…After a short pause, a voice was heard. Unfamiliar voice. Then Mogilny realized that all conversations were being tapped. Without hesitation, he hung up and rushed out of the phone booth…

This could be the beginning of a detective novel about hockey player Alexander Mogilny, who became the hero of one of the most exciting stories in Russian sports. He himself does not believe that he did something special, but the public has already included his act in the column “plots for the cinema.”

The scandalous thriller at the 1989 Ice Hockey World Championship struck the entire sports world. And he opened a window for the Soviet players in the NHL.

Escape plan

Back in 1988, Mogilny sparkled at the World Youth Championships in Anchorage. In Alaska, the young winger became the top scorer and attracted the attention of the NHL club. The Buffalo Sabers drafted Mogilny, and it seems that from that moment he began to think about escaping from the Soviet Union.

Alexander Mogilny / Photo: © Sporting News Archive / Contributor / Sporting News / Gettyimages.ru

Alexander went to the World Championship in Sweden in the status of a CSKA player. He knew that he would not return to Moscow from this tournament. In his pocket was the business card of Don Luce, the Canadian scout and former hockey player who spotted the 19-year-old star in Anchorage. Mogilny was going to call his overseas friend and ask for help with the move. Escaping to the USA through Sweden seemed to be a much easier task than directly from the USSR.

When the job was done and our team took first place, Mogilny called Luce. This is where it all kicked off…

Fake passport and KGB agents

The loss of Mogilny was not immediately noticed. The fact is that the team was given a day off after winning the championship. Hockey players were left to their own devices and could do whatever they wanted. While everyone was shopping and visiting museums, Mogilny began to put his plan into action.

Buffalo manager Jerry Meehan, who flew to Stockholm with Luce, handled all the formalities at the American embassy. He even had to somehow procure a fake passport for Mogilny, since the head of the Soviet delegation had the real one. In the evening everything was ready.

By that time, Mogilny had already been missed. To hide from the KGB officers, who were immediately raised by the ears, Alexander, together with Luce, moved from one hotel to another. Once he tried to call his parents from a pay phone, but he heard an extraneous voice on the other end of the line and immediately hung up.

Don Luce (right) / Photo: © Dick Darrell / Contributor / Toronto Star / Gettyimages.ru

“Of course, we knew that all this was associated with a certain risk, but we realized the seriousness of what was happening only when we flew directly to Stockholm. Strangely, Mogilny was the calmest of us. He knew exactly what he wanted and went to his goal. I could not believe how unflappable the 20-year-old guy who risked everything was, Don Luce’s memoirs “Arguments and Facts” cite.

The USSR national team went home without waiting for their striker. And in the meantime, he was already flying to the States, cutting off all the bridges and regretting nothing.

Traitor and pioneer

Of course, when it became known exactly where Mogilny had gone, no one liked it. The CSKA hockey player secretly fled to the States – this is not just a betrayal of the motherland, it is also desertion. Alexander was connected with his club by a military oath, which he violated. Mogilny’s mother begged him to return home, but the hockey player flatly refused.

All members of the national team of the house were interrogated, but nothing was achieved. No one had a clue about Mogilny’s insidious plan, he kept it a complete secret. Therefore, they simply opened a criminal case against him and tried in every possible way to discredit him in the public field.

However, Alexander did not leave because he was a traitor. He just wanted a normal life for himself. That is why he had no doubts when it came to the point. Subsequently, he admitted that in the USSR he would have remained a poor hockey player, while in the USA he got the opportunity to earn very solid money. And the decision, of course, had a beneficial effect on his career. Mogilny became an NHL legend and a trailblazer of sorts. After him, Soviet hockey players began to boldly leave the States and Canada.

Alexander Mogilny / Photo: © KHL / Bezzubov Vladimir

After the collapse of the USSR, Mogilny received a Russian passport and was able to visit his homeland from time to time. Today, for the most part, he lives in Russia. Alexander is the president of the Amur club from his native Khabarovsk. He says that America has not changed him at all, and he still considers himself Russian.

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