1979 Challenge Cup (ice hockey)

The 1979 Challenge Cup was a series of international ice hockey games between the Soviet Union national ice hockey team and a team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League.^[1] The games were played on February 8, 10, and 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It replaced the NHL's all-star festivities for the 1978–79 NHL season. The Soviets defeated the NHL All-Stars two games to one.

The team of All-Stars from the National Hockey League included 23 Canadians and three Swedish players. Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player, commenting in the post-game interviews after game two, accidentally called the NHL All-Stars "Team Canada" (because of the number of Canadians on the roster). The Challenge Cup, unlike its predecessor, the Summit Series, included non-Canadian born players in the NHL rosters.

The NHL All-Stars team was coached by Scotty Bowman, and the Soviet Union national team was coached by Viktor Tikhonov.

The NHL vastly simplified their white All-Star uniforms, removing most of the striping and stars. The NHL shield on the front was enlarged, while the logos on the shoulders remained the same. The striping was reduced to two thin stripes, orange over black, separated by a thin white stripe. The names on the back remained in black with orange trim, and the numerals remained orange with black trim.

The Soviet team used their standard red national uniforms, which they also used when touring against the teams of the World Hockey Association (while billed as the "Soviet All-Stars"). The jerseys featured two white stripes at the waistline - one thin stripe over a wider stripe studded with red diamonds. The sleeve stripes followed a similar pattern, but without the diamonds on the wide stripes, and an additional white stripe below the wide band. While the Soviet team normally used the Russian language on its uniforms, the names on the back of the jerseys for the Challenge Cup were romanized for the event. The front of the jerseys retained the Russian СССР initials.

• Date: Thursday February 8, 1979
• Time: 8:00pm
• Location: New York City: Madison Square Garden
• Attendance: 17,438

NHL All-Stars 4 – Soviet Union 2

• Referee – Bob Myers
• Linesman – Ray Scapinello
• Linesman – John D'Amico

• Date: Saturday February 10, 1979
• Time: 2:00pm
• Location: New York City: Madison Square Garden
• Attendance: 17,438

NHL All-Stars 4 – Soviet Union 5

• Referee – Viktor Dombrovski
• Linesman – Matt Pavelich
• Linesman – Ron Finn

• Date: Sunday February 11, 1979
• Time: 8:00pm
• Location: New York City: Madison Square Garden
• Attendance: 17,545

NHL All-Stars 0 – Soviet Union 6^[3]

• Referee – Andy Van Hellemond
• Linesman – Leon Stickle
• Linesman – Claude Bechard

In the United States, Game 2,^[4] which was held on a Saturday afternoon, was shown on CBS^[5] as part of CBS Sports Spectacular.^[6][7][8] The network refused to expand CBS Sports Spectacular to carry the game in full^[9] so instead, the show came on during the second intermission,^[10] showed taped highlights of the first two periods, and then showed the final period live. The lead-in to Sports Spectacular was The World's Strongest Man. The then-CBS affiliate in Boston, the old WNAC-TV, broadcast a local college hockey game that led into Sports Spectacular.

The network, the show and their sponsors had a problem with the rink board advertising^[11] that the NHL sold at Madison Square Garden, and refused to allow them to be shown on television. As a result, CBS viewers were unable to see the far boards above the yellow kickplate, and could only see players' skates when the play moved to that side of the ice. Games 1 and 3 were shown on the NHL Network,^[4][12] where the advertising was no problem.

Dan Kelly and Lou Nanne called the game for CBS while Dick Stockton served as the host.

• Challenge Cup 1979 on legendsofhockey.net Archived 2021-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Challenge Cup 1979 rosters and stats