Hartford Connecticut ... Tom Hine, Hartford Courant
Harry Neale sipped a little tradition out of one of the Soviet
Union’s favorite past times Monday night, and the New England
Whalers stole the thunder out of the Russian’s playbook after
an unbelievable, surprisingly convincing, 5-2 exhibition win
at the Civic Center.
“I may have some vodka tonight, without any mixer,” Neale quipped
outside the jubilant Whalers locker room after a win of such
magnitude most of the sellout crowd will never know.
This was the strongest Soviet Union hockey team ever put on ice
and one which has a score to settle after last year’s Canada
Cup defeat let alone that national pride it hopes to regain in
the next World championship.
It was a bitter blow for the Russians to watch a bunch of Whalers,
hanging by a toenail in fourth place in the east division standings,
beat them convincingly.
“It was a great emotional effort that will probably cost us
two points tomorrow night, but it was worth it tonight,” said
Neale who boards a plane this morning for the Whalers game in
St. Paul this evening.
“I don’t expect that we could play with that emotional intensity
every night. But our players, I think, were as upset as I was,
after last Monday’s game with the Czechs.”
“I wouldn’t classify it as our usual effort, but this wasn’t
a usual opponent. Maybe that brings out the best in us. We didn’t
even talk about this game until today, but when you can beat
a team like that, you’ve got to be pleased. It was something
we can look back at and refer to in other games that are big
ones. When we broke down (Cap) Raeder made the saves.”
The Whalers hustling penalty killer Garry Swain was selected
Most Valuable Player, for the winners, an honor he and may others
deserved.
Some in the crowd felt Raeder deserved it. ‘I wouldn’t want to
be the selector,” said Neale. “Picking one wouldn’t be fair to
the other 18 guys who didn’t get it.”
That was the kind of effort the Whalers got and needed for nothing
short of one of their most historical wins, not just in their
first five years in the WHA, but in the next five or ten as well.
When Swain deflected in Doug Roberts’ bid for the Whalers first
goal of night and a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of play, the
Civic Center exploded, but it’s safe to say most thought the
Whalers edge would never last.
The Whalers’lead did last, and their ranks were given a big boost
when Swain, Tom Earl, Ron Busniuk and Gordie Roberts killed ever
so convincingly the Soviets first power play chance of the night.
The Big Red Machine never got a chance to put it’s well-tuned
precision attack in motion.
Less than a minute later with seven still to play in the first
period, the Whalers started to make believers of a house full
of doubters when Alan Hangsleben left a perfect drop pass for
Earl who bear the legendary Vladislav Tretiak almost too easily
to believe.
Alexsandr Malstev’s deflection off Raeder on a Soviet power play
exactly three minutes later made things closer but only 53 seconds,
the Whalers got their two-goal lead back when Gary Macgregor
connected with a difficult, high-tipped deflection in the slot.
So awesome was the Whalers dominance in the first period they
held a 19-8 edge in shots on goal. That changed drastically in
a scoreless second period when the Soviets rang up a 13-3 bulge
but came away frustratedly empty handed thanks to the work of
the New England penalty killers.
The Whalers at one point stymied the Soviet power play for 80
seconds with only three skaters of their own on the ice.
The Whalers killed another two-minute power play at the end of
the second period and still one more early in the third before
the Russians beat Raeder for the second time and last time on
Aleksandr Yakushev’s connection off Vladimir Shadrin’s rebound.
That 3-2 score appeared very much in danger of turning the momentum
with 15 minutes still to play, but the Whalers didn’t let it
happen and their fans wouldn’t let them. Jim Troy called up from
Providence Monday like Earl was, hit George Lyle from the right
boards for a doorstep connection with 13 minutes to play and
after Raeders heroics, Lyle got his second of the night on a
classic fake past Tretiak.
The Whalers may have been riding high all night at a feverous
emotional pitch that undoubtedly leave them dragging this morning.
But the surprising thing Monday night, excluding the final score,
was that the Soviets, not the Whalers, were the tired ones when
it was all over.
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