Deadpan Winners

To U.S. hockey fans, the visiting players from abroad seemed a breed apart. They seldom body-checked, showed no signs of pique when an American opponent lowered a shoulder and sent them sprawling. They tried few power plays, relied instead on dazzling skating and passing so precise that their offense looked like a giant-sized game of animated chess. Instead of whooping with triumph after a goal, they skated deadpan back up ice. But the touring Russian all-stars had one familiar sporting trait: they played to win.

For the Russians, the eight-game series against American amateur and college teams was an excellent warmup for the world amateur championships in Prague in March. Their first three games were scheduled against the American Nationals, a hand-picked team of former collegians who will also play in Prague. Since learning the sport in 1946 from books and newsreels of Canadian pro games, the Russians have improved so rapidly that they won the world championship tournament in 1954, finished second every year since and skated off with the 1956 Olympic title.

Stoking up on lamb chops for breakfast and steak whenever they could get it, the Russians never stopped training, practiced incessantly, and when they could not get on the ice. trotted off to the local park for a wind-building game of soccer. In action, the Russians showed the results of such training by their ability to reach breakaway speed in three strides and a nimble-footed skill in passing the puck with a sidewise flick of their skates.

It hardly mattered that the Russians turned out to have some human frailties, e.g., their offense was so strictly patterned that it often stalled against an unexpected defense. After warming up with a 5-5 tie with the Nationals in New York, the Russians went on to beat them 8-3 in Minneapolis, 7-1 in Hibbing, Minn. Last week the Russians outclassed an all-star team of Michigan and Michigan State players, trounced Colorado College before being held to a surprising 4-4 tie by the University of Denver. Said Coach Anatoli Tarasov, beaming amiably: "It's the sportsmanship that counts."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.