WHA International Series 1978

"The Soviet team seemed nervous to me...it was their first taste of international competition," said Whalers coach Harry Neale. "But they started to show some good things in the third period." Soviet coach Boris Majorov agreed with Neale's assessment of his team's performance. "We were very nervous," he said through an interpreter."It seemed to me that it took a while for our players to realize that the Whalers were just another team."

These two programs are from the World Hockey Association International Series of 1977. Separate teams of Soviet and Czechoslovakian All-Stars played one game each against every WHA team. These games counted in the standings for the season. December 14 was the first game for the Soviets on the tour, and it showed as they were trounced by the New England Whalers 7-2.

December 14, 1977
New England 7, Soviet Union 2
First Period 
1. NE Rogers 11 (Pleau, J.Carlson) 3:50
2. SOV Biljaletdinov 1 (Semenjov) 9:27
3. NE Antonovich 13 (Keon, Ley) 13:17
4. NE Keon 7 (McKenzie, Roberts) 14:15
Penalties SOV Lavrentiev 16:10, NE Antonovich 17:13
Second Period
5. NE Pleau 10 (Rogers, J.Carlson) 3:12
6. NE Pleau 11 (Rogers) 8:56
7. NE Lyle 11 (Carroll, Mayer) 11:12
Penalties NE Hangsleben SOV Shostak 6:15, NE Rogers 13:06
Third Period
8. SOV Biljaletdinov 2 (Bragin, Semejov) 14:25
9. NE Mark Howe 5 (G. Howe, Hangsleben) 17:48
Penalties NE Carroll 2:29, SOV Shostak NE Selwood 5:21
Shots On Goal
SOV 11 9 14 - 34
NE    17 11 8 - 34
Goal- SOV, Vasilenok, NE Smith
Attendance - 9,939

Big night for the line of Larry Pleau, Mike Rogers and "The Forgotten Hanson Brother" Jack Carlson.  He was originally slated to be in the movie Slap Shot with his brothers and fellow professional hockey players Jeff and Steve. Jack however signed with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA before filming began and was replace by Dave Hanson.


The Czechs fared even worse than the Soviets on this tour, getting hammered on this date by the Oilers in Edmonton. "Cowboy" Bill Flett potted four goals including a natural hat-trick. 

December 14, 1977
Edmonton 6, Czechoslovakia 1
First Period
1. Edm Micheletti 5 (Ferguson, Callighen) 0:29
2. Cze Kolar 1 (Vlcek, Cernik) 11:45
Penalties - Cze Cernik 3:17, Edm Flett 15:06, Edm Micheletti 19:55
Second Period
3. Edm Flett 12 (Micheletti, Rota) 16:51
Penalties Cze Bench 2:51, Edm Micheletti 11:47, Edm Langevin 14:12, Cze Cernik 17:39, Edm Hamilton 18:00
Third Period
4. Edm Flett 13 (Chipperfield, Rota) 1:55
5. Edm Flett 14 (Chipperfield, Rota) 15:50
6. Edm MacDonald 8 (Guite, Campbell) 17:59
7. Edm Flett 15 (Chipperfield, Guite) 19:57
Penalty - Callighen 12:30
Shots On Goal
Cze 7 13 12 - 32
Edm 14 8 14 - 36
Goal - Cze Kapoun, Edm Dryden
Attendance - 15,412

When all was said and done the Czechs managed only one win against WHA competition going 1-6-1 in the eight games and getting outscored 41 to 20. The Soviets won three, compiling a 3-4-1 record with 27 goals for and 36 against.





Comments

JeffB said…
Really nIce to see some coverage of a very overlooked chapter in international hockey. It contains more in the one article than I've ever seen about the Soviet and Czech WHA games all combined.
December 8, 2013 at 6:23 PM
Anonymous said…
Actually the Soviets played ten games, winning 5-4-1
July 3, 2015 at 2:07 AM
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