Leading up to and following the big win last night, we heard a lot about Canada's "50 year drought" against Russia/USSR in Olympic hockey.  This, however, is a silly statistic given that best-on-best hockey only came to the Olympics in 1998 and we had only played once since that time.  So how has Canada fared against Russia in best-on-best hockey?

I've indicated individual scores except for the '72 Summit Series, where I just indicated the win-loss-tie record.  I've also indicated where one team or another was the winner of the overall tournament.

2010 Olympics: Canada 7, Russia 3

2006 Olympics: Russia 2, Canada 0. Sweden wins Gold

2004 World Cup: Canada (Winner) 3, Russia 1

2002 Olympics: Did not play. Canada wins gold

1998 Olympics: Did not play. Russia wins silver, Czechs win Gold

1996 World Cup: Canada 5, Russia 3. US wins Gold

1991 Canada Cup: Canada 3 (Winner), Russia 3

1987 Canada Cup: Canada 3, Russia 3; Russia 6, Canada 5; Canada 6, Russia 5; Canada 6 (Winner), Russia 5

1984 Canada Cup: Russia 6, Canada 3; Canada 3 (Winner), Russia 2

1981 Canada Cup: Canada 7, Russia 3; Russia 8 (Winner), Canada 1

1976 Canada Cup: Canada 3 (Winner), Russia 1

1972 Summit Series: Canada (Winner) 4-3-1

So even before we broke our "50 year drought", Canada had gone 11-7-3 against Russia in "best on best" competition (excluding all Olympics pre-'98, the 1974 Summit Series which featured only WHA players, and all "World Championships"). Looking at overall results and not just head to head, Canada has won seven of eleven tournaments (with a chance at another this year), Russia only one (same as the US, Czechs and Swedes).