🇷🇺 Soviet Union 8-5 Canada 🇨🇦
Summit Series, Game 3
Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg 🇨🇦
Saturday, 21 September 1974

With a win and a tie, no one would have been surprised had Bill Harris stuck with the same lineup for Game 3 at the Winnipeg Arena.

Instead, he made six changes. Among them was Gordie Howe, who was given the game off to heal the bruised ribs he had sustained in Game 2, and Gerry Cheevers, who stayed back in Toronto after his father-in-law had suffered a heart attack at Maple Leaf Gardens. But Harris’ other moves were to fulfill an earlier promise he’d made in training camp.

“God rest his soul,” Brad Selwood says. “I love Billy Harris. He’s a wonderful man. He told us in Edmonton, on Day 1, ‘You’ve all given up part of your summers, and you will all play in this series.’ And he was true to his word, without a doubt. However, when you score late to tie in Québec City, you got some confidence. Then, you go into Toronto and win 4-1. I don’t think that’s the time to shake the roster up.”

To a player on Team Canada, this is where they say the series started to slip away from them. They had the Soviets on the ropes, and they let them off.

Réjean Houle: “We felt that we had the right lineup when we won that game, the second game, in Toronto. So, why change the lineup when you’re winning?”

Paul Henderson: “As soon as I saw the lineup, it took the wind right out of our sails. It did mine, anyway.”

Mark Howe: “I wasn’t for that. I thought they should’ve stayed with the lineup we had, but that wasn’t my spot, and we got drubbed pretty good.”

With a depleted lineup, Harris had handed Team USSR a gift, one that Alexander Yakushev took full advantage of with a hat trick as the Soviets ran away with the game 8-5. Only a late third-period flurry of three goals in a minute-and-a-half for Team Canada saved the score from looking as lopsided as the lineups.

“We all agree that was the turning point, as far as we were concerned,” Selwood says. “It gave the Soviets more confidence, because we had them down a little bit. We had them second-guessing the way things were going, and then, they scored eight and got confidence going into Vancouver.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
05:02 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Lacroix, slashing
06:30 – 🇷🇺 PEN SHOT – Maltsev missed
13:25 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Smith, cross checking
14:58 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – MacGregor (Henderson)
17:25 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Yakushev (Shadrin)
19:15 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Walton, tripping

2nd Period
21:23 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Mikhailov (Petrov)
23:26 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Hamilton, cross checking
25:49 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, roughing
25:49 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Kuznetsov, roughing
28:16 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Shadrin, slashing
32:40 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Webster (Bernier, Tardif)
33:24 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, roughing
33:24 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Lebedev, roughing
35:14 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Vasiliev (Mikhailov, Petrov)
35:31 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Maltsev (Anisin)

3rd Period
42:35 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Yakushev (Shadrin)
48:44 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Bodunov
51:27 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Yakushev
52:20 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Kuznetsov, holding
54:31 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Henderson
55:04 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Henderson (Harrison, MacGregor)
56:01 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Bernier (Tardif, Stapleton)
58:05 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Lebedev (Lutchenko)
58:56 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Lutchenko, holding

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇷🇺 Tretyak (29-34)
L: 🇨🇦 McLeod (31-39)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇷🇺 11+16+12 = 39
🇨🇦 8+14+12 = 34

ROSTERS
🇷🇺 Goaltenders: Alexander Sidelnikov, Vladislav Tretyak. Defence: Alexander Filippov, Alexander Gusev, Viktor Kuznetsov, Vladimir Lutchenko, Yuri Lyapkin, Gennadi Tsygankov, Valeri Vasiliev. Forwards: Vyacheslav Anisin, Alexander Bodunov, Valeri Kharlamov, Yuri Lebedev, Alexander Maltsev, Boris Mikhailov (C), Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Shadrin, Viktor Shalimov, Alexander Volchkov, Alexander Yakushev.
🇨🇦 Goaltenders: Gilles Gratton, Don McLeod. Defence: Al Hamilton, Marty Howe, Paul Shmyr, Rick Smith, Pat Stapleton (C), J.C. Tremblay. Forwards: Ralph Backstrom, Serge Bernier, Jim Harrison, Paul Henderson, Mark Howe, Bobby Hull (A), Andre Lacroix, Bruce MacGregor, John McKenzie, Marc Tardif, Mike Walton, Tom Webster.

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