During an illustrious professional hockey career spanning two major leagues and 18 years, Paul Henderson appeared in 1,128 regular season and playoff games and scored 388 goals.

     But the goal that made him a household name (and practically a folk hero) in Canada did not come while he was toiling either in the National Hockey League (NHL) or the World Hockey Association (WHA). It was not even on North America ice. Henderson achieved hockey immortality with a goal on September 28, 1972 in Moscow, scoring in the dying moments – precisely 34 seconds before the final buzzer – of the deciding game which gave Team Canada a 6-5 victory over the Soviet Union in the historic first series between the two superpowers of the hockey world.

     The goal, his third straight game-decider, was more than just winning an international showdown. It signaled the release of an intense emotional build-up of sports pride. “It was their system against our system. It was a lot bigger than hockey, I mean, a lot of us looked at it as a war,” he said. “It went beyond hockey.”

     At home, it translated into immense pride. His neighbours greeted the hockey warrior’s return to his Mississauga home by erecting a larger-than-life “Welcome Home Paul” sign in front of the Henderson homestead on Runningbrook Drive in Applewood and The Mississauga News ran a full-colour front page photo with a headline that read “The Pride of Mississauga.”

     All in all, Henderson appeared in two Canada-Soviet series, the encore coming two years later in 1974. Having received his minor hockey education in Kincardine, Ont. where he grew up, Henderson broke into the Ontario Junior A Hockey League with the Hamilton Red Wings in 1960. Two years later he played a big part in Hamilton winning the Memorial Cup. He was selected to the league’s first All-Star team and awarded the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the Most Gentlemanly Player.