The game I'll never forget: Rick Martin: the French connection winger recalls beating the vaunted Soviet Wings in a 1976 exhibition match

Hockey Digest, March, 2003 by Chuck O'Donnell

BEFORE WE TOOK THE ICE TO play the Soviets, you could feel the electricity in the air at the Aud in Buffalo. The hair was standing on the back of my neck because there was so much electricity in that building. The fans were really fired up, really behind it. It was great. It was the most electric game I ever had the chance to play in.

At the time, this was 1976, the Soviets were beating everyone pretty good around the league--except the Flyers, who beat the USSR team, literally. They just hacked the crap out of them. The Russians stormed off the ice and vowed not to come back. It was just a vicious game.

We watched the Soviet Wings team practice the morning of our game on January 4, 1976. We were in the stands just staring in amazement as they were just throwing the puck to spots. They were buzzing around, but they were throwing it blind. It was obvious that this was why some of these plays often looked so good. For a defenseman it's tough because he's normally reacting to a player more than the puck. The Soviets wood throw it in the openings and the guys would be heading there.

Obviously they were very skilled puck-handlers and they were great skaters. But we knew we could skate with them, and the big thing was we had to hit them a bit. You had to slow them down somewhat.

We ended up outskating them, outhitting them, and winning, 12-6. We just shocked everyone, blowing them out and beating them like they had never been beaten before. Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert, and myself--they called our line the French Connection--we would end up all having big games.

We got a jump on them almost right away. Jocelyn Guewemont and Perreault scored early in the first period, just a minute apart or so, to get the ball rolling.

And then we started hitting them. It was a clean game, just up and down, up and down; but we hated those guys, and we nailed them every chance we could.

The guy who really set the tone for the physical part of the game was Jerry Korab. He was a tough defenseman. They called him "Kong" because he was so big and strong. He was hitting everything in sight. He hit Alexander Yakushev, the Russians' main weapon, about six or seven times. I mean he hit him with some thundering checks. Clean, but hard. We told Korab, "Hey, if you play like that every night, you wood win the Norris Trophy."

I've got to tell you, with everyone going around calling Yakushev the greatest left wing in the world, well, that spurred me on a little more. I was like, "Hey, there's a few other good left wings in the world, too." With that thought on my mind, this was the most fired up I had ever been in my career for a game. Playoff hockey is pretty intense. But when you play in a playoff series, say a seven-game series, it's difficult to maintain that high a level of intensity. If you were able to maintain that intensity and carry it over to every game, hockey would be phenomenal.

The Soviets had a good team. They played together for 11 months of the year, so they were familiar with each other. Everyone of their guys could have played in the NHL But we ended up dominating the game.

We burned them with our power play when they took penalties. They were a little dirty, a little chippy. A little slash on the ankles here and there. They used their sticks pretty well. We finished with over 40 shots on net, and we outshot them by a 2-to-1 margin.

Our line was flying that night, finishing with four goals and five assists. Late in the third period, I had two goals. As far as I know, no NHL player had ever scored a hat trick against the Soviets before. So from the bottom of the face-off circle, I spun around and let one go. The shot took the goalie's glove off and it was going into the net.

At that same time, Fred Stanfield was coming around the net. He reached around and touched it just before it went into the net. He slapped it in just before it crossed the line. So there went my chance at a hat trick.

He's got a picture of him scoring that goal. I signed it for him. I wrote, "Nice goal, Freddy!" He had a furniture store and he had it in the store in his office. It was funny. We still talk about it. He'll say, "Hey Rick, how about that goal against the Russians?"

By the end of the game, you could tell they didn't like the fact they got outskated. When we were out on the ice, they all had this dumfounded look on their faces. They didn't expect that. All the NHL teams were trying to come up with some defensive game plan, and they weren't coming with any offensive firepower or opening it up against the Soviets because they were afraid it would backfire. When we saw that we could skate with them, we just went for it and it worked.

I ended up with two goals and three assists and I got first star that night. I had never been so fired up for a game, and I had played in a lot of big games. But that truly was the game Ill never forger.--As told to Chuck O'Donnell

Martin's Career Statistics

Position: Left wing Height: 5'11" Weight: 179 pounds
Born: July 26, 1971, in Verdun, Quebec
Drafted: By Buffalo, first round, No. 5 overall, 1971

Season    Team          Gm.    G     A    PTS    /-   PPG   SHG   GWG

1971-72   Buffalo        73    44    30    74   -38    19    0     5
1972-73   Buffalo        75    37    36    73     4    11    0     4
1973-74   Buffalo        78    52    34    86   -22     8    0     6
1974-75   Buffalo        68    52    43    95     5    21    0     6
1975-76   Buffalo        80    49    37    86    23    18    0     7
1976-77   Buffalo        66    36    29    65    10    12    0     6
1977-78   Buffalo        65    28    35    63    16     7    0     6
1978-79   Buffalo        73    32    21    53    -7     8    0     3
1979-80   Buffalo        80    45    34    79    18     8    0     3
1980-81   Buf./L.A.      24     8    15    23     5     2    0     1
1981-82   Los Angeles     3     1     3     4     1     1    0     0

NHL Totals              685   384   317   701    15   115    0    47
NHL Playoffs             63    24    29    53   n/a    12    0     4

Season    Team          Shots   Pct.   PIM

1971-72   Buffalo         266   16.5    36
1972-73   Buffalo         299   12.4    79
1973-74   Buffalo         320   16.3    38
1974-75   Buffalo         301   17.3    72
1975-76   Buffalo         327   15.0    67
1976-77   Buffalo         221   16.3    58
1977-78   Buffalo         221   12.7    16
1978-79   Buffalo         250   12.8    35
1979-80   Buffalo         257   17.5    54
1980-81   Buf./L.A.        59   13.6    20
1981-82   Los Angeles       9   11.1     2

NHL Totals              2,530   15.2   477
NHL Playoffs              n/a    n/a    74