1918 Stanley Cup Finals

The 1918 Stanley Cup Finals was contested by the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Toronto and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Vancouver Millionaires. In a series held entirely in Toronto, the Toronto team won the series by three games to two in the best-of-five game series to win the Stanley Cup. It was the first series contested by the new NHL and subsequently the first Stanley Cup win by the Toronto NHL franchise team.

1918 Stanley Cup Finals
1 2 3 4 5 Total Toronto (NHL) 6 4 6 1 2 3 Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA) 3 6 3 8 1 2
Location(s)	Toronto: Arena Gardens
Format	best-of-five
Coaches	Toronto: Dick Carroll Vancouver: Frank Patrick
Dates	March 20 – 30
Series-winning goal	Corb Denneny (10:30, third)

Paths to the Finals

Prior to the 1917–18 season, the National Hockey Association (NHA) had suspended operations as the result of a power play to oust Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. The remaining clubs then met in November 1918 to form the NHL, using the same constitution and playing rules of the NHA. The NHL took the NHA's place in competing for the Cup in a playoff series with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.

The Toronto NHL players were assigned from the Toronto NHA franchise, and played for a 'temporary' Toronto NHL franchise, operated by the Toronto Arena owners. This is why it is often called the 'Arenas' although no hockey club with the official name "Arenas" existed until after the 1917–18 season. The team at the time used no nickname; and it was often referred to at the time as the "Blueshirts', the nickname of the NHA franchise, as it was announced by the NHA that the franchise had been sold, although this had not been agreed to by Eddie Livingstone, who wanted to resume his franchise, or be compensated under his terms.[1]

Despite this black cloud over it, Toronto won the second half of the split regular season, while the Montreal Canadiens won the first half. Toronto then won the NHL title by defeating the Canadiens in a two-game, total-goals series, 10–7.

Meanwhile, Vancouver finished the 1917–18 PCHA regular season in second place with a 9–9 record behind the 11–7 Seattle Metropolitans. However, Vancouver beat Seattle in that league's two-game, total-goals finals, 3–1, with a 1–0 game two victory.

Game summaries

As with the three previous NHA-PCHA Cup Final series, the series alternated between the NHL champion and the PCHA champion each year, while the differing rules for the leagues alternated each game. This meant that all of the games for the 1918 championship series were played at Toronto's Arena Gardens.

Two of the major differences between the two leagues' rules proved to be a major factor in the series. The PCHA allowed forward passing (adopted in the 1913–14 season) and played with seven players per side; the NHL did not adopt forward passing until the following season, and only played with six players. In every game, the winner was the one playing under its league's rules. The Torontos won Games 1 and 3 with victories of 5–3 and 6–3, and the Millionaires recorded 6–4 and 8–1 wins in Games 2 and 4. Because game five was played under NHL rules, it helped Toronto's Corbett Denneny to score the series winning goal in a 2–1 victory. The Torontos outscored the Millionaires by a combined total of 13–7 in the three games played under NHL rules. Conversely, Vancouver recorded a 14–5 margin in the games under PCHA rules.

Toronto goaltender Hap Holmes recorded a 4.20 goals-against average during the series, while Alf Skinner led Toronto with eight goals. Cyclone Taylor scored nine goals for Vancouver.

March 20	Vancouver Millionaires		3–5		Toronto Arenas	Mutual Street Arena	Recap
16:00 – Cyclone Taylor (1) 17:00 – Cyclone Taylor (2)		First period			Reg Noble (2) – 08:00 Harry Meeking (4) – 10:00 Reg Noble (3) – 11:00 Alf Skinner (1) – 19:50
10:00 – Mickey MacKay (1)		Second period			Alf Skinner (2) – 13:00
No scoring		Third period			No scoring
Hugh Lehman		Goalie stats			Hap Holmes

March 23	Toronto Arenas		4–6		Vancouver Millionaires	Mutual Street Arena	Recap
Alf Skinner (3) – 17:00		First period			18:00 – Cyclone Taylor (3)
Harry Cameron (2) 16:00		Second period			02:00 – Cyclone Taylor (4) 06:00 – Mickey MacKay (2) 14:00 – Mickey MacKay (3)
Alf Skinner (4) – 08:00 Alf Skinner (5) – 16:00		Third period			06:00 – Si Griffis (1) 10:00 – Mickey MacKay (3)
Hap Holmes		Goalie stats			Hugh Lehman

March 26	Vancouver Millionaires		3–6		Toronto Arenas	Mutual Street Arena	Recap
No scoring		First period			05:00 – Harry Cameron (3) 08:00 – Alf Skinner (6) 13:00 – Corb Denneny (1)
Ran McDonald (1) – pp – 06:00 Cyclone Taylor (5) – 16:00		Second period			11:00 – Harry Cameron (4) 14:00 – Corb Denneny (2)
Cyclone Taylor (6) – 03:00		Third period			13:00 – Alf Skinner (7)
Hugh Lehman		Goalie stats			Hap Holmes

March 28	Toronto Arenas		1–8		Vancouver Millionaires	Mutual Street Arena	Recap
No scoring		First period			05:00 – Cyclone Taylor (7)
Ken Randall (1) – 04:26		Second period			04:00 – Barney Stanley (1) 11:06 – Mickey MacKay (5) 13:06 – Barney Stanley (2)
No scoring		Third period			06:00 – Cyclone Taylor (8) 13:00 – pp – Lloyd Cook (1) 13:45 – pp – Ran MacDonald (2) 15:00 – pp – Lloyd Cook (2)
Hap Holmes		Goalie stats			Hugh Lehman

March 30	Vancouver Millionaires		1–2		Toronto Arenas	Mutual Street Arena	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
Cyclone Taylor (9) – 09:30		Third period			00:30 – Alf Skinner (8) 10:30 – Corb Denneny (3)
Hugh Lehman		Goalie stats			Hap Holmes

Toronto won series 3–2

Player stats

Toronto	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Alf Skinner	5	8	2	10	18
Harry Mummery	5	0	6	6	21
Harry Cameron	5	3	1	4	12
Corb Denneny	5	3	1	4	0
Reg Noble	5	2	1	3	12
Harry Meeking	5	1	2	3	18
Ken Randall	5	1	0	1	21

Goaltender	GP	W	L	Min	GA	SO	Avg
Hap Holmes	5	3	2	300	21	0	4.20

Vancouver	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Mickey MacKay	5	5	5	10	12
Cyclone Taylor	5	9	0	9	15
Ran MacDonald	5	2	2	4	9
Lloyd Cook	5	2	0	2	12
Barney Stanley	5	2	0	2	6
Si Griffis	5	1	0	1	9
Leo Cook	5	0	0	0	6
Speed Moynes	5	0	0	0	6

Goaltender	GP	W	L	Min	GA	SO	Avg
Hugh Lehman	5	2	3	300	18	0	3.60

Torontos – 1918 Stanley Cup champions

1917–18 season Toronto Arenas. Top row, from left: Rusty Crawford, Harry Meeking, Ken Randall, Corbett Denneny, Harry Cameron. Middle row, from left: Dick Carroll, Jack Adams, Charles Querrie, Alf Skinner, Frank Carroll. Bottom row, from left: Harry Mummery, Harry "Hap" Holmes, Reg Noble.

Players

  Centres

• 4 Reg Noble‡
• 5 Corb Denneny
• 9 Jack Adams

  Wingers

• 6 Alf Skinner
• 8 Rusty Crawford
• 7 Jack Coughlin†
• 10 Harry Meeking
• 12 Jack Marks†

  Defencemen

• 2 Harry Cameron
• 3 Ken Randall‡ (captain)
• 11-7 Harry Mummery

  Goaltenders

• 31-1 Harry Hap Holmes

Coaching and administrative staff

• Charlie Querrie (President/Manager), Dick Carroll (Coach)
• Frank Carroll (Trainer)

‡ Played rover position in the Stanley Cup Finals
† Missing from team picture.

Stanley Cup engraving

Although the Vancouver team was not the winner of the series, the Vancouver club had the words "Vancouver/Defeated Seattle/1917–18/Score 1–0" engraved on the Cup after winning the PCHA championship over the Metropolitans, who won the previous year's Cup finals. This was consistent with the practice at that time of the trophy being officially passed on to the winner of the league championship of the previous Cup champion's league.

The Toronto club never did engrave their name on the Cup to memorialize their series victory over Vancouver. At the time, the NHL club was in a dispute with the owner of the NHA Toronto franchise holder over the Stanley Cup revenues. In 1948, the NHL engraved "1918 Toronto Arenas" on the Cup.

Dick Carroll was not only the first NHL coach to win the Stanley Cup in his first NHL season, Carroll was also a rookie coach.

See also

• 1917–18 NHL season
• 1917–18 PCHA season

References

1. Holzman, Morey (2002). Deceptions and Doublecross.

• "1917–18 Stanley Cup Winner: Toronto Arenas". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-10-16.
• "hockeyleaguehistory.com – Pacific Coast Hockey Association". Archived from the original on 3 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-03.
• "All-Time NHL Results".
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. pp. 12, 50. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
• Dan Diamond, ed. (1992). The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. pp. 49–50. ISBN 1-895565-15-4.

Preceded by Seattle Metropolitans 1917	Toronto Stanley Cup Champions 1918	Succeeded by (No Champion for 1919)