1973-74 WHA Season

The 1973-74 WHA season was the second season of the World Hockey Association. Twelve teams each played 78 games. The Philadelphia Blazers relocated to Vancouver, becoming the Vancouver Blazers. They were moved to the Western Division and the Chicago Cougars moved to the Eastern Division. The New York Raiders were renamed the New York Golden Blades and then moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey to become the New Jersey Knights after just 20 games. The Ottawa Nationals moved to Toronto and became the Toronto Toros.

The Houston Aeros defeated the Chicago Cougars 4 games to 0 in the Finals to win their 1st Avco World Trophy.

Off-season

Following the 1972-73 WHA season, New York real estate mogul Ralph Brent bought the team and renamed it the New York Golden Blades. While they managed to acquire Andre Lacroix from the Philadelphia Blazers, he was essentially all the franchise had going for it. The team replaced their original orange and blue uniforms with purple and gold uniforms of a unique design, and to coincide with the new identity, the team started the season wearing white skates with gold-colored blades.

Pre-season

Golden Blades Andre Lacroix and Dean Boylan in exhibition action against the Aeros, September 25, 1973.

In order to promote the New York Golden Blades, a four team mini-tournament featuring the Houston Aeros, Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers was held at Madison Square Garden on September 25, 1973.

Regular Season

Gordie, Marty and Mark Howe in 1973.

The Houston Aeros lured 45 year old Gordie Howe out of retirement by promising him that he could play with his sons Mark and Marty who were also on the team. Howe responded by having a 100 point season, leading the team in scoring and helping them finish with the best record in the league. The Aeros also received excellent goaltending from Don McLeod and Wayne Rutledge. The defending Western Division champion Winnipeg Jets slipped to 4th place with a sub-.500 record. The other playoff qualifiers in the West were Minnesota and Edmonton.

In the East, defending Avco World Trophy champs New England won their second straight division title followed by Toronto, Cleveland and Chicago.

Final Standings

Eastern Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PIM	Pts
New England Whalers	78	43	31	4	291	260	875	90
Toronto Toros	78	41	33	4	304	272	871	86
Cleveland Crusaders	78	37	32	9	266	264	1007	83
Chicago Cougars	78	38	35	5	271	273	1041	81
Quebec Nordiques	78	38	36	4	306	280	909	80
NY Golden Blades / NJ Knights	78	32	42	4	268	313	933	68

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties Minutes, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Western Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PIM	Pts
Houston Aeros	78	48	25	5	318	219	1038	101
Minnesota Fighting Saints	78	44	32	2	332	275	1243	90
Edmonton Oilers	78	38	37	3	268	269	1273	79
Winnipeg Jets	78	34	39	5	264	296	673	73
Vancouver Blazers	78	27	50	1	278	345	1047	55
Los Angeles Sharks	78	25	53	0	239	339	1086	50

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties Minutes, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Scoring Leaders

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Mike Walton	Minnesota Fighting Saints	78	57	60	117	88
Andre Lacroix	NY Golden Blades / Jersey Knights	78	31	80	111	54
Gordie Howe	Houston Aeros	76	31	69	100	46
Wayne Connelly	Minnesota Fighting Saints	78	42	53	95	16
Bobby Hull	Winnipeg Jets	75	53	42	95	37
Wayne Carleton	Toronto Toros	78	37	55	92	31
Bryan Campbell	Vancouver Blazers	76	27	62	89	50
Danny Lawson	Vancouver Blazers	78	50	38	88	14
Serge Bernier	Quebec Nordiques	74	37	49	86	107
Larry Lund	Houston Aeros	75	33	53	86	109

Leading Goaltenders

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

Player	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Don McLeod	Houston Aeros	49	2971	33	13	3	127	3	91.1	2.56
Gerry Cheevers	Cleveland Crusaders	59	3562	30	20	6	180	4	90.6	3.03
Al Smith	New England Whalers	55	3194	30	21	2	164	2	89.5	3.08
Cam Newton	Chicago Cougars	45	2732	25	18	2	143	1	89.4	3.14
Jack Norris	Edmonton Oilers	53	2954	23	24	1	158	2	89.8	3.21

All-Star Game

Mike Walton scores on Gerry Cheevers, 2nd WHA All-Star Game, January 3, 1974.

On January 3, 1974 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, MN, a team comprised of the Eastern Division All-Stars defeated the Western Division All-Stars 8-4 before a crowd of 13,196 spectators. Mike Walton, who had a Hat trick in a losing effort, was the game's MVP.

Avco World Trophy Playoffs

The West Division playoffs went according to form, with the top 2 seeds, Houston and Minnesota, easily disposing of Edmonton and Winnipeg respectively. In the east, Toronto won as expected over Cleveland, but Chicago shocked the WHA by upsetting the defending champion New England Whalers in 7 games, winning 3 of the 4 games in New England. In the division Finals, favored Houston defeated Minnesota in 6 games, while Chicago pulled its second upset by beating Toronto in 7 games, outscoring the Toros 14-4 in winning games 6 and 7.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

E1

New England Whalers

3

E4

Chicago Cougars

4

E4

Chicago Cougars

4

Eastern Division

E2

Toronto Toros

3

E2

Toronto Toros

4

E3

Cleveland Crusaders

1

E4

Chicago Cougars

0

W1

Houston Aeros

4

W1

Houston Aeros

4

W4

Winnipeg Jets

0

W1

Houston Aeros

4

Western Division

W2

Minnesota Fighting Saints

2

W2

Minnesota Fighting Saints

4

W3

Edmonton Oilers

1

Avco World Trophy Finals

Larry Lund scores the sixth Aeros goal, Game 4 of the 1974 Avco World Trophy Finals, May 19, 1974.

When the Chicago Cougars won their series versus the Toronto Toros, the Peter Pan show had moved on, and the International Amphitheatre should have been available. However, the Amphitheatre had a portable ice surface. For reasons that were never stated, the Amphitheatre staff decided the hockey season was over so uncovered and dismantled the copper pipes used to chill the ice. The Cougars had no choice but to return to the Randhurst Ice Arena, a 2,000 seat public skating rink, for the Finals. The Cougars never quite recovered from the public relations disaster. One sports reporter had quipped, "The Cougars were beaten by the greatest lightweight of them all - Peter Pan."

The Cougars ran out of magic in the Finals as Houston swept them in four straight, outscoring them 22-9.

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	May 12	Houston Aeros	3–2	Chicago Cougars	1–0
2	May 15	Houston Aeros	6–1	Chicago Cougars	2–0
3	May 17	Chicago Cougars	4–7	Houston Aeros	3–0
4	May 19	Chicago Cougars	2–6	Houston Aeros	4–0

WHA Awards

Avco World Trophy:	Houston Aeros
Gary L. Davidson Award (MVP):	Gordie Howe, Houston Aeros
Bill Hunter Trophy (Scoring Leader):	Mike Walton, Minnesota Fighting Saints
Lou Kaplan Trophy (Rookie of the Year):	Mark Howe, Houston Aeros
Ben Hatskin Trophy (Best Goaltender):	Don McLeod, Houston Aeros
Dennis A. Murphy Trophy (Best Defenseman):	Pat Stapleton, Chicago Cougars
Paul Deneau Trophy (Most Gentlemenly):	Ralph Backstrom, Chicago Cougars
Howard Baldwin Trophy (Coach of the Year):	Bill Harris, Toronto Toros

All-Star Teams

Position	First Team	Second Team
Centre	André Lacroix, New York/Jersey	Wayne Carleton, Toronto
Right Wing	Gordie Howe, Houston	Mike Walton, Minnesota
Left Wing	Bobby Hull, Winnipeg	Mark Howe, Houston
Defence	Pat Stapleton, Chicago	J. C. Tremblay, Quebec
Defence	Paul Shmyr, Cleveland	Al Hamilton, Edmonton
Goaltender	Don McLeod, Houston	Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland

Gallery

Opening night face-off, John McKenzie, WHA VP Beewitt, Ted Hampson, October 12, 1973.

Yves Archambault, Serge Bernier, Irv Spencer, October 31, 1973.

Kevin Morrison, John McKenzie, Ken Block, Joe Junkin, November 1973.

Bob Leduc, Guy Trottier, Kevin Morrison, December 18, 1973.

Claude St. Sauveur scores on Bob Whidden, January 23, 1974.

Gordie Howe and Ron Climie, February 23, 1974.

Chris Worthy, Gordie Howe, Al Hamilton, February 23, 1974.

Gordie Howe passes to Frank Hughes, February 24, 1974.

Murray Hall scores on George Gardner as Ralph MacSweyn looks on, March 27, 1974.

Fran Huck and Paul Hoganson in 1973-74 action.

Gerry Cheevers stops Rick Sentes, 1974 Quarter-finals Game 5, April 15, 1974.

Darryl Maggs scores on Gilles Gratton, 1974 Semi-finals Game 7, May 4, 1974.

Toronto

References

• WHA Database
• HockeyDb

Preceded by 1972-73 WHA season

WHA seasons

Succeeded by 1974-75 WHA season