4 Nations Face-Off reunion between 1976 Canada Cup foes

It will be a reunion of sorts in Montreal, not quite 49 years after their historic first get-together at the fabled Forum.

Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden will play four games Feb. 12-15 at Bell Centre, the opening act of the 4 Nations Face-Off that will conclude with three games at TD Garden in Boston Feb. 17-20.

The four countries met, along with the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, in the 1976 Canada Cup from Sept. 2-15, the first NHL international tournament.

The four would renew acquaintances in Montreal in 1981, 1987 and 1991 Canada Cup tournaments, Finland missing just the 1984 Canada Cup. But 1976 was the first, a thrill for a city that had just played host to the Olympic Games and was consumed by hockey fever, the Canadiens having won the Stanley Cup four months earlier with three more consecutive titles to come between 1977-79.

The home country's 1976 Canada Cup victory was big news in the Montreal Gazette, and in every newspaper and broadcast outlet across the country.

With Canadiens' Scotty Bowman and Winnipeg Jets' Bobby Kromm coaching behind the bench, Boston's Don Cherry and AHL Nova Scotia Voyageurs' Al MacNeil spotting from the press box, Canada went 6-1-0 in its seven games to win the 1976 Canada Cup, defeating Czechoslovakia 6-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, then 5-4 in overtime at the Montreal Forum in a best-of-3 Final.

The host country's only loss was against the team it defeated for the title, a 1-0 decision in Montreal.

The Final was preceded by 15 round-robin games played at the Forum and at arenas in Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Philadelphia.

Canada, with a stunning 18 future Hall of Famers on its roster, scored 22 round-robin goals, one fewer than the tournament-high 23 of the Soviet Union, and allowed just six with Los Angeles Kings goalie Rogie Vachon, whose career had begun with the Canadiens a decade earlier, playing every minute in Canada's net.

Goalies Rogie Vachon of Canada and Vladimir Dzurilla of Czechoslovakia meet on Montreal Forum ice at the conclusion of the championship game.

Vachon and Dzurilla wearing each other’s national-team jerseys after they’d traded them following Canada’s overtime victory to win the 1976 Canada Cup.

Darryl Sittler would send the 18,040 edge-of-their-seats Forum fans into frenzied celebration at 11:33 of overtime with his breakaway goal to clinch the title.

Columnist Red Fisher captured the moment in the following day's editions of The Montreal Star.

"Darryl Sittler says it while the eyes still dance from the exhilarating night's events and the smile is frozen as if it will last forever," Fisher wrote, then quoting the game's hero:

"'We're sitting in the dressing room and Don (Cherry) walks in and he says, 'Listen, this guy (Czechoslovakia goalie Vladimir Dzurilla) will come out a lot. He came out at (Reggie) Leach. He came out at (Steve) Shutt. If you ever get a breakaway in the overtime, fake a shot and go wide.'"

That's exactly how the game ended, Sittler faking the charging Dzurilla out of position on a fast break down the left wing and hitting the empty net.

Scotty Bowman, one of four coaches for Canada, had led the Montreal Canadiens to the 1976 Stanley Cup championships, with three more to come consecutively.

Had Czechoslovakia pulled another upset and beaten Canada again, a sudden-death Game 3 would be played two nights later.

"All I can say is that I wanted no part of an eighth game on Friday," said Bowman, who would guide his Canadiens that season to their second of four consecutive Stanley Cup titles. "That would have made it eight games in 17 nights and, well, how much (can) anybody give?"

Czechoslovakia's Milan Novy, who scored the only goal in his team's 1-0 win against Canada, nearly forced the Final to its limit. The game tied 4-4 with 78 seconds left in regulation, Novy slipped behind Canadian defensemen Guy Lapointe and Denis Potvin.

A late lunge by Lapointe distracted Novy, his shot swallowed by Vachon's outstretched pad to force overtime.

Canada's Marcel Dionne in 1976 Canada Cup round-robin action in Toronto between Sweden's Lars-Erik Sjoberg and goalie Hardy Astrom.

"Lapointe bothered him a little bit," said Vachon, named to the tournament all-star team and awarded a car when voted Canada's most valuable player. "I don't know who was coming in. I didn't look at his number. I'm just glad everything worked out all right."

It might have been the greatest Forum save made by Vachon since Feb. 18, 1967. Then, as a Canadiens rookie, he made his first NHL stop on a breakaway, foiling a Detroit Red Wings player he only learned postgame had been Gordie Howe.

With surgeries sidelining Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden and Philadelphia's Bernie Parent, Bowman chose to go with Vachon ahead of Gerry Cheevers and Glenn Resch. Playing every minute for Canada, Vachon rewarded the vote of confidence with a .941 save percentage, 1.39 goals-against average and two shutouts as the tournament's best goalie.

A battered Bobby Clarke, Canada's captain, and Flyers teammates Bill Barber and Reggie Leach were superb throughout.

Bobby Orr in action at the Montreal Forum during the 1976 Canada Cup.

Nearly a half century later, Sittler remembers the finest details of the Canada Cup and the players with whom he skated.

He is still amazed that tournament MVP Bobby Orr ruled the games the way he did. The Boston Bruins icon was signed three months earlier by the Chicago Black Hawks and on fragile knees had only 26 games left in his NHL career.

"Bobby was coming off knee surgeries before this, he didn't play in the 1972 Summit Series," Sittler said of the eight-time Norris Trophy winner. "He had ice packs on both knees, didn't practice a lot with us, but when he got out there for the games, Bobby was still the dominant player he was throughout his career."

Orr would finish tied as Canada's top scorer with nine points (two goals, seven assists), Bobby Hull, Novy and the Soviet Union's Viktor Zhluktov each with a tournament-leading five goals, Zhluktov in two fewer games.

Boris Alexandrov of the Soviet Union skates behind the net with U.S. goalie Mike Curran and defenseman Rick Chartraw defending during a 1976 Canada Cup game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

"The experience of finally playing in one of these, playing the type of guys we have, you can't describe the feeling," Orr said. "Even the guys who didn't play never complained. They worked, scouted, they did everything they could."

There have been other memorable, important international games played in Montreal, all at the Forum, exhibitions at junior and elite levels with political overtones sometimes overshadowing the hockey itself.

The two atop the list:

Game 1 of the landmark 1972 Summit Series, between a Canadian-native NHL all-star team and a select Soviet squad; the 7-3 win by the Russians was the cause of a nervous breakdown in Canada, considering that most everyone figured the visitors would be cannon-fodder for the home team.

Goalie Markus Mattsson guards Finland's goal during a 1976 Canada Cup game in Ottawa.

The 1975 New Year's Eve game between the Canadiens and Russia's Central Red Army, a 3-3 tie in what is widely considered the most famous game of all time between two of the world's best club teams -- the Stanley Cup-bound Canadiens and the finest club from the Soviet Union.

Those two games, and all the others, have their place. But the 1976 Canada Cup was a best-on-best first in the game, an engaging, compelling tournament that for two weeks showcased in North America some of the superb European talent that wasn't seen in NHL arenas.

Now, the 4 Nations Face-Off is prepared to write another chapter of international hockey history in Montreal, and in Boston.

Top photo: Bobby Orr, voted most valuable player of the 1976 Canada Cup, and the trophy awarded to Canada for its championship win.