Summit ‘Road’ Series
This series of caches follows the new path of Summit Road from Saskatchewan Ave to Sturgeon Rd. These roads use to a lot more visitors back in the day when it was the path to both Optimist Park (an athletic park with baseball fields, soccer pitches and even a BMX race track) and a major landfill site.
With the new Centre Port highway, it has been relegated to a road to nowhere. While this road may have been forgotten though, the ‘72 Summit Series will be remembered in Canada for years to come!
Hope you Enjoy!
The Summit Series
Canada had spent years dominating International competitions until the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) ruled that professional players would not be allowed to play in it’s competitions. THis paved the way for the Russians to become an unstoppable force in international play as their players were not considered pros.
After some debate, a contingent of hockey people led by much maligned Alan Eagleson was able to make a famous series of best on best between the Canadians and Russians. Making this even an even more engaging event was that it was during the height of the Cold War creating a huge sense of nationalism on each side.
Eight games would be played, the first four in Canada and the last four in Russia.
During negotiations for the series, the Russians asked for international rule changes and referees which Team Canada agreed to believing they could win easily under any conditions.
Coached by Harry Sendin and led by numerous Hall of Famers such as Phil Esposito, Serge Savard, Bobby Clarke, Stan Makita and breakout star Paul Henderson, Team Canada quickly found out that nothing was going to be easy.
Game 1 - Montreal
With Esposito and Henderson beating, Russian star goalie Vladislav Tretiak in the first 6 minutes, the rout was on….Wrong.
But then the Russians came with a push to tie the game by the end of the 1st period with a shorthanded goal by Vladmir Petrov putting the Canadians completely off their game.
During the second period, the temperature in the Montreal Forum raised to a whopping 46 degrees. Russian star Valeri Kharlamov was equally hot scoring 2 goals putting them up by 2. Bobby Clarke would get them to within one but that was as close as they got. The Canadians were completely out of sorts, scrambling around the ice and not playing as a team and Russians would score two more late to shock the Canadians 7-3.
The Cache - Road Less Travelled
Saskatchewan Ave used to be a busy road to get to the Perimeter Highway but this portion has now seen better days. The cache is a camoed medium sized LnL with room for swag and trackables.