🇷🇺 Soviet Union 5-5 Canada 🇨🇦
Summit Series, Game 4
Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver 🇨🇦
Monday, 23 September 1974

Despite the presence of the ageless Gordie Howe, it was the peerless Hull who awed the Soviets in 1974.

Hull went into the series saying all the right things about the NHL having left him off the team in 1972, but it was his play in Game 4 that left the league scraping egg off its face.

“That game was Bobby Hull,” Mark Howe says. “He had Tretyak on his toes. Bobby was teeing them up and letting them go pretty good.”

But like in Québec City, where Hull had scored two goals, his hat trick in Game 4 at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum wouldn’t be enough.

With the lineup back intact, Team Canada jumped out to a three-goal lead after the first period and held a two-goal lead with less than five minutes to play in the third. It took Team USSR all of 51 seconds to tie the game 5-5.

“For me, that was the pivotal point of the series, that third period, as you look back,” Mark Howe says. “If we win the game, you’re on a high, you’re feeling good, and you’re up 2-1-1 in the series. Instead, you go over there, and you give one away. Having a one-game lead instead of being tied makes a big difference.”

Yet, even with the late-game letdown, the WHA stars had, by then, proven their critics wrong. With the series even at 1-1-2, they’d done better than their NHL counterparts through the four games in Canada.

Knowing they should’ve won three of them, they had good reason to believe they could still win the series.

Until they landed in Moscow.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
03:24 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Vasiliev (Kharlamov)
04:20 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – G. Howe (Backstrom, Stapleton)
05:24 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, elbowing
05:59 – 🇷🇺 PP GOAL – Mikhailov (Petrov)
11:38 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Gusev, slashing
12:45 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Hull (Mahovlich)
15:11 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Hull (Stapleton)
17:10 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Mahovlich (Houle, Bernier)
17:45 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Hull (Lacroix)

2nd Period
24:08 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Shmyr, roughing
31:04 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Yakushev (Lebedev)
33:35 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Petrov, interference
33:35 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Smith, interference
37:07 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ley, roughing

3rd Period
46:45 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Shadrin, slashing
47:30 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, elbowing
50:26 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, hooking
56:08 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Maltsev
56:59 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Gusev (Mikhailov, Petrov)
59:51 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Tsygankov, tripping

GOALTENDERS
T: 🇷🇺 Tretyak (23-28)
T: 🇨🇦 Cheevers (23-28)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇷🇺 12+10+6 = 28
🇨🇦 11+8+9 = 28

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

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