I attended the first game of the Series in Montreal. A friend of mine, who wasn’t a hockey fan, received 2 tickets from Air Canada. We flew from Moncton to Fredericton then to Montreal. When we got to Montreal and had a hard time finding a hotel. Eventually we found one, but it wasn’t the best.
I remember the beginning of the game with Prime Minister Trudeau dropping the puck.Canada scored 2 quick goals and the Forum was really loud. The Russians came back and they were skating very well. Russia took the lead in the 2nd period and the Forum got very quiet. It looked like our players weren’t in great shape.
The game finished with a 7-3 defeat. Everyone left talking about the game, we couldn’t believe it! Team Canada was outclassed and I didn’t know if they had a chance in the Series.
For the 8th Game, I was back in Moncton working at the CN warehouse. Our boss decided to hook the radio up to the speakers. He figured if he didn’t, everyone would just walk around with radios anyway.
The third period was quite a turnaround after being down 5-3. Cournoyer passed the puck to Henderson who was at the right spot at the right time. Everyone hollered when Henderson scored! We carpooled to work, so I recall the 7 of us talking about the game about leaving work at the end of the day.
The following year I bought an autographed Paul Henderson puck as a memento, which I still have today.
Leonard Leger
Memramcook, New Brunswick