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Max Ferguson gets in the game

Broadcast Date: Sept. 5, 1972

Today, in a Max Ferguson skit, fictitious reporter Leslie Lovelace presents a curmudgeonly Vladislav Tretiak with a congratulatory CBC ring. The Soviet goalie is the star of the Canada-Soviet hockey series, so far, with 32 magnificent saves.
In game 2, Team Canada players redeem themselves at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. Assistant captain Phil Esposito scores the game's first goal during the second period.

Follow up goals by Canada's Yvon Cournoyer, and one each from brothers Pete and Frank Mahovlich, are challenged only by one from the gigantic Yak, Alexander Yakushev. The game ends with a 4-1 victory for Canada.

Max Ferguson gets in the game

• Max Ferguson worked for the CBC until 1998, when he retired after 52 years in radio. Ferguson had an offbeat style, known mainly for pranks, skits and creating characters. In a broadcast called The Canadian Backyard, he toured yards across the country just to see what Canadians were doing.
• Ferguson recorded the Leslie Lovelace skit after game 2 on Sept. 4, 1972. He plays all the characters in it.

• Before the series, scouts had written off Vladislav Tretiak, the 20-year-old Russian goalie, as the "weakest link." Tretiak was named MVP in game 2 even though the Soviets lost.
• Game 3 in Winnipeg, on Sept. 6, 1972, ended in a 4-4 tie. Team Canada led the game until the Soviets unleashed its "kid line," a trio of young talented players, two of whom scored the final goals that tied the game.

Max Ferguson gets in the game

Medium: Radio

Program: The Max Ferguson Show

Broadcast Date: Sept. 5, 1972

Guest(s):

Host: Max Ferguson

Duration: 3:53

Photo: CBC Still Photo Collection, Toronto

Last updated:
Sept. 13, 2002