It’s been called the day Canada stood still.

As noted on the Hockey Hall of Fame website , few Canadians alive on Sept. 28, 1972 were not glued to their televisions or radios as Canada and Russia squared off in the eighth and final hockey game of the iconic Summit Series . Of the 22 million Canadians, 16 million watched.

Before the start of the third period at a hockey rink in Moscow, with Team Canada trailing 5-3, Paul Henderson, one of the team’s star players, whacked goaltender Ken Dryden’s leg pads with his hockey stick.

“I said, ‘You board this thing up for us and we’ll beat them, but you cannot let another goal in,’ ” Henderson said with a rueful laugh Saturday, still reeling from the news that the Hall of Fame goaltender died Friday at the age of 78 .

Ken Dryden, the Hall

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