Summit on Ice

On New Year's Eve in Canada, the nation will come to a virtual standstill between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. The reason: a hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Central Army Sports Club from the Soviet Union. Three years after the bitter, tightly contested showdown between the Russian national team and Team Canada, a group of National Hockey League stars, the Russians are coming back for another summit on ice. This time they will be sending two teams into battle with eight different N.H.L. clubs. "It's going to be like the play-offs," says Montreal Forward Yvan Cournoyer. "Everybody going all out."

The series of eight games is exactly the kind of test of international hockey supremacy North American fans have been clamoring for since 1972, when the Russians ambushed the N.H.L. stars, winning two and tying one of their first four games. Stunned N.H.L. fans complained that their team had been handicapped by limited training time and unfamiliarity with one another. "Wait until the Russians try to play les Canadiens," people said.

The games begin Dec. 28, and the two Russian clubs are going to be anything but pushovers. The Central Army team, a perennial power in Soviet hockey, will play with an attack line that may be the most potent in the world: Left Wing Valeri Kharlamov, a deft puck handler; Center Vladimir Petrov, a tireless speedster; and Right Wing Boris Mikhailov, a veteran considered by many to be "the soul of the team." Behind them in goal will be Vladislav Tretiak, nemesis of Team Canada in 1972. The other team, the Soviet Wings, beefed up for the games with extra players, will be led by Alexander Yakushev, the leading scorer of the top Russian league.

Underlying the Soviet strength are stamina and disciplined play. "What they have over the N.H.L. is precision passing," says Philadelphia Coach Fred Shero. "It comes from playing with the same teammates even in off-rink sports like soccer and basketball." Hockey conditioning begins with six weeks of dryland training before players ever step on the ice, including such grueling exercises as handling sticks with 20-lb. weights. Pulse rates are monitored to check whether athletes are putting out.

Rigid System. On the ice, the Russians skate as a five-man unit, working the puck into the slot in front of the goal rather than taking low-percentage outside shots. According to Shero, they also "like to overload a zone, throwing four men on one side, gambling that you'll panic and throw the puck away." Shero claims that use of one particular Russian practice technique--skating out of the corner to beat the goalie at close range --gave the Flyers 40 goals last year. Says he: "We won the cup with it."

Shero and his N.H.L. colleagues say they are not planning any special changes to combat the Russian style of play. They will rely instead on the strengths of home-grown hockey: better body checking and a generous supply of personal flair and determination. The Russians, despite--or because of--their rigid system, apparently envy those qualities. "We are very disappointed that Bobby Orr won't be playing," says one Soviet hockey official, speaking of the Boston Bruins' peerless but injured defenseman. "He is perhaps the greatest player of all time."

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