1972-73 WHA Season

The 1972–73 WHA season was the first regular season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Twelve teams played 78 games each. The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Garry L. Davidson and Dennis A. Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States. The league championship trophy, the Avco World Trophy, was donated by AVCO Financial Services Corporation along with $500,000.

The New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4 games to 1 in the Finals to win the first Avco World Trophy.

Regular Season
The first WHA game, on 12 October, 1972, was won by the Alberta Oilers 7-4 over the Ottawa Nationals.

Bobby Hull missed the first 14 games of the regular season after the Chicago Black Hawks filed a restraining order against Hull and the Winnipeg Jets in November 1972. Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia placed an injunction against the NHL, preventing it from enforcing the reserve clause and freeing all players who had restraining orders against them, including Hull, to play with their WHA clubs. The decision effectively ended the NHL's monopoly on major league professional hockey talent.

The Cleveland Crusaders played at the Cleveland Arena which had become decrepit and had chicken wire instead of Plexiglas on top of the boards. The area was notorious for the high level of crime. Several Crusaders players experienced theft of their cars and mugging outside the arena.

The Chicago Cougars played in the International Amphitheatre while awaiting completion of Rosemont Horizon Arena whic was not finished until 1980. The 9,000 seat Amphitheatre was located next to cattle stockyards and abattoirs, filling the arena with a powerful stench.

Alton White of the Los Angeles Sharks became the first black player to score a Hat-trick in a major league professional game. He accomplished the feat on March 1, 1973 against the Minnesota Fighting Saints in an 4-1 victory. He also was the first black player to score 20 goals in a major professional season.

On March 28, 1973, Bobby Hull returned to Chicago to face the Cougars, having scored 49 goals. Hull potted his 50th of the season and when the game went into overtime, won it for the Jets with his 51st.

The WHA was split into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. Each division sported 6 teams. The New England Whalers led the Eastern Division and had the best record in the league. The other playoff qualifiers in the East were Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Ottawa. The Winnipeg Jets led the Western Division and had the second best record in the league. Behind Winnipeg, the West had a thrilling race with 4 teams fighting for three playoff spots, trading 2nd through 5th place all season. Houston won 3 of its last 4 games to finish 2nd with 82 points. With 2 games remaining, Minnesota had 79 points, Alberta had 77, and Los Angeles had 76. Los Angeles won their last two games to finish 3rd, while Minnesota and Alberta both lost their next to last game of the season, setting up a final game showdown in Minnesota against each other with Minnesota 2 points ahead of Alberta. Alberta won the game 5-3, so both teams finished with identical records.

The league now faced a dilemma. The first standings tiebreaker was number of wins, and the teams both had 38. The second tiebreaker was head to head record and the teams split their 8 games with 4 wins apiece. The league by-laws did not specify further tiebreakers. In the NHL, the next two tie breakers were goal differential and goals scored, both with favored Alberta. But because the WHA by-laws did not specify additional tiebreakers, the league Board of Governors met to decide how to break the tie. They ultimately decided on a 1 game playoff at a neutral site. The Alberta Oilers missed the playoffs, despite having a superior goal-differential to the Minnesota Fighting Saints, because they lost the neutral-site, tie-breaking game against the Saints in Calgary by a score of 4-2.

Leading Goaltenders
Bolded numbers indicate season leaders

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average



All-Star Game
On January 6, 1973 at Quebec City, a team comprised of the Eastern Division All-Stars defeated the Western Division All-Stars 6-2 before a crowd of 5,435 spectators. Wayne Carleton of the Ottawa Nationals was the game's MVP.

Playoff Summary
Compared to the thrilling race in the West Division, the playoffs were unexciting in that the team with the better record won every series and only one series went beyond 5 games. That was the West Semi-final between Houston and Los Angeles. After getting blown out in game one in Houston by a score of 7-2, Los Angeles rallied to win game two 4-2 and even the series. The Sharks then won a thrilling game three in L.A. 3-2. Game 4 was the turning point of the series. The teams headed into overtime tied at 2; a Houston goal would even the series while a Los Angeles goal would give the Sharks a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Aeros scored in overtime to even the series, then won game 5 in Houston, 6-3. Game six in L.A. was another thriller, with Houston scoring late to win the game 3-2 and win the series.

Avco World Trophy Finals
New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1. The Whalers defeated the Jets 9 to 6 in the deciding game, with Larry Pleau scoring a Hat trick.

As the Avco World Trophy had not been created in time for the 1973 Finals, a trophy was bought from a Boston sporting goods store as a substitute.

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first major professional game in 1972–73 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):


 * Mike Antonovich, Minnesota Fighting Saints
 * Richard Brodeur, Quebec Nordiques
 * Gavin Kirk, Ottawa Nationals
 * Bruce Landon, New England Whalers
 * Bob MacMillan, Minnesota Fighting Saints
 * Rusty Patenaude, Alberta Oilers
 * Gene Peacosh, New York Raiders
 * Ron Plumb, Philadelphia Blazers
 * Timothy Sheehy, New England Whalers

Last Game
The following is a list of players of note who played their final major professional game in 1972–73:


 * Kent Douglas, New York Raiders
 * Bill Hicke, Alberta Oilers
 * Marcel Paille, Philadelphia Blazers

Video
48 minutes of game action from the October 27, 1972 Chicago Cougars-Winnipeg Jets match.