🇷🇺 Soviet Union 3-2 Canada 🇨🇦
Summit Series, Game 5
Luzhniki Palace Of Sports, Moscow 🇷🇺
Tuesday, 01 October 1974

Dubbed the Friendship Series before it began, the series had become anything but by the time Team Canada touched down in Moscow.

Along with their luggage, the players had other baggage – a payload of preconceptions from the politics of the time.

“Probably the biggest thing in 1974, you were mentally programmed just to hate these people, literally,” Mark Howe says. “There really was an absolute hatred for the people. And that was everybody, not just me. That’s part of the mentality of the series.”

As soon as the puck dropped for Game 5, that hatred was evident – on both sides. The hard but comparatively clean first four games were replaced with Soviet stick work, Canadian retaliation and interesting officiating.

As he did ahead of Game 1, Boris Mikhailov set the tone early when he attempted to saw off Gerry Cheevers’ ankles in the first minute of the game. With that, the relative discipline Team Canada had maintained back home disappeared as quickly as the players’ steaks and beer.

Their collective frustration even overcame otherwise mild-mannered finesse center Ralph Backstrom, who drew a 10-minute misconduct when he protested a non-call after Valeri Kharlamov slew-footed him right underneath the nose of Polish referee Waldo Szczapek.

Even still, Team USSR could only eke out a 3-2 win, as Cheevers played perhaps his best game of the series. By now, Team Canada realized they weren’t there to make friends, as politicians back home had hoped. It was war on ice.

“As far as we were concerned, we were the enemy,” Andre Lacroix says. “They knew we didn’t like them, and I don’t think they liked us either. Not just because of hockey. In general.

They hated us more because we had freedom and they didn’t.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
02:32 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Mahovlich, holding
05:34 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Maltsev (Vikulov, Anisin)
06:59 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Petrov, roughing
06:59 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ley, roughing
15:07 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Selwood, cross checking

2nd Period
20:15 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – G. Howe (Backstrom, M. Howe)
24:14 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Webster, slashing
27:02 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Lebedev, high sticking
33:52 – 🇨🇦 PEN – McKenzie, hooking
35:04 – 🇷🇺 PP GOAL – Maltsev (Shadrin, Vikulov)
38:52 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Kharlamov, roughing
38:52 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Bernier, roughing

3rd Period
42:46 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Lacroix, slashing
44:37 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Backstrom, 10 min. misconudct
45:38 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Shadrin, elbowing
51:48 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Gusev
56:21 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Bodunov, hooking
58:10 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – M. Howe (Shmyr)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇷🇺 Tretyak (14-16)
L: 🇨🇦 Cheevers (24-27)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇷🇺 9+10+8 = 27
🇨🇦 4+4+8 = 16

ROSTERS
🇷🇺 Goaltenders: Alexander Sidelnikov, Vladislav Tretyak. Defence: Alexander Gusev, Viktor Kuznetsov, Vladimir Lutchenko, Yuri Shatalov, Gennadi Tsygankov, Yuri Tyurin, Valeri Vasiliev. Forwards: Vyacheslav Anisin, Alexander Bodunov, Valeri Kharlamov, Sergei Kotov, Yuri Lebedev, Alexander Maltsev, Boris Mikhailov (C), Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Shadrin, Viktor Shalimov, Vladimir Vikulov.
🇨🇦 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), Mark Howe, Bobby Hull (A), Andre Lacroix, Frank Mahovlich, John McKenzie, Mike Walton, Tom Webster.

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