Players on hand as Canada Post commemorates Canada USSR hockey showdown
The most famous goal scored in Canadian hockey history is now featured on a stamp.
Canada Post unveiled a stamp Wednesday showing Paul Henderson — arms in the air, hugged by Yvan Cournoyer — immediately after scoring the goal that gave Canada a victory over the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summit Series.
It is one of 10 maple-leafshaped stamps that mark significant moments in the last 50 years being released for the country’s 150th anniversary. The series also commemorates the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway, Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope and other historic events.
Cournoyer, one of several players on hand for the ceremony at a Winnipeg military base, remembered the drama of the Cold War-era clash against a different style of hockey and a very different culture.
“Their way to live was so different. They were communists, we were on this side of the (ocean),” said Cournoyer, who won 10 Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens.
Bobby Clarke was just three years out of Manitoba junior hockey when the series started, and didn’t realize the emotional impact the series had on Canadians when he returned to the Philadelphia Flyers.
“Two days after we landed, I was back in Philly,” Clarke recalled. “Anybody who played in the States on that team never knew the impact on this country until years later.”