Prospects Ready for Canada-Russia Challenge
by Travis Betts / New York Islanders| Canada-Russia Challenge Schedule | |||
| Date | Time* | Location | Venue and TV Network
|
| Aug. 9 | 11:00 a.m. | Yaroslavl, RUS | Arena 2000 (TSN2) |
| Aug. 10 | 10:00 a.m. | Yaroslavl, RUS | Arena 2000 (TSN2) |
| Aug. 13 | 7:00 p.m. | Halifax, NS | Halifax Metro Centre (TSN) |
| Aug. 14 | 7:00 p.m. | Halifax, NS | Halifax Metro Centre (TSN) |
| * All times Eastern | |||
Islanders draft picks Ryan Strome (2011, 1st round, 5th overall), Griffin Reinhart (2012, 1st round, 4th overall) and Adam Pelech (2012, 3rd round, 65th overall) will represent Team Canada, while Andrey Pedan (2011, 3rd round, 63rd overall) will suit up for Team Russia.
The 2012 series starts with two games on Aug. 9-10 at Arena 2000 in Yaroslavl, RUS, and concludes with a pair of contests on August 13-14 at the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax, NS.
Strome, who represented Canada at the 2012 World Junior Championships, expects the four-game exhibition to be the highlight of his summer.
“It's a huge honor being selected to play in this tournament,” Strome said. “I'm looking forward to another chance to represent Canada, especially in such a prestigious and historic event.”
Strome and co. were all born more than 20 years after the ’72 series, regarded in the hockey community as a turning point in the sport’s history. Back then, the teams played four games in Canada and four in Moscow over a 27-day span in September. While the Canadians were expected to dominate the series, the Soviet squad, made up of mostly players from the Red Army team, gave Canada all they could handle.
 1972 Summit Series | |||
| Game | Date | Location | Score |
| 1 | Sep. 2 | Montreal, QC | USSR 7 CAN 3 |
| 2 | Sep. 4 | Toronto, ON | CAN 4 USSR 1 |
| 3 | Sep. 6 | Winnipeg, MB | CAN 4 USSR 4 |
| 4 | Sep. 8 | Vancouver, BC | USSR 5 CAN 3 |
| 5 | Sep. 22 | Moscow, RUS | USSR 5 CAN 4 |
| 6 | Sep. 24 | Moscow, RUS | CAN 3 USSR 2 |
| 7 | Sep. 26 | Moscow, RUS | CAN 4 USSR 3 |
| 8 | Sep. 28 | Moscow, RUS | CAN 6 USSR 5 |
JP Parise, who played for the Islanders from 1975-78, remembers how he and the rest of the Canadian team underestimated the Russians, who were billed as “amateurs” leading into the series.
“I didn’t think they were going to be as good as they were,” Parise said. “But if you think about it, we were playing against the best hockey players in Russia. The Russians were so prepared for us. Everyone here thought that the big fat pro hockey players in America were just going to saw through the poor, amateur players from Russia. But we did not anticipate that they were going to be as good or that they would have so many outstanding hockey players.”
The Soviets cruised to a 7-3 win in Game 1 and went 2-1-1 in Canada before winning Game 5 in Moscow. While many Canadian fans remember the final games of the series largely because of questionable officiating in the home team’s favor, the Canadians found their backs to the wall with a seemingly impossible task at hand.
“We had to win the last three games in Moscow,” Parise said. “That was almost impossible. They made it tough for us. They selected their own officials and all that. In the sixth game, they had this official named Kompalla – and if you look at the game stats, the penalties were like 11 to 3, or some ungodly thing like that (Note: Canada had 31 penalty minutes, Russia had four), so we had to kill penalties for most of the game. Then when the eighth game was on the line, another game that we had to win, there was a Swedish official that was supposed to be doing the game. Somehow at game time, he was nowhere to be seen, and so that’s why they picked Kompalla to come back.”
In the eighth and final game, the Canadian squad was flagged for several penalties early on, and four minutes in, Parise was given a game misconduct after showing his frustration. The Soviets had the lead four separate times, including a 5-3 advantage going into the third period, but Canada tied the game late, and with 34 seconds left in regulation, Paul Henderson scored what turned out to be one of the most iconic goals in Canada’s history, giving the Canadians a 6-5 lead. Canada won the series with a 4-3-1 record.
While the 2012 series has fewer political undertones and features junior players in place of NHL stars, one thing worth noting is the knowledge the two teams have of one another. Five Russian players, including Pedan, played junior hockey in Canada last season, and eight have been drafted by NHL clubs. Strome has more of a scouting report on the Russian team than his ’72 counterparts did.
“The Russians always have a lot of skill and many of their players are making a name for themselves over there already,” Strome said. “This will be different competition from what we are used to, especially the first couple of games on the big ice surface in Russia. This should be a really great four games.”
Check NewYorkIslanders.com for game recaps and other coverage throughout the tournament.
Team Canada | | Team Russia |  | |||
| Name | No. | Pos. | Name | No. | Pos. | |
| Malcolm Subban | 30 | G | Denis Perevozchikov | 1 | G | |
| Laurent Broissoit | 31 | G | Andrei Makarov | 20 | G | |
| Maxime Legace | 33 | G | Andrei Vasilevski | 30 | G | |
| Mathew Dumba | 2 | D | Andrey Pedan | 2 | D | |
| Cody Ceci | 3 | D | Artyom Sergeyev | 3 | D | |
| Dougie Hamilton | 4 | D | Alexei Vasilevski | 4 | D | |
| Morgan Rielly | 5 | D | Albert Yarullin | 5 | D | |
| Scott Harrington | 6 | D | Mikhail Naumenkov | 6 | D | |
| Griffin Reinhart | 8 | D | Nikita Nesterov | 9 | D | |
| Xavier Ouellet | 16 | D | Ivan Kuznetsov | 13 | D | |
| Ryan Murphy | 24 | D | Kirill Diakov | 27 | D | |
| Ryan Murray | 27 | D | Maxim Osipov | 28 | D | |
| Adam Pelech | 29 | D | Vsevolod Sorokin | 29 | D | |
| Phil Di Giuseppe | 7 | F | Nikolai Prokhorin | 7 | F | |
| Hunter Shinkaruk | 9 | F | Maxim Shalunov | 8 | F | |
| Charles Hudon | 10 | F | Nail Yakupov | 10 | F | |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | 11 | F | Anton Slepyshev | 11 | F | |
| Tom Wilson | 12 | F | Andrei Sigarev | 12 | F | |
| Kevin Roy | 15 | F | Alexander Kadeykin | 14 | F | |
| Ryan Strome | 18 | F | Sergei Tverdokhlebov | 15 | F | |
| Mark Scheifele | 19 | F | Daniil Romantsev | 16 | F | |
| Sean Monahan | 20 | F | Anton Zlobin | 17 | F | |
| Phillip Danault | 21 | F | Yaroslav Kosov | 18 | F | |
| Boone Jenner | 22 | F | Pavel Buchnevich | 19 | F | |
| Lukas Sutter | 23 | F | Kirill Kasputin | 21 | F | |
| Ty Rattie | 26 | F | Bulatov Khammatov | 22 | F | |
| Brendan Leipsic | 28 | F | Sergei Shmelev | 23 | F | |
| Lucas Lessio | 38 | F | Artem Fedorov | 24 | F | |
| Mikhail Grigorenko | 25 | F | ||||