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 Team	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
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

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score
March 11	Seattle	2	Vancouver	2
March 14	Vancouver	1	Seattle	0

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-Game		Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Rules Used	Location
1	March 20	Toronto	5–3	Vancouver	NHL	Arena Gardens
2	March 23	Vancouver	6–4	Toronto	PCHA
3	March 26	Toronto	6–3	Vancouver	NHL
4	March 28	Vancouver	8–1	Toronto	PCHA
5	March 30	Toronto	2–1	Vancouver	NHL
Torontos wins best-of-five series 3 games to 2

Schedule and results

Month	Day	Visitor	Score	Home	Score
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)
March	1	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

Name	Club	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Hugh Lehman	Vancouver	18	60	1	3.3
Norman Fowler	Seattle	18	65	1	3.6
Tom Murray	Portland	18	75		4.2