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PRESS ROOM 1974: Game 2
MONTREAL GAZETTE
by BRODIE SNYDER
September 19, 1974
Toronto
When they announced the World Hockey Association
players who
would make up Team Canada 74 last July, Chicago
Black Hawks general
manger Tommy Ivan scoffed, commenting that one his
former employees,
"Andre Lacroix, wouldn't be among the 20 guys
on our team."
Last night the tiny center from Lauzon, Quebec
scored one goal,
assisted on two others, checked all over the ice,
and helped
kill penalties flawlessly as Team WHA stunned the
Russians 4-1,
to take a 1-0-1 lead in the eight game series.
"Beautiful," said coach Billy Harris
afterward. "We weren't as
sharp as in the first game, but we were gutsier."
The Canadians won despite the loss for the last
55 minutes of
the game of Gordie Howe, acknowledged as one of
the team leaders
with Bobby Hull. Howe went out with bruised ribs
and is a doubtful
starter for Game 3 on Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg.
A goal that the Russians and almost everyone among
the 16,485
people in Maple Leaf Gardens, thought they scored
at the two-minute
mark of the third period with Canada leading 3-1
may have been
the turning point, although Russian coach Boris
Kulagin wouldn't
say that.
Vladimir Petrov, the center on the Russians best
line with Valery
Kharlamov, and Boris Mikhailov, tested Gerry Cheevers,
again
spectacular in goal for Team Canada, with a point
blank blast
from the slot. Cheevers made a brilliant stop, sliding
to the
ice but had no chance as Petrov picked up his own
rebound and
fired the puck high over him.
The puck appeared to strike the twine just under
the crossbar,
where the net is tautest and bounced right out again.
As goal
judge Jack Schmidt put the red light on - and kept
it on for
a good 15 seconds - referee Tom Brown of Canada
immediately waved
the goal off and allowed play to continue.
The Russians protested heatedly, to no avail and
Kulagin called
them to the bench, gesturing all the while to a
TV monitor beside
the Soviet bench on which he wanted Brown to take
a look at the
replay. Brown would have no part of that and the
Russians finally
skated back out to resume play.
"The referee was in a good position to make
the call" Harris
said, "and he waved no goal right away."
Kulagin said, " I don't think it was a disputed
goal. I think
it was an indisputable goal. It hurt us undoubtedly.
It slowed
us."
He added that he hopes he won't see Brown referring
again in
this series. "But these are friendly matches"
he added, "so let's
not talk about him anymore."
The Canadians had built their 3-1 lead by taking
the play to
the Russians right from the start, just as they
did in Tuesday
nights 3-3 tie in Quebec City.
They killed of a penalty to Rick Smith easily,
and then moved
to the attack with the first goal coming on a brilliant
passing
play among Gordie Howe, son Mark, and Ralph Backstrom.
Gordie started it with a rink wide pass to Mark
at the Russian
blue line. The youngster flew in from the side pulling
Russian
goalie Vladislav Tretiak his way, then slid the
puck across to
Backstrom. All Ralph had to do was tap it in.
"It's the Russians who are supposed to make
those plays," Gordie
joked after the game.
That was it for the net however for the elder Howe.
"I don't know what happened", Gordie
said. "I felt a little twinge
as I went to the bench after the shift and then
I couldn't lift
my left arm".
"I think I moved too fast for my age"
he said with a laugh.
Gordie stayed on the bench for the rest of the
first period,
but got out of uniform then watched the rest of
the game from
an entrance near the Canadians dressing room.
X-rays showed no break but Harris said he won't
decide until
tomorrow if Gordie will play in Winnipeg Saturday.
"The injury messed up our game plan,"
Harris said and made it
tough on the three other lines. But Ralph and Mark
did a super
job killing penalties. They were out there 3 times
and almost
got a goal each time."
Team Canada boosted its lead to 2-0 just after
the midway mark
of the first period, with a power play goal while
Russian forward
Sergei Kapustin was off for interference.
Lacroix won a faceoff in the Russian end and got
the puck back
to the point. It came across to J.C. Tremblay and
while Tretiak
made a fine stop on his blast he was helpless as
Lacroix poked
in the rebound.
"I just banged at it," Lacroix said.
"I didn't think I could
score a goal but I just banged at it and it went
in."
The Canadians carried the play for the balance
of the period,
although outshot by the Russians 13-10, and only
Paul Henderson
rattling a blast off the goalpost and Frank Mahovlich
missing
the net from the slot kept the Soviets in the game.
At the other end of the ice, Cheevers - who rushed
to the hospital
immediately after the game to be with his father-in-law,
who
suffered a heart attack in the stands during the
first period
intermission - was spectacular on point blank drives
from Mikhailov
and Alexander Yakushev.
The second period was all Team Canada's, as they
outshot the
Russians 16-8, but the best they could do was one
goal, as Tretiak
made a dozen exceptional stops from Canadian forwards
who had
burst into the clear.
These included a stop off Mike Walton on a penalty
shot, called
when Walton was hauled down as he went right in
on goal. Walton
elected to fire a slap shot from about 20 feet and
Tretiak was
there to stop it.
Team Canada had moved into a 3-0 lead earlier in
the period as
Lacroix fed Bobby Hull and he beat Tretiak from
in close for
his third goal of the two games. Johnny McKenzie
had started
the play in the Canadians zone, tipping the puck
past a Russian
out to Lacroix.
"I hollered" ‘on the boards' Lacroix
said. The Russians don't
speak English and so Pie passed it on the boards."
That set up a two-on-one against Soviet Victor
Kuznestov. "I
faked a pass to Bobby," Lacroix said "and
he (Kuznestov) put
his stick on the ice. I faked again and then got
it over to Bobby
when I knew he wouldn't miss."
"I thought I might miss if I shot, but I knew
Bobby wouldn't."
Bobby didn't flipping the puck high over Tretiaks'
shoulder.
The Russians took command for a time after Walton
missed his
penalty shot about the 9-minute mark but Cheevers
held them out
even while Frank Mahovlich was off for slashing.
But soon after
he returned Yakushev gave Cheevers no chance with
a low shot
from the slot to cap a pretty passing play.
But Team Canada roared back, testing Tretiak again
and again,
and killing off a high sticking penalty to Lacroix
without trouble.
But the Russians roared out for the third period
even after losing
the disputed goal, and the Canadians seemed to sag
badly. But
they wasted great chances with terrible shooting.
Team Canada's third power play goal of the series
- Team Canada
72 had only two in 8 games - put this one away.
Lacroix did a
beautiful job controlling the puck in the Russian
end, finally
getting it back to Tremblay. He drifted a shot from
the point
that went into the net off the unfortunate Kuznetsov.
J.C. took a high sticking penalty with a minute
left but the
Russians had no fight by then. With 18 seconds to
go, and play
halted for a faceoff the huge crowd began to cheer
rising to
its feet. They kept cheering to the end in tribute
to a team
that wasn't supposed to win.
‘The crowd was great" Harris said. "They
really gave us a lift."
The Canadian coach said "there's a good chance
that Donny McLeod
will be in goal in Winnipeg and that there will
be some other
changes too. We'll wait to see if any other injuries
crop up
overnight then sit down tomorrow in Winnipeg and
decide."
Soviet coach Kulagin said he thought the Canadians
played well.
"I think our tactics in this game were quite
correct. The unfortunate
thing was that our players did not follow the tactical
plan."
His best defenceman Aleksandr Gusev did not play
in the third
period but Kulagin said he was not hurt. "He
just played poor
hockey."
And do it's on to Winnipeg for Team WHA which has
already accomplished
more than almost everyone thought it would.
"And we're going to get better", Lacroix
said. They'd been skating
10 months and we'd been skating two weeks, so you
know they started
in better condition. But we're going to get even
better."
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