1917–18 PCHA season explained

1917–18 PCHA season
League:Pacific Coast Hockey Association
Sport:Ice hockey
Duration:December 28, 1917–March 8, 1918
No Of Teams:4
Season:Regular season
League Champs:Seattle Metropolitans
League Champ Name:League leader
Top Scorer:Cyclone Taylor (Vancouver)
Finals:Playoffs
Finals Champ:Vancouver Millionaires
Finals Runner-Up:Seattle Metropolitans
Seasonslist:List of PCHA seasons
Seasonslistnames:PCHA
Prevseason Link:1916–17 PCHA season
Prevseason Year:1916–17
Nextseason Link:1919 PCHA season
Nextseason Year:1919

The 1917–18 PCHA season was the seventh season of the professional men's ice hockey Pacific Coast Hockey Association league. Season play ran from December 28, 1917, until March 8, 1918. The season was reduced to 18 games per team. The Seattle Metropolitans club would be regular-season PCHA champions, but lost the play-off to the Vancouver Millionaires. The Millionaires then played in the Stanley Cup Finals series against Toronto, the NHL champions. Toronto won the best-of-five series 3-2 to win the Cup.

League business

The Spokane franchise folded and the league operated with three teams again. The players were distributed to the other teams.

The league decided to split the schedule with each half's winners playing for the championship. This was revised so that the first and second teams played off for the championship. Previously, playoffs were only held when teams tied for first place. Devised by Frank Patrick as a "second-chance" to increase interest in the league, the idea eventually spread to all North American professional sports.

Regular season

Final standings

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals against
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

Pacific Coast Hockey Association TeamGPWLTGFGA
Seattle Metropolitans 18 11 7 0 67 65
Vancouver Millionaires 18 9 9 0 70 60
Portland Rosebuds 18 7 11 0 63 75
Source: Coleman(1966)

Playoffs

The Vancouver Millionaires defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Seattle Metropolitans, taking a two-game total-goals series 3-2 on a 1-0 win over Seattle in the second game.

Seattle Metropolitans vs. Vancouver Millionaires

DateAwayScoreHomeScore
March 11Seattle2Vancouver2
March 14Vancouver1Seattle0

Vancouver Millionaires win two-games total-goals series 3-2.

Stanley Cup Finals

See main article: article and 1918 Stanley Cup Finals. Vancouver travelled to Toronto for the Stanley Cup Finals. The playing rules alternated between the NHL's six-man and the PCHA's seven-man rules. All games were won by the team whose rules were being played. Vancouver won the PCHA games 6–4 and 8–1 but lost the NHL rule games 5–3, 6–3, and 2–1.

Game-by-GameWinning TeamScoreLosing TeamRules UsedLocation
1March 20Toronto5–3VancouverNHLArena Gardens
2March 23Vancouver6–4TorontoPCHA
3March 26Toronto6–3VancouverNHL
4March 28Vancouver8–1TorontoPCHA
5March 30Toronto2–1VancouverNHL
Torontos wins best-of-five series 3 games to 2

Schedule and results

MonthDayVisitorScoreHomeScore
Dec. 28 Vancouver 2 Portland 4
Jan.1 Portland 0 Seattle 1 (19:57 OT)
4 Seattle 2 Vancouver 3 (5:35 OT)
8 Seattle 4 Portland 8
11 Vancouver 2 Seattle 5
14 Portland 1 Vancouver 4
16 Vancouver 1 Portland 0 (12:38 OT)
18 Portland 5 Seattle 2
22 Seattle 5 Vancouver 4
25 Seattle 3 Portland 2
28 Portland 3 Vancouver 4
30 Vancouver 3 Seattle 4 (23:10 OT)
Feb.4 Seattle 5 Vancouver 6 (10:45 OT)
6 Portland 3 Seattle 9
8 Vancouver 4 Portland 8
11 Portland 3 Vancouver 6
13 Vancouver 1 Seattle 3
15 Seattle 2 Portland 4
18 Seattle 1 Vancouver 8
21 Portland 2 Seattle 6
22 Vancouver 1 Portland 2 (20:20 OT)
25 Portland 4 Vancouver 9
27 Vancouver 1 Seattle 2 (22:20 OT)
March1 Seattle 3 Portland 1
4 Portland 4 Vancouver 8
6 Vancouver 3 Seattle 4 (2:58 OT)
8 Seattle 6 Portland 9

Source: Coleman 1966.

Player statistics

Goaltending averages

NameClubGPGASOAvg.
Hugh LehmanVancouver 18 60 1 3.3
Norman FowlerSeattle 18 65 1 3.6
Tom MurrayPortland 18 75 4.2
Source: Coleman(1966)

Scoring leaders

PlayerTeam
18 32 11 43 0
18 20 12 32 9
Seattle Metropolitans 18 20 3 23 24
18 11 10 21 16
Portland Rosebuds 18 14 6 20 57
Vancouver Millionaires 18 10 8 18 31
Portland Rosebuds 17 12 5 17 0
Vancouver Millionaires 18 11 6 17 9
Portland Rosebuds 18 13 3 16 0
Seattle Metropolitans 13 9 5 14 9

See also

References

Bibliography