Reliving the Summit Series

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This article was published 06/09/2016 (3559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ian and Frank Restall got a chance Tuesday night to reminisce about the greatest hockey game they’ve ever seen live.

And the Winnipeg brothers heard the stories from the men who made those memories happen.

The Restalls were in the audience of approximately 1,000 at the Centennial Concert Hall as eight members of Team Canada from the 1972 Summit Series took the stage and shared some on- and off-ice tales from that historic event.

In fact, Tuesday marked the 44th anniversary of Canada’s 4-4 tie with the Soviet Union at Winnipeg Arena in Game 3 of the eight-game series — a series the Canadians would eventually win 4-3-1.

Serge Savard, Ken Dryden, Yvan Cournoyer, Dennis Hull, Bobby Clarke, Pat Stapleton, Peter Mahovlich and Brad Park were on the roster for the Winnipeg stop of the tour. They’re older and grizzled, and there’s nothing chiselled about these hockey immortals.

But the legends got several standing ovations from a boisterous crowd, many wearing their best red and whites. A similar event was held in Montreal, and stops in Vancouver on Thursday and Toronto on Saturday round out the tour.

Frank Restall, 55, said the thrill of attending that game at the Winnipeg Arena in the fall of ’72 is forever etched in his memory.

“I was 11 years old and I went with my brother who was 13 and he’s the one who secured the tickets for us,” he said. “It was the sixth of September and the tension in this city was as great as it could ever be. Canada had lost in Montreal, they had a great win in Toronto and everyone thought that Winnipeg was going to be a turning point in the series.

“The Soviets scored two late goals in the second period to make it 4-4 and the rest of the game was scoreless. But it was back-to-back action, with fans on the edge of their seats. It was the greatest game I’ve ever attended.”

Getting your hands on tickets wasn’t easy, either, said Ian Restall, 57.

“It was a lottery for distribution of tickets, so I wrote 100 letters long hand to Hockey Canada or whatever the authority was back then,” he said. “We took the bus from the North End, there and back. What a game… it was riveting, it really was.”

Canada was hammered 7-3 in the opener in Montreal Sept. 2 but bounced back with a 4-1 triumph in Toronto, before the two sides met in Winnipeg.

Clarke, 67, Flin Flon’s favourite son and Hall of Fame forward, said the sting of that first defeat was a definite wakeup call.

“We got caught off guard. But when you get your ass kicked you have two options. You feel sorry for yourself or you get really pissed off and take it out on them,” he said.

The club lost 5-3 in Vancouver in Game 4 and was down 2-1-1 before the series switched to Moscow.

Canada lost Game 5 in hostile territory but then posted three consecutive one-goal victories, capped off with Paul Henderson’s golden goal and a 6-5 win in Game 8 to take the series 4-3-1.

Dryden, 69, one of the game’s great goalies, said there’s a reason the victory in ’72 meant so much then — and still does today.

“The buildup to 1972 was a buildup that had lasted for a decade before, at least,” he said. “You can imagine what that felt like for Canadians when, during the 1960s, somebody else year after year was the world champion, that someone else was the gold medallist (at the Olympics),” he said. “We knew we were the best but we had all these NHL players who couldn’t play (in those tournaments) because they were pros.”

Savard, 70, the legendary Montreal rearguard who played parts of two seasons with the Winnipeg Jets from 1981-83, said there was simply no quit in the Team Canada dressing room.

“I don’t know anyone on that team that didn’t play the best hockey of their careers,” he said. “Everybody brought up their game to another level.”

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter@WFPJasonBell