The Summit Series as it happed fifty years ago. Today, game seven, Tuesday September 26, 1972. The Mikhailov kicking incident.

Revisiting the Summit Series as it happened on the exact same dates.

. Today, game seven, Tuesday September 26, 1972.

Canada needs another win to make game eight mean anything - and they deliver!

Most coaches will tell you, never mess with a winning lineup. Team Canada coaches Harry Sinden and John Ferguson not only made a change but they brought back the mercurial Bill Goldsworthy and pulled out Red Berenson. Keep in mind in those days your roster that could dress for a game was set at 17 skaters and 2 goalies. Since the game one debacle in Montreal where Canada only dressed 5 D they have gone with 6 every game meaning 11 forwards. Phil Esposito loved it. More often than not he'd take the extra shift at center. Regardless, Mr. Goldsworthy was not a factor, good or bad in this contest. Tony Esposito went back in net and turned in a real solid performance. (The NHL increased its roster size to 18 skaters in 1982)

The aforementioned Phil Esposito opened the scoring and closed it in the first period surrounding a couple of Russian goals and it was 2-2 after twenty. It stayed that way through 40 minutes of play and the table was set for a heck of a third albeit with by far thee most brutal attack of the series making the Clarke slash look like a kiss from your grandmother.

Rod Gilbert gave Canada a 3-2 lead early in the third. That was answered minutes later by Yakushev tying the game at 3. A tie was no good for Canada. They needed a win.

With three and a half minutes to play in the game a wild scrum ensued with the main combatants being Gary Bergman and Boris Mikhailov. The accompanying video shows one of Mikhailov's kicks and a half hearted rebuttal from Yvan Cournoyer. It does not show the kick that did the most damage although this one shown certainly could have. I think Mikailov's words in this video speak volumes about how he views his actions all these years later. The kick not seen on video by Boris was so hard his skate went right through Bergman's shin pad. Of course this never, ever gets mentioned by any Canadian media, journalists or most fans. The Clarke slash on Kharlamov was the only cheap shot thrown in the entire eight game series according to many of them.

Both players received roughing majors meaning they were done for the game and the teams skated four on four. A little less than ninety seconds later there was a faceoff in Canada's zone. Bobby Clarke won the draw clean and a fairly routine pass from Serge Savard to Paul Henderson coming out of the zone didn't look like it would lead to much but Paul caught the Russian Dman Tsygankov flat footed, the puck squirted through and he made an unbelievable shot roofing it over Tretiak with 2:06 to play. It would stand as the game winner, Paul's second in a row and his sixth goal of the series. Later that night Paul would tell his wife Eleanor that there's no way he could ever score a bigger goal in his life. Well my long time dear friend, I and millions of Canadians are so glad that forty-eight hours later you were dead wrong. Next up, the goal heard around the world.

Pictures are of me and Gary Bergman up top and Gary and I with the former President of the Detroit Red Wing Alumni, Gerry Fleury Sr. We were in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I spoke three times in four years for their alumni.