1987 Canada Cup

contents Acknowledgements prologue chapter 1 The Making of a Team chapter 2 Red Army chapter 3 Eagleson's Round Robin chapter 4 A Slow Start chapter 5 The Truth of Things chapter 6 Mario Lemieux with 1:26 Remaining chapter 7 Gretzky, Eagleson, Tikhonov Appendix A: Round-robin Summaries Appendix B: Tournament Statistics index It is the final minute of the second period in Game 2 of the 1987 Canada Cup final and the Canadians and Soviets have been battling like Carthage and Rome for two hours. This game, the greatest hockey game ever played, will continue for two more hours, ending midway through the second overtime period when Wayne Gretzky sets up Mario Lemieux for his third goal of the game, giving Canada a 65 win and tying the series at one game apiece. Gretzky records five assists this night. Canada has forty-five scoring chances, the Soviets thirty-eight. Four times the Soviets fall behind and claw back to tie, but they can never get the go-ahead goal behind the unflappable Grant Fuhr in the Canadian net. Canada also plays the game with ten forwards, and head coach Mike Keenan will use twenty-nine different line combinations. Gretzky calls the 1987 Canada Cup the greatest hockey of his career and this shift is a tiny, perfect microcosm of those glorious three nights in September. Gretzky has been sprung on a three-on-two rush courtesy of a surgical breakout pass from Paul Coffey. Lemieux is on his right. Michel Goulet is on his left. Defending for the Russians are Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, the best blue line pairing in the world. As he gains the Russian zone, Gretzky, a left-handed shot, veers to his right, taking Fetisov with him, and everyone at Copps Coliseum is expecting a pass to Lemieux, including Lemieux, who's scored on a textbook two-on-one with Gretzky just three minutes before. But, as Fetisov overplays to Lemieux's side, Gretzky lays a no-look, backhand saucer pass to Goulet, who is all alone in front of Russian goalie Evgeny Belosheikin. The pass, made while Gretzky is moving at top speed, is so soft and delicate it almost melts into the ice. It also puts Goulet a shade too tight to the Russian goalie and Belosheikin, who will die by his own hand twelve years later, has no trouble making the save. But the play is not over. The puck is scrambled out near the Russian blue line, where Russian star Vladimir Krutov is trying to gain clear possession. Gretzky re-materializes in front of him, steals the puck, then chips it past Kasatonov, who is about to head up-ice. Again, Gretzky is on the attack, with Lemieux on his right. Again, he drives toward Lemieux, taking the Russian defence and Belosheikin with him. With all eyes on Gretzky, however, a whipped Goulet has limped to the Team Canada bench, where twenty-four-year-old Doug Gilmour leaps over the boards and charges into the play. This time Gretzky is on his forehand before he executes a slight pivot and leaves the puck for Gilmour, who is unchecked and looking at three-quarters of an empty net. The crowd is on its feet again. Gilmour fires, and, out of nowhere, Krutov frantically slides into Gilmour's shooting lane and deflects the puck over the glass. The whole sequence, from the moment Coffey starts the rush from behind the Team Canada net, takes twenty-five seconds in real time. At its conclusion, Gretzky hobbles to the Team Canada bench and leans over, spent. Lemieux slumps by the far post next to Belosheikin. The crowd at Copps is on its feet. To this point, they've already been up and down twenty times, saluting each highlight with a sWilles, Ed is the author of '1987 Canada Cup ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780771089428 and ISBN 0771089422.