After being in the Ontario Hockey League for only three seasons, the Montreal Junior Canadiens won two Memorial Cups in 1969 and 1970. In 1970, after beating Darryl Sittler's London Knights, Marcel Dionne's St Catherine's Blackhawks, Guy Lafleur's Quebec Remparts and Bobby Clarke's Flin Flon Bombers to finish first, the Junior Canadiens capped off a great year by beating the Soviet National Team 9-2 at the old Forum. The Soviet team had the likes of Vladislav Tretiak, Valery Kharlamov (man, I hated him, I'm glad Ed Van Impe clotheslined him a few years later), Boris Mikhailov and Vladimir Petrov, while the Baby Habs had teenagers like Gilbert Perrault, Rick Martin, Jocelyn Guevremont, Bobby Lalonde and Ian Turnbull. The prior year, they lost Marc Tardif and Rejean Houle to the NHL Canadiens.
The defeat of the Soviet team was the high point of my young years. After twomping our amateur and semi-pro national teams for decades, the Soviets were clobbered by teenagers who closely checked them and outscored them. Finally, great news until ecstasy was reached with Paul Henderson taking two shots to score on Tretiak in the last minute of the eighth game of the inaugural Canada-Soviet series.