the third period, and Team Canada would’ve won had Frank Mahovlich converted a mini breakaway with 36 seconds remaining.

“We feel like we could beat those guys,” Réjean Houle says. “I’m not saying that we’re better than them, but if we play the right way and do the right thing, we’ll be able to beat those guys.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
12:30 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – McKenzie (Lacroix, Hull)

2nd Period
20:24 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Houle, tripping
24:24 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, cross checking
24:24 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Lyapkin, cross checking
27:46 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Lutchenko (Tsygankov, Kapustin)
31:07 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Vasiliev, tripping
32:07 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Hull (G. Howe, Walton)
32:40 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Selwood, tripping
34:04 – 🇷🇺 PP GOAL – Kharlamov (Vasiliev)
34:38 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Shmyr, tripping
37:02 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Shmyr, cross checking
37:10 – 🇷🇺 PP GOAL – Petrov (Gusev, Kharlamov)

3rd Period
46:04 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Kapustin, holding
54:18 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Hull (Lacroix, McKenzie)
55:16 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Bodunov, hooking

GOALTENDERS
T: 🇨🇦 Cheevers (25-28)
T: 🇷🇺 Tretyak (31-34)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇦 9+10+15 = 34
🇷🇺 8+11+9 = 28

ROSTERS
🇨🇦 Goaltenders: Gerry Cheevers, Don McLeod. Defence: Rick Ley, Brad Selwood, Paul Shmyr, Rick Smith, Pat Stapleton (C), J.C. Tremblay. Forwards: Ralph Backstrom, Serge Bernier, Paul Henderson, Réjean Houle, Gordie Howe (A), Bobby Hull (A), Andre Lacroix, Bruce MacGregor, Frank Mahovlich, John McKenzie, Marc Tardif, Mike Walton.
🇷🇺 Goaltenders: Alexander Sidelnikov, Vladislav Tretyak. Defence: Alexander Gusev, Viktor Kuznetsov, Vladimir Lutchenko, Yuri Lyapkin, Gennadi Tsygankov, Valeri Vasiliev. Forwards: Vyacheslav Anisin, Alexander Bodunov, Sergei Kapustin, Valeri Kharlamov, Sergei Kotov, Yuri Lebedev, Alexander Maltsev, Boris Mikhailov (C), Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Shadrin, Viktor Shalimov, Alexander Yakushev.

Article Credit: The Hockey News
Photo Credit: Team Canada 1974: The Lost Series – IIHF – HHOF – IOC