I was the only one from my home town (pop 1800) fortunate to go to the 4 games in Moscow in 1972. Therefore I can say exactly where I was when Paul Henderson scored that historic goal in 1972 with 34 seconds left. I was in the Luzhniki Ice Palace, a modest 1956 arena, with about 13,700 seats. On that historic day on September 28th, 1972, 3,000 of those seats were filled with Canadians who made more noise than than the 10,000+ Russians and their booing whistles. Our steady chant of “Das Das Canada, Nyet, Nyet Soviet”, deafened the crowd. You can imagine our feelings after 2 periods of that 8th and final game. We were down 5-3 but still enthusiastic and helped our team claw back to make it 5-5. It’s hard to find the words to properly express our jubilation when #19 dented the twine behind Tretiak with 34 seconds to go, when the goal judge was late turning on the huge red light we all screamed at him as Cournoyer and Henderson danced with raised sticks. The 3,000 Canucks in the seats were going nuts huggingand celebrating and holding our breath as the final 34 seconds were played out. I will never forget where I was on September 28th, 1972.

Dinner before the game was at the Intourist Hotel on Red Square where Team Canada met with us fans as they headed to the arena, I had spotted a huge poster high on the wall at the hotel and had friends raise me up to clip it off the wall and had it folded in my shirt.
As Team Canada marched by, I got 4 signatures on, 2 players not playing and 2 that did. I got Bobby Orr and Stan Mikita, as well as Phil Esposito and Pat Stapleton as they marched out the door. Later I got Paul Henderson to sign, after the fact, to add to the lure of that special piece of heavy paper, treasured by me and my family. (see Attached).

Hugh Graham
Newfoundland