Peter Mahovlich recalls gesture of sportsmanship at 1972 Summit Series

Over 28 days in September in 1972, during 480 minutes of Summit Series hockey that changed the game forever, it is maybe three seconds.

Team Canada players are mobbing Game 8 hero Paul Henderson on the rink of Moscow's Luzhniki Palace of Sports, a wild melee with every Canadian player and members of the coaching and support staff having piled over the boards to join the madness; with them is goalie Ken Dryden, who has skated 180 feet from his net to join in.
Henderson's goal with 34 seconds left on the clock has given the visitors a 6-5 lead that they will hold to the end. Canada's improbable comeback is complete, from a 1-3-1 series deficit to a 4-3-1 victory in the landmark eight-game series, three consecutive wins coming on Moscow ice, all on Henderson game-winners.

The raucous celebration is unfolding maybe 10 feet to the left of beaten Soviet Union goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, who hangs his head as he absently sweeps the snow from his goal crease.
And then, a moment in the historic series as great as Henderson's clinching goal just … happens.
Canada forward Peter Mahovlich turns away from his celebrating teammates, takes a couple of strides toward the net and with his stick in his right hand, gives Tretiak two short taps on the pads, then pivots back to his team.

From the shaky video feed, Pete Mahovlich is seen leaving Team Canada's celebration of Paul Henderson's Game 8 clinching goal to tap the pads of Soviet Union goalie Vladislav Tretiak.
The video is a mess at source, the satellite uplink from Moscow relayed to Helsinki to London and finally to Canada, making Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk of three years earlier almost high definition by comparison.
Mahovlich's tap of Tretiak's pads is a quick, quiet, almost invisible gesture of supreme sportsmanship that writes an encyclopedia about what the Summit Series meant to him, and probably to every player wearing the sweaters of Canada and the Soviet Union.
"Here's what it was," Mahovlich said Friday from Glens Falls, New York, surprised that after a half-century someone had noticed. "We talk about the series having been society against society, democracy against communism, and all the rest of it. But in my mind, at the time, all that we were on the ice, all of us, were hockey players. If you can't respect that …

Pete Mahovlich moves down the Game 8 line, having just shaken the hand of Soviet Union goalie Vladislav Tretiak. Melchior DiGiacomo, Getty Images
"Sure, Tretiak was in the Russian Army, but he didn't want to be a political symbol. Nor did his teammates, nor did we on the Canadian team. That's just the way it was. He was a hockey player, just like us. Tretiak gave what he had. We were fortunate enough to win that game. You could see the dejection in him and in the rest of his team."
It was a gesture without words, Mahovlich said, something that was never discussed in the subsequent times that the two have seen each other.
Tretiak had served Canada a meal of borscht on Russian rye at the Montreal Forum on Sept. 2, 1972, a stunning 7-3 win for the Soviets in Game 1 of the Summit Series. The Soviet goalie left the city reviled by Montreal and Canadian hockey fans for what he had done against an allegedly superior team of NHL stars.

From left: Pete Mahovlich, Vladislav Tretiak and Yvan Cournoyer, the three stars of the New Year's Eve 1975 game at the Montreal Forum. Denis Brodeur, Getty Images
Fast-forward three years to New Year's Eve 1975, Tretiak's Central Red Army club team skating to a 3-3 tie against the mighty Montreal Canadiens, who were bound for four consecutive Stanley Cup championships. He, Mahovlich and Canadiens forward Yvan Cournoyer were selected the New Year's Eve game's three stars.
Tretiak cemented his reputation that night with a brilliant performance and Montreal has adored him ever since, and vice versa. He has even bought a brick in the Canadiens' Bell Centre plaza that celebrates the team's history.
Mahovlich had one goal and one assist in the seven games he played in the Summit Series, sitting out Game 4 in Vancouver after having been gently hobbled by a blocked shot in Game 3 in Winnipeg. His goal, a dramatic shorthanded beauty, came in a must-win for Canada in Game 2 at Maple Leaf Gardens on Sept. 4.
Canada was nursing a 2-1 lead early in the second period, the Soviets threatening on a 5-on-3 power-play with Bobby Clarke and Pat Stapleton in the penalty box.
Pouncing on a puck shoveled by Phil Esposito to near center ice, Mahovlich roared across the Soviet blue line, faked a slapshot and swept by defenseman Yevgeny Poladiev to his left. He pulled it to his forehand, then to his backhand to beat the sprawling Tretiak, into whom he heavily collided before happily dancing off in a way that surely makes "Slap Shot's" Hanson Brothers proud.

Pete Mahovlich waves from Team Canada's bench during a Summit Series game in Moscow. With him, from left: Rod Gilbert, Serge Savard, Bill White, Dennis Hull, Jean Ratelle and Red Berenson.
Mahovlich was with a group of his Summit Series teammates Sept. 22 in Ottawa, meeting with Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and feted by the government with a get-together with the Cabinet and a visit to the House of Commons.
Trudeau's father, Pierre, was prime minister in 1972, dropping the ceremonial face-off at the Forum to open the Summit Series; Justin had just turned eight months old.
Teammates will gather again in Toronto on Sept. 28, where they will be introduced at Scotiabank Arena before the preseason game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the visiting Canadiens, for whom Mahovlich won the Stanley Cup in 1971, 1973, 1976 and 1977.

Pete Mahovlich tries to reason with referee Josef Kompalla during Game 8 of the Summit Series in Moscow. Melchior DiGiacomo, Getty Images
"We've lost 10 guys so far from our 1972 team and a couple of guys aren't feeling well so they didn't make it to Ottawa," Mahovlich said. "Hopefully we'll have a good showing in Toronto.
"Everything about celebrating the Summit Series has been great. We were from different NHL teams when we got together in 1972, but we've certainly been teammates for the last 50 years and will be for the rest of our lives. And that's a fact.
"I had tremendous respect for Vladislav Tretiak. I was fortunate enough to score a great goal on him in 1972 and all in all, that's what the game is about, great moments for people who get an opportunity to perform."
Top photo: Pete Mahovlich scores his dramatic shorthanded goal on Soviet Union goalie Vladislav Tretiak during Game 2 of the Summit Series, defenseman Yevgeny Poladiev arriving too late to help. Melchior DiGiacomo, Getty Images