1914-15 NHA season

The 1914–15 NHA season was the 6th season of the National Hockey Association and played from December 26, 1914 until March 3, 1915. Each team played 20 games.

The Ottawa Senators won the NHA championship in a two game, total goal playoff against the Montreal Wanderers. However, they fell to the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in the Stanley Cup championship. It was the first year of an agreement between the NHA and the PCHA to have each league's champion play for the cup.

League Business[]

Directors[]

Emmett Quinn, president
Frank Calder, secretary-treasurer

Rule Changes[]

no player to come within five feet of players facing off,
puck played after rebounding from goalkeeper no longer is offside,
charging a player into the boards is a major foul,
match foul penalized by 10 minutes off and $15 fine.

Players' Salaries[]

Prior to the season Art Ross was suspended for trying to organize a rival league, with higher players's salaries. The organizing attempt was not successful, and by January 7, Mr. Ross was reinstated. He signed with Ottawa.

Regular Season[]

The Ontarios changed their team name to Shamrocks from the February 3 game forward.

Ottawa traded Percy LeSueur to the Ontarios for Fred Lake.

Highlights[]

A record long overtime game was played in Quebec on January 13 between Quebec and the Canadiens. Quebec defeated Montreal 3–2 after 50 minutes and 28 seconds of overtime, on a goal by Jack McDonald. Coach Jack Laviolette had to take over for Georges Vezina after Vezina was penalized.

The Ontarios had to forfeit their February 3 game with the Wanderers after the McNamara brothers took a personal leave to attend their fathers' funeral. Owner Eddie Livingstone of the Ontarios asked for a postponement but the Wanderers refused.

A game on February 17 between Toronto and Ottawa turned into a brawl before Toronto police arrested Art Ross and Roy McGiffen to calm the proceedings.

Final standings[]

Playoff qualifiers in bold.

League Standings	GP	W	L	Pts	GF	GA
Ottawa Senators	20	14	6	28	74	65
Montreal Wanderers	20	14	6	28	127	82
Quebec Bulldogs	20	11	9	22	85	85
Toronto Blueshirts	20	8	12	16	66	84
Toronto Ontarios-Shamrocks	20	7	13	14	76	96
Montreal Canadiens	20	6	14	12	65	81

Results[]

Month	Day	Visitor	Score	Home	Score
Dec.	26	Ottawa	4	Quebec	1
	26	Wanderers	11	Ontarios	6
	26	Toronto	4	Canadiens	3
	30	Ontarios	1	Ottawa	4
	30	Wanderers	5	Toronto	2
	30	Quebec	8	Canadiens	7
Jan.	2	Ottawa	6	Wanderers	15
	2	Canadiens	1	Ontarios	4
	2	Toronto	2	Quebec	6
	6	Ottawa	4	Canadiens	2
	6	Ontarios	3	Toronto	4
	6	Wanderers	5	Quebec	6
	9	Toronto	1	Ottawa	2 (18' OT)
	9	Quebec	2	Ontarios	3 (5' OT)
	9	Canadiens	4	Wanderers	5 (6'45" OT)
	13	Ottawa	3	Ontarios	5
	13	Toronto	3	Wanderers	11
	13	Canadiens	2	Quebec	3 (50'20" OT)
	16	Wanderers	3	Ottawa	4
	16	Quebec	1	Toronto	3
	16	Ontarios	7	Canadiens	1
	20	Canadiens	1	Ottawa	3
	20	Ontarios	3	Toronto	4
	20	Quebec	2	Wanderers	5
	23	Canadiens	7	Wanderers	2
	23	Ontarios	1	Quebec	4
	23	Ottawa	2	Toronto	4
	27	Quebec	2	Ottawa	7
	27	Canadiens	1	Wanderers	2
	30	Ottawa	3	Quebec	1
	30	Wanderers	2	Toronto	8
	30	Ontarios	3	Canadiens	4
Feb.	3	Toronto	2	Ottawa	7
	3	Wanderers		Ontarios	†
	3	Quebec	2	Canadiens	5
	6	Ottawa	1	Wanderers	8
	6	Ontarios	5	Quebec	9
	6	Canadiens	4	Toronto	3
	10	Ottawa	6	Ontarios	2
	10	Toronto	5	Quebec	7
	10	Canadiens	3	Wanderers	6
	13	Canadiens	3	Ottawa	5
	13	Quebec	6	Wanderers	4
	13	Ontarios	6	Toronto	3
	17	Ottawa	3	Toronto	1
	17	Ontarios	7	Wanderers	10
	17	Canadiens	2	Quebec	6
	20	Wanderers	5	Ottawa	1
	20	Toronto	2	Canadiens	7
	20	Quebec	6	Ontarios	10
	24	Ottawa	2	Canadiens	3
	24	Wanderers	4	Quebec	5 (2' OT)
	24	Toronto	5	Ontarios	1
	27	Ontarios	2	Ottawa	3
	27	Quebec	5	Toronto	4
	27	Wanderers	7	Canadiens	3
Mar.	3	Quebec	3	Ottawa	4 (25" OT)
	3	Toronto	4	Wanderers	5
	3	Canadiens	2	Ontarios	3

† Defaulted to Wanderers.

Scoring leaders[]

Player	Team	GP	G
Tommy Smith	Quebec & Ontarios	19	39
Didier Pitre	Canadiens	20	30
Gordon Roberts	Wanderers	18	29
Harry Broadbent	Ottawa	24	26
Harry Hyland	Wanderers	24	26
Sprague Cleghorn	Wanderers	19	21
Cully Wilson	Blueshirts	18	17
Odie Cleghorn	Wanderers	12	16
Skene Ronan	Ontarios-Shamrocks	18	20
Rusty Crawford	Quebec	20	19

Goalkeeper Averages[]

Name	Club	GP	GA	Avg.
Benedict, Clint	Ottawa	20	65	3.3
Vezina, Georges	Canadiens	20	81	4.1
Holmes, Harry	Toronto	20	84	4.2
Moran, Paddy	Quebec	20	85	4.3
McCarthy, Charlie	Wanderers	19	82	4.3
LeSueur, Percy	Ontarios-Shamrocks	19	96	5.1

Playoffs[]

League championship[]

Montreal and Ottawa played a two-game total-goals series to determine the league championship and the O'Brien Cup.

Game-by-Game		Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
1	March 10	Ottawa Senators	4–0	Montreal Wanderers	Ottawa
2	March 13	Montreal Wanderers	1–0	Ottawa Senators	Montreal
Senators win series 4–1

Exhibition series[]

The Wanderers, Canadiens and Bulldogs played an exhibition series in New York and Boston. The Ontarios and Torontos played an exhibitions series in Cleveland, Ohio.^[1]

Stanley Cup Finals[]

Main article: 1915 Stanley Cup Finals

The 1914–15 season was the first year of an agreement by the Cup's trustees, the NHA and the PCHA where the champion of each league would compete for the Stanley Cup. It marked the end of the challenge era, and began a twelve year period where the NHA/NHL champion would have to compete against a Western league for the Cup.

All three games in this series were played in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the Millionaires sweeping the best of five series in three games.

Game-by-Game		Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Rules Used	Location
1	March 22	Vancouver Millionaires	6–2	Ottawa Senators	PCHA	Denman Arena, Vancouver
2	March 24	Vancouver Millionaires	8–3	Ottawa Senators	NHA
3	March 26	Vancouver Millionaires	12–3	Ottawa Senators	PCHA
Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0