Canada Russia '72

It was the most historic goal in Canadian hockey history - a moment when an entire country leapt to its feet in a collective cheer.  And now CBC Television will air the highly anticipated two-part, four hour mini-series CANADA RUSSIA ’72 on Sunday April 9 and Monday 10 at 8:00 p.m. The movie tells the whole story for the very first time, recreating the actual games and offering insight into the behind-the-scenes intrigues of the defining moment in Canadian history. 

Many Canadians vividly remember the 1972 Summit Series, and the moment Paul Henderson scored the winning goal in the last electrifying minute of the final game, giving Canada one of its greatest hockey victories ever.

The remarkable cast includes Booth Savage, as Team Canada Head Coach Harry Sinden, Mark Owen, as Assistant Coach John Ferguson, Judah Katz, as NHL player rep and Canadian troubleshooter Alan Eagleson, and Sonia LaPlante as Gabrielle Fournier, a fictional composite character in the Canadian diplomatic corps. Team Canada hockey stars are played by David Berni as Phil Esposito, Gabriel Hogan as Ken Dryden, David Miller as Paul Henderson, John Bregar as Bobby Clarke and Gerry Dee as Wayne Cashman among others.  It was filmed entirely on location in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. 

CANADA RUSSIA '72 is shot in a fluid documentary style that effectively captures all the immediacy of the '72 hockey summit’s intrigues. This exciting recreation of the hockey series that spawned an enduring national myth about determination, pride, and heart also features a soundtrack of Canada’s greatest hits of the era, including songs by The Guess Who, Crowbar, Lighthouse, Leonard Cohen, The Five Man Electrical Band, The Poppy Family and The Band.

Canadians fully expected Team Canada, consisting of the hottest professional players from The National Hockey League, to crush the state-supported ‘amateurs’ from Russia. But things did not go as assumed.  Uncharacteristically booed by the public on and off the ice, called “bums” by their own countrymen and savaged in the media, the team would need a near impossible three straight victories in the three final games in Moscow to grab the series victory. Despite every adversity, the team rallied under Phil Esposito’s fiery leadership and staged three storybook, come-from-behind wins, culminating in Paul Henderson’s now legendary goal to win the series. The summit victory not only won the trophy for Team Canada but salvaged an entire nation’s pride. 

Unknown to most Canadians, however, the exciting action on the ice was just the tip of the iceberg. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, there was as much intrigue and maneuvering going on behind- the-scenes as there was on the ice. In CANADA RUSSIA '72 viewers see not only the recreated games but, for the first time, are also privy to the intense off-ice goings-on that were such an integral part of this tournament. For the '72 summit wasn’t just about hockey. Although the series was originally called The Friendship Series, it more closely resembled a war - a titanic struggle to determine the superiority of either the capitalist, democratic West or the totalitarian Communist USSR.