The Greatest Sporting Event in History

[Argoknot]

Peter Mahovlich was never more proud to be Canadian than after 1972 Summit Series
Stu Cowan, Montreal Gazette September 3, 2016

Peter Mahovlich has lived in the United States for the last 30-plus years, but is still a very, very proud Canadian.

And the former Canadiens centre, now 69, was never more proud than after the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union. Mahovlich scored one of the most memorable goals of that eight-game series — a short-handed effort — in Game 2 in Toronto as Canada beat the Soviets 4-1 after a stunning 7-3 loss in Game 1 at the Montreal Forum.



Friday marked the 44th anniversary of that Game 1 loss that shocked the country and Mahovlich was back in town at Place des Arts to take part in the ’72 Summit Series Tour that is travelling across Canada with players sharing their stories from that historic event with fans. Mahovlich was to be joined by Serge Savard, Ken Dryden, Yvan Cournoyer, Phil Esposito, Dennis Hull, Bobby Clarke, Pat Stapleton and Team Canada coach Harry Sinden. There will be other stops in Winnipeg Sept. 6, Vancouver Sept. 8 and Toronto Sept. 10 to celebrate the Summit Series that Canada won 4-3-1 on “The Goal” by Paul Henderson with only 34 seconds remaining in the final game.

Forty-four years have passed, but Mahovlich still remembers the feeling when Team Canada left the ice for the last time in Moscow.

“Just looking up at the (Canadian) fans who were there,” Mahovlich recalled when the ’72 Summit Series Tour was announced earlier this year. “What we accomplished. Knowing the turmoil that we went through. I’ve seen pictures of it, but I’m just looking at the fans with my gloves up in the air … and I knew my mother was in the crowd. I don’t think we would have been able to accomplish what we did without the support of the Canadian people that sent us telegrams in Moscow.”

Mahovlich’s parents had come to Canada from Yugoslavia, settling in Timmins, Ont., looking for a better life. Peter and older brother Frank were both part of Team Canada in 1972.

“They were fairly well-to-do there for them,” Mahovlich said about his parents in Europe. “My father left his country, being a land owner and a farmer, to come over here, work 25 years in the mines because he knew it was a better life for his family.”

Mahovlich remembers the Team Canada plane landing in Montreal and the players celebrating on a fire engine. He saw Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and pulled him up to enjoy the moment with them. Mahovlich thinks it’s cool that Trudeau’s son, Justin, is now Prime Minister. Mahovlich, who now lives in Queensbury, N.Y., and is a pro scout for the Florida Panthers, said he’s not a political person, adding: “I’m a human being … I like helping other people.”

“Everybody thinks (Justin) Trudeau’s too liberal right now, but he’s right,” Mahovlich said. “Let’s just keep inviting people in. It’s OK. We know that terrorism is going to affect us somewhere or somehow. But let’s not change the fact of who we are and what we are because of these idiots.”

Canada is a melting pot and the Team Canada locker room was a bit like that before the Summit Series started. Back in 1972, NHLers really didn’t like — or even speak — to players from other teams. They were the enemies, unlike today when players change teams often and are NHLPA union brothers when commissioner Gary Bettman locks them out.

“The culture of the league was such that you didn’t talk with players from other teams, even in the summertime,” Mahovlich said, adding that when the NHLers first met for a brief training camp in 1972 “it wasn’t Team Canada.”

“It was a bunch of professional athletes from different teams,” he said. “Montreal Canadiens fans were Montreal Canadiens fans. They didn’t like Bobby Clarke, they didn’t like Phil Esposito. People don’t realize how that culture has changed through time because of all the international hockey that has been played by the pros since then.”

But as the series continued and the pressure increased — with an entire country watching — the Team Canada players started to bond and would eventually become friends and teammates for life. Now they’re touring the country sharing their memories.

The World Cup of Hockey starts this month in Toronto, but it will be nothing like that Summit Series 44 years ago when the two teams — and countries — hated each other. There will never be another hockey series like it.

“When it’s all said and done, it’s about how proud it makes you feel to be a Canadian,” Mahovlich said. “We love our life, we love our lifestyle. Thank God I didn’t have to go to war. If you look at our history, when it was really, really bad and really tough, the first people to go in there were Canadians. French Canadians, English Canadians, it didn’t matter. Let’s get it done.

“It’s always nice to be part of Canadian history in a sense. That you accomplished something.”

[shayman]

Peter Mahovlich was never more proud to be Canadian than after 1972 Summit Series
S
And the former Canadiens centre, now 69, was never more proud than after the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union. Mahovlich scored one of the most memorable goals of that eight-game series — a short-handed effort — in Game 2 in Toronto

Right in front of me. Here's another goal from that game.

Attachment 792