Ice Hockey · 1972 · Moscow, Soviet Union
Henderson Has Scored for Canada
With 34 seconds left in the decisive eighth game of a series that had turned into a Cold War proxy battle, Paul Henderson scores the goal Canadian hockey still defines itself by.
Canada 6-5 (series won 4-3-1)
Result
34 seconds remaining
Time of goal
Vladislav Tretiak
Goaltender beaten
The 1972 Summit Series put a Canadian roster of NHL professionals, playing internationally for the first time, against the Soviet Union's state-sponsored national team. The skill and conditioning of the Soviets came as a shock to a Canadian public that had expected an easy sweep, and the series was level going into the eighth and deciding game in Moscow.
With the score 5-5 late in the third period, Henderson jumped onto the ice for a shift he had not been scheduled to take, collected the rebound off his own missed shot, and poked it past the Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak with 34 seconds left on the clock. Foster Hewitt's call, 'Henderson has scored for Canada', is among the most quoted lines in the country's sports history.
Canada won the series 4-3-1. The goal is commemorated annually on its anniversary and discussed as a moment of national identity rather than a hockey result, which is a great deal to hang on one shift. Henderson was a solid, unspectacular NHL scorer before it and afterward, and it has never mattered to anyone.
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