1925 Stanley Cup Finals
| 1925 Stanley Cup Finals | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Location(s) |
Victoria, BC (Patrick Arena) (1,3,4) Vancouver, BC (Denman Arena) (2) |
||||||||||||||||||
| Format | best-of-five | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coaches | Montreal: Leo Dandurand Victoria: Lester Patrick |
||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | March 21 – 30 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Series-winning goal | Gizzy Hart (1:35, second) | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1925 Stanley Cup Finals saw the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) champion Victoria Cougars defeat the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Montreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five game series. The Canadiens were substitute NHL representatives, as the final series to decide the NHL champion was not played.
The Cougars were the last non-NHL team to win the Cup as the WCHL (renamed the Western Hockey League for the 1925–26 season) folded after the 1926 Cup Final, leaving the Stanley Cup to become the NHL's de facto championship trophy. The Cougars would also be the last team based west of Chicago to win the Cup until the Edmonton Oilers won the trophy in 1984. These were also the last Stanley Cup Final games to be played in Western Canada until the Vancouver Canucks qualified for the 1982 Final. Games one, three and four were held in Victoria. Game two, held in Vancouver, was the last neutral site game in Stanley Cup Final history that did not involve the New York Rangers.
Prior to the season, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) folded and two of its teams, the Cougars and the Vancouver Maroons joined the WCHL. Victoria finished the 1924–25 WCHL regular season in third place, but eventually upset the Calgary Tigers in the two-game total goals WCHL championship series by a combined score of 3–1.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens also finished the NHL regular season in third place. In the NHL playoffs, Montreal went on to beat the second place Toronto St. Patricks, 5–2, in a two-game total goals series. The winner of that series was to go on and play the first place Hamilton Tigers. However, the Tigers were suspended after Hamilton players staged a strike in an attempt to receive more compensation because the league extended the regular season from 24 to 30 games. As a result, the Canadiens were declared the 1924–25 NHL champions.
...
Wikipedia