Canada Cup awarded at Portage and Main

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This article was published 05/10/2020 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Oct. 3, 1981, at the corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street, Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Bud Jobin presented a Canada Cup trophy to Vladimir Mechulayev, a counsellor from the U.S.S.R. embassy in Ottawa.

Let’s look back at what led to this happening.

The 1981 Canada Cup hockey tournament was played Sept. 1 to 13 with six teams involved: Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Sweden, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. They first played a round-robin with the top four squads competing in the semi-finals. The final was one-game, winner-take-all.

Winnipeg fans got to see five round-robin games with the highlight a 4-4 tie between Canada and the Czechs in front of 10,932 at the Winnipeg Arena. St. Vital’s Butch Goring of the New York Islanders had a shorthanded goal for Canada. The Soviet squad was on display three times in Winnipeg. The Russians tied the Czechs 1-1, and beat Sweden 6-3 and Finland 6-1.

In the other game in Winnipeg, the locals were reminded of the magic of ex-Jets Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson of Sweden. The pair each had a goal and an assist in a 5-0 shutout of Finland. Hedberg was selected as Sweden’s best player in three of its games.

Except for the one Canadian game, crowds were poor in Winnipeg, averaging a little over 3,200.  

Round-robin play concluded on Sept. 9 in Montreal, when Canada scored five times in the third period to beat the Soviets 7-3 and finish in first place. Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur scored for Canada  in the first two periods. A third-period outburst came off the sticks of Rick Middleton, Marcel Dionne, Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy and Goring. The losers did not play star goalie Vladislav Tretiak and some reporters suggested that the Soviets were “playing possum.”

In the semi-finals, the Russians beat the Czechs 4-1 with Tretiak frustrating the opposition shooters, and Canada won 4-1 over the U.S.A. Fort Garry’s Brian Engblom, a Montreal Canadiens defenseman, got Canada off to a quick start, scoring at 2:01 of the first and Bossy scored twice before the period ended. Dionne had the fourth goal while Mike Eaves scored for the losers.

The final in the Montreal Forum, in front of 17,033 fans, can only be described as humiliating for the host country, with the Soviets winning 8-1. The first period was scoreless with Tretiak at his best in the Soviet goal. Danny Gare, Engblom and Goring all had excellent chances early in the second but to no avail. The teams then traded goals, but Sergei Shepelev scored two for the Soviets before the period ended and made it a natural hat trick early in the third. They added four more in the final few minutes.

The drama didn’t end with the loss. The winners planned to take the Canada Cup home to Russia. After being included in a team photo, the trophy was placed in a hockey bag to go to the airport. When tournament organizer Alan Eagleson found out, he took it back informing them that the $40,000 nickel trophy belonged to the Canadian government and would stay in Canada.

Winnipeg businessman and sports supporter George Smith believed the winning team had earned the right to the trophy. He began a fundraising campaign for a replacement trophy that received support from across Canada. More than $32,000 was raised and Western Industrial Machine Shop and Galaxy Chrome in Winnipeg and the Heritage Foundry in Winkler, Man., donated material and time. The end result was a nickel-plated Canada Cup trophy that Smith felt would be a gesture from Canadians to make up for Eagleson’s action. Leftover funds were donated to minor hockey associations in Winnipeg and Winkler.

Mechulayev said the trophy he accepted on behalf of the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation came from the hearts of Canadian hockey fans. The plan was to display it in the Place of Sports in Moscow.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com