🇷🇺 Soviet Union 5-2 Canada 🇨🇦
Summit Series, Game 6
Luzhniki Palace Of Sports, Moscow 🇷🇺
Thursday, 03 October 1974

Ahead of a crucial Game 6, the players on Team Canada decided to gather together in one of their rooms to discuss a change in strategy.

When they returned to Luzhniki Ice Palace, they found that the Soviets had tweaked theirs in kind. Less than three minutes in, Team Canada was down 2-0. By the time it ended, Team USSR had cruised to an easy 5-2 win.

The mounting frustration that began at the airport and the hotel, and carried over into Game 5, culminated in outright violence in Game 6.

In the first period, Pat Stapleton speared Alexander Gusev in the groin. In the second, Valeri Vasiliev pounded a defenseless Bruce MacGregor, who didn’t fight back in the expectation Vasiliev would receive the mandatory misconduct for instigating under international rules. Instead, Soviet referee Victor Dombrowski gave them both five minutes for fighting.

In the third period, Marty Howe shoved one of the linesmen after exchanging slashes with Yuri Lebedev. Then, just as Bobby Clarke had done in Game 6 in 1972, Rick Ley took aim at Valeri Kharlamov.

“Canadians, they are men; they do not like to lose,” Vladislav Tretyak says. “If they thought they could intimidate us, well, it was useless to intimidate us, because we’d already been through 1972, and we already knew how Canadians play.”

At the end of the game, depending on which report you read, Kharlamov either speared or butt-ended Ley or tapped him on the shoulder or backside. He then smiled and pointed at the scoreboard. Ley, who Kharlamov had beaten on two of the goals, lit him up with a flurry of punches that left the Soviet star bloodied and cleared the benches.

“We thought Ricky was going to go to jail,” Andre Lacroix says. “Because in Russia, you go to jail if you do that.”

Boris Kulagin said as much after the game, while Canadian media and politicians called for Ley to be sent home. Ley would apologize to Kharlamov in person the next day.

The players on Team Canada returned to the hotel knowing there was no way for them to win the series. At best, they could only tie. Fresh off the loss, some of them gathered in the hotel lobby, where third-string goalie Gilles Gratton attempted to lighten the mood.

“He sat down and played the Russian national anthem on the piano, and he couldn’t read a note,” Henderson says. “It was unbelievable. It’s a great piece of music, but it’s too long to listen to when you’ve lost the friggin’ game, I’ll tell you that.”

BOXSCORE
1st Period
00:34 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Mikhailov (Kharlamov)
00:53 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Marty Howe, elbowing
02:43 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Vasiliev
15:56 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Houle (Shmyr)
15:38 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Smith, cross checking
16:38 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Tardif, 10 min. misconduct

2nd Period
26:15 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – G. Howe (Mark Howe)
28:22 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Anisin (Vikulov, Kapustin)
32:22 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Mark Howe, cross checking
32:44 – 🇨🇦 PEN – MacGregor, fighting major
32:44 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Vasiliev, fighting major
33:57 – 🇷🇺 PP GOAL – Shatalov (Tsygankov)

3rd Period
50:54 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Smith, slashing
50:54 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Kharlamov, slashing
53:00 – 🇷🇺 GOAL – Kharlamov (Vikulov)
55:04 – 🇷🇺 PEN – Lebedev, slashing
55:04 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Mark Howe, 10 min. misconduct
60:00 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ley, game misconduct

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇷🇺 Tretyak (26-28)
L: 🇨🇦 Cheevers (24-29)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇷🇺 14+8+7 = 29
🇨🇦 13+9+6 = 28

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, Sergei Kapustin, Valeri Kharlamov, Yuri Lebedev, Alexander Maltsev, Boris Mikhailov (C), Vladimir Petrov, Vladimir Shadrin, Vladimir Vikulov, 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, Paul Henderson, Réjean Houle, Gordie Howe (A), Mark Howe, Bobby Hull (A), Andre Lacroix, Bruce MacGregor, Frank Mahovlich, John McKenzie, Marc Tardif.

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