Roland Eriksson. Late 80s
It was almost unthinkable. Entering the very last day of 1977 World championship team Czechoslovakia has the gold medals almost shining on it's players jerseys.... Why is "almost"? The final touch was to beat team Canada. This task did not look too hard. Canada lost to Soviets 1:11 and 1:8.
The game Czechoslovakia vs. Canada has proved it. It was really "one way traffic". The final scores reflected it - 8:2. With only one additional note - Canada won.
Smiling Phil Esposito was congratulating Russians - "we did everything for you, guys!"
Indeed, to get the gold medals Russian needed to win their last game against Sweden. Every one was thinking the case was done. Soviets wouldn't have any trouble to do it. Unfortunately, USSR players thought the same.
The only exceptions were Heran Hegosta, Sweden goalie, and the hero of my last day question Roland Eriksson.
After the fast goal scored by Vladimir Shadrin, Goran Hogosta stopped everything but the real MVP was Roland who scored all three goals provided 3:0 win to Sweden.
That "redirected" the whole event to the previous scenario by given World champions title to Czechoslovakia.
Posts
Great player,Roland
ReplyDeleteroland was great... but if you ask me, it was goran hogosta, the goalie, who was the hero in 1977. i think viktor tikhonov should send him a huge pay check because in many ways he owes him for all his future success...
ReplyDeleteit was hogosta whom the soviets couldn't score against. as a result, soviet head coach kulagin had to step down and that's how tikhonov began to coach Team USSR.
I agree, Arthur
ReplyDeleteInteresting Goran had no success playing the NHL with one season only and 4.15 goals against!