The 1974 Summit Series was the second of two competitions between Soviet and Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

players, following the same format as the 1972 Summit Series, with four games across Canada and four in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The Soviet team won the series 4–1–3, with Canada's lone victory at

Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was initially constructed in 1931 as an arena to host ice hockey games, though it has sinc ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. A significant difference from the previous series was that

Canada's Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...

roster was selected from the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

instead of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. Negotiations for the event started at the 1974 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, when

Andrey Starovoytov Andrei Vasilyevich Starovoytov (russian: Андрей Васильевич Старовойтов; 16 December 1915 – 22 March 1997) was a Soviet ice hockey administrator, referee and player. He won three Soviet ice hockey championships as a p ...

of the Soviet Union approached

Jack Devine Jack Devine is a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC. Biography Devine's career at the CIA spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, including the fall of President ...

and Gordon Juckes of the

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; french: Association canadienne de hockey amateur) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction include ...

regarding another series. Initially the event was to be six-games, but it was later extended to eight. WHA players had been banned from playing in the 1972 series.

Bobby Hull Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...

, who had just jumped from the NHL to the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...

, had been named to the Canadian team by

Harry Sinden Harry James Sinden (born September 14, 1932) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and executive. He served as a coach, general manager, and team president for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL), and was the coach of T ...

, but was not allowed to participate. The 1974 series was an opportunity for Hull and 46-year-old

Gordie Howe Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seaso ...

to play for Canada against the Soviet Union. The number one goaltender was

Gerry Cheevers Gerald Michael "Cheesie" Cheevers (born 7 December 1940) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and World Hockey Association (WHA) between 1961 and 1980. Cheevers is best known for ...

who played in seven of the eight games, missing game three to attend the funeral of his father.

Don McLeod Donald Martin "Smokey" McLeod (August 24, 1946 – March 11, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played briefly in the National Hockey League and six full seasons in the World Hockey Association between 1970 and 1978. Pl ...

and

Gilles Gratton Gilles Gratton (born July 28, 1952 in LaSalle, Quebec) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Playing career As a youth, Gratton played in the 1965 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team fr ...

were the backup goalies for Team Canada.

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, Meritorious Service Decoration (Canada), MSM ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Un ...

and

Alexander Sidelnikov Alexander Nikolaevich Sidelnikov (August 12, 1950 – June 23, 2003) was a Soviet ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. He played for Krylya Sovetov Moscow. He was inducted into the Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame in 1 ...

were the goaltenders for the Soviets, with Tretiak playing in all but game eight for the Soviets. In 1974, the two-season-old WHA was largely composed of players scavenged from the minor leagues, mixed with a few NHL stars and aging veterans. Playing on both the 1972 and 1974 teams for Canada were Paul Henderson,

Frank Mahovlich Francis William Mahovlich CM (born January 10, 1938) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and a former Liberal Senator in the Canadian Senate. He played on six Stanley Cup-winning teams and is an inductee of the Hockey Hall of Fa ...

and Pat Stapleton. The last active player from the series was

Mark Howe Mark Steven Howe (born 28 May 1955) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman and left winger who played sixteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) following six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA). He is curre ...

, who retired in 1995. Team Canada players were paid C$6,000 each for participating in the event.

Games

USSR Wins Series 4–1–3 *September 17: 3–3 played in

Quebec City, Quebec Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is th ...

*September 19: 4–1 played in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

*September 21: 5–8 played in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

*September 23: 5–5 played in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

*October 1: 3–2 played in

*October 3: 5–2 played in Moscow *October 5: 4–4 played in Moscow *October 6: 3–2 played in Moscow

Scoring leaders

(7g, 2a, 9pts) #

Alexander Yakushev Alexander Sergeyevich Yakushev (russian: Александр Серге́евич Якушев) (born January 2, 1947) is a former ice hockey player and coach for the Soviet Union. Born in Moscow, Soviet Union, Alexander Yakushev is best known to ...

(5g, 3a, 8pts) #

Ralph Backstrom Ralph Gerald Backstrom (September 18, 1937 – February 7, 2021) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and later a coach, entrepreneur and hockey executive. He played in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles ...

(4g, 4a, 8pts) #

(3g, 4a, 7pts) #

Valeri Kharlamov The French name Valery () is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin ''Walaric'' (see Walric of Leuconay), that has often been confused in modern times with the Latin name ''Valerius''—that explains the variant spelling Valéry (). The S ...

(2g, 5a, 7pts) # Vladimir Petrov (1g, 6a, 7pts) # André Lacroix (1g, 6a, 7pts) # Boris Mikhailov (4g, 2a, 6pts) #

(2g, 4a, 6pts) # John McKenzie (2g, 3a, 5pts)

Broadcasting

Like it was with the original

Summit Series The Summit Series, Super Series 72, Canada–USSR Series (russian: Суперсерия СССР — Канада, Superseriya SSSR — Kanada), or Series of the Century (french: Série du siècle, Séries of the Century), was an eight-game ic ...

in 1972, CBC and CTV split the coverage, with CTV carrying Games 1, 3, 6 and 7, while CBC aired Games 2, 4, 5 (?) and 8. CTV produced the telecasts.

Johnny Esaw Johnny Esaw, Order of Canada, CM (June 11, 1925 – April 6, 2013) was a Canadians, Canadian of Assyrian people, Assyrian descent, a sports broadcaster and television network executive. He was a pioneer of sports broadcasting in Canada, best kn ...

called the games for CTV, while

Don Chevrier Don Chevrier (December 29, 1937 – December 17, 2007) was a television and radio sports announcer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario. Biography Early life and career He began his broadcasting career at CJCA in Edmonton, Alberta at the age of ...

called the action for CBC. Howie Meeker was the colour commentator for all of the games. Both Esaw and Chevrier conducted intermission and post-game interviews during the games either one did not do play-by-play for. In the Soviet Union, coverage was orchestrated by the Ministry of Telecommunications. The first 4 games of the broadcast also featured the Gamerecorder which was the first statistics computer used in professional sports and a print of the Gamerecorder has now been accepted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.https://www.facebook.com/74SummitSeries/

DVD release

In December 2006,

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

and the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

approved the release of a 1974 Summit Series boxset.

References

External links

The Summit in 1974

Hockey Hall of Fame 1974 WHA vs USSR

The heyday of the battle for world hockey supremacy (1972–1987) {{WorldCupofHockey International ice hockey competitions hosted by Canada

Canada–Soviet Union relations International ice hockey competitions hosted by the Soviet Union Canada men's national ice hockey team games Soviet Union national ice hockey team games

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...