Terry Ruskowski, "The Game I'll Never Forget", the Winnipeg Jets Win Final Avco Cup

The Game I'll Never Forget - Terry Ruskowski recalls game that won the World Hockey Association's Avco Cup Hockey Digest,  Feb, 2001  by Chuck O'Donnell .

Terry Ruskowski The perennial leader recalls how a team once divided came together to, win the final Avco Cup title I HAD ONE OF THE WORST injuries of my career--a hyperextended shoulder or a sprained shoulder or something--during the 1979 World Hockey Association Finals. Whatever-I had done to my shoulder, I had trouble just putting on my Winnipeg Jets jersey because I couldn't raise my arm over my head. Someone had checked me into the boards during our Finals series with the Edmonton Oilers. My shoulder was so sore, I sat out Game 5. There were a couple of days between Game 5 and Game 6, so the trainers worked on it nonstop. They treated it with therapy and messaging and all that.

Before Game 6, coach Tom McVie approached me in the locker room. "Can you play?" McVie asked. I was a young kid back then. I didn't know any better so I just looked at him. "Oh yeah, I can play," I said. It didn't matter that I could barely move my arm, I was going to play in Game 6--although I knew that there was no way I would be able to play if the series had to go the distance. It was pretty amazing that we were just one victory away from winning the Avco Cup considering everything we had been through that season. What a weird year. In November, Bobby Hull retired. Then, our captain, defenseman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, was lost for a chunk of the season with an injury. Veteran defenseman Ted Green retired. When the Indianapolis Racers folded during the season, that left only six teams in the league, and every team was really good.

We were hovering in the middle of the pack for most of the season. One of our biggest problems was that the team was splint into two factions. On one side of the room, you have the Jets On the other side, you had all the players the Jets obtained when the Houston Aeros folded. John Ferguson was brought in as the team's new general manager. Eventually Ferguson's patience ran thin and coach Larry Hillman was fired. Ferguson brought in McVie with about 40 games remaining in the season.

Eventually, Ferguson and McVie turned the team around. McVie came into the dressing room and put a halt to the divisive atmosphere. From then on, we played well. We had a lot of talent. Players such as Peter Sullivan, Kent Nilsson, and Morris Lukowich were among league leaders in scoring every year. We had some toughness in defenseman Kim Clackson and Scott Campbell. We had some good checkers in Bill Lesuk and Lyle Moffat. I played on a line with Willy Lindstrom on one wing and Rich Preston on the other. We worked together well.

Rich was having a terrific playoff run and Willy was a very skilled player. We were a two-way line. Rich and I killed penalties and sometimes we played the power play. Eventually we went from a team divided to a team united.

I'll never forget one incident in particular. We made a trade for this goalie, Gary Smith. He came walking into the locker room. He was pretty much overweight. He sat down and he said, "Half you guys don't know me, but my name is Gary 'The Ax' Smith because I've been around 15 teams in the past two years. My goals against is about 5.33 and I won one game and lost 13. But don't let that fool you: I'm not that good." Everyone just cracked up. But you could see we were coming together as a team.

United, we upset the high-scoring Nordiques in the first round and faced the Oilers for the title. Edmonton finished first in the league by a wide margin. They had this guy named Wayne Gretzky, who was young and on the rise. He was one of seven guys they had on the team who scored 25 or more goals that year. Their coach was this guy named Glen Sather, who was doing a pretty good job himself. Winning Games 1, 2, and 4, we entered Game 6--the game I'll never forget--hoping to win the last Avco Cup championship.

It was announced at few months earlier that the WHA and the NHL were going to merge in the fall, so everyone knew this would be the final Avco Cup. Even with a throbbing shoulder, I wasn't going to miss this opportunity. During the pregame skate, the trainers rubbed some hot ointment on my shoulder and wrapped it up. I had to go running back into the trainer's room. I felt like I had third-degree burns on my shoulder. I said to them, "You have to take this stuff off."

When I took the ice, minus the hot ointment, it was like the injury went away. We took a 2-0 lead on them in the first period. I assisted on goals by Lindstrom and defenseman Barry Long. The defenseman wasn't known as a goal scorer, but he sure was on that day. I set Long up for another goal in the second period as we just blew the game open. We poured it on in the third, and I assisted on another goal by Willy. When the final buzzer sounded, we had a 7-3 win, I had four assists, and we were about to parade around with the Avco Cup. We cherished that trophy as if it was the Stanley Cup. You want all your life--and you fight all year long--to win a championship.

I had won the Avco Cup with the Aeros, but the second time was more meaningful because I participated more. When I won with Houston, I was on the fourth line. I was just a rookie. With the Jets, it was more of a baffle. We had been through leaguewide changes and coaching changes and trades and everything. This was great.