1906 ECAHA season

The inaugural 1906 Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) season lasted from January 3 until March 10. Teams played a ten game schedule. Ottawa HC and Montreal Wanderers would tie for the league championship with a record of 9–1, while the Montreal Shamrocks would not win a single game. The Senators and the Wanderers would play a two-game play-off to win the league championship, and the Stanley Cup holder. The Wanderers won the play-off 9–1,3–9 (12–10) on goals.

League Business

Executive

Initial:

• Howard Wilson, Montreal (President)
• G. P. Murphy, Ottawa (1st Vice-President)
• Dr. Cameron (2nd Vice-President)
• James Strachan, Wanderers (Secretary-Treasurer)

After December 20:

• Howard Wilson, Montreal (President)
• William Northey, Montreal Arena Corp. (Secretary-Treasurer)

Rule Changes

• Teams must appoint game timers for each game,
• a two referee system was adopted,
• new Arena Trophy would be awarded to the regular season winner,
• three-quarters vote would be needed to admit new teams,
• if a team resigns, all of its played games would be considered cancelled,
• $25 fine for delay of start of game, and
• $50 charge to make a protest, non-refundable.

Regular season

The Ottawas played two Cup challenges during the regular season, defeating Queen's College of Kingston, the OHA champion, and defeating Smiths Falls, the FAHL champion.

Highlights

This season saw lots of new players. Wanderers brought in Lester Patrick, Ernie Johnson and Ernie Russell and Ottawa brought in Harry and Tommy Smith.

Fred Brophy, of Montreal HC, repeated his goal-scoring performance from the goaltender position in a game against Montreal Victorias on March 7.

Again, the league was high scoring, with Harry Smith scoring 31 goals in 8 games, Russell Bowie scoring 30 goals in 9 games, and Frank McGee scoring 28 goals in 7 games. Mr. Smith scored 6 in one game, 5 in another, topped by 8 against the Shamrocks on February 17. Mr. McGee would equal the 8 goals in a game feat against Montreal HC on March 3. Seven players scored at least 5 goals in a single game.

Final standing

Playoff qualifiers in bold.

Team	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Ties	Goals For	Goals Against
Ottawa Hockey Club	10	9	1	0	90	42
Montreal Wanderers	10	9	1	0	74	38
Montreal Victorias	10	6	4	0	76	73
Quebec Hockey Club	10	3	7	0	57	70
Montreal Hockey Club	10	3	7	0	49	63
Montreal Shamrocks	10	0	10	0	30	90

Results

Month	Day	Visitor	Score	Home	Score
Jan.	3	Montreal	9	Shamrocks	3
	6	Quebec	3	Ottawa	6
	6	Wanderers	11	Victorias	5
	10	Victorias	9	Shamrocks	7
	13	Quebec	10	Victorias	11 (overtime)
	13	Wanderers	4	Ottawa	8
	17	Shamrocks	2	Wanderers	3 (overtime)
	20	Wanderers	6	Quebec	5
	20	Ottawa	4	Montreal	1
	24	Victorias	11	Shamrocks	2
	27	Quebec	3	Shamrocks	1
	27	Victorias	6	Ottawa	11
	31	Wanderers	6	Montreal	2
Feb.	3	Victorias	6	Quebec	2
	3	Ottawa	3	Wanderers	5
	7	Montreal	4	Shamrocks	1
	10	Shamrocks	8	Quebec	14
	10	Ottawa	10	Victorias	4
	14	Wanderers	6	Montreal	2
	17	Shamrocks	2	Ottawa	13
	17	Quebec	7	Montreal	6 15'20" overtime
	21	Wanderers	9	Victorias	4
	25	Ottawa	9	Shamrocks	3
	25	Montreal	5	Quebec	2
	28	Victorias	6	Montreal	5
Mar.	3	Montreal	9	Ottawa	14
	3	Quebec	6	Wanderers	9
	7	Montreal	6	Victorias	14
	10	Ottawa	12	Quebec	5
	10	Wanderers	15	Shamrocks	1

Goalkeeper Averages

Name	Club	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Menard, Henri	Wanderers	10	38		3.8
Hague, Billy	Ottawa	10	42		4.2
Brophy, Fred	Montreal	10	63		6.3
Frye, Nathan	Victorias	8	52		6.5
Moran, Paddy	Quebec	10	70		7.0
Kenny	Shamrocks	8	64		8.0
Waugh, Oswald	Victorias	2	21		10.5
Brennan, Jack	Shamrocks	2	26		13.0

Leading scorers

Name	Club	GP	G
Smith, Harry	Ottawa	8	31
Bowie, Russell	Victorias	9	30
McGee, Frank	Ottawa	7	28
Power, Joe	Quebec	10	21
Russell, Ernie	Wanderers	6	21
Smaill, Walter	Montreal	10	17
Patrick, Lester	Wanderers	9	17
Jordan, Herb	Quebec	8	16
Smith, Alf	Ottawa	10	13
Johnson, Ernie	Montreal	10	12

Playoffs

Stanley Cup Challenges

The Ottawas played two Cup challenges during the regular season, defeating Queen's College of Kingston, the OHA champion, and defeating Smiths Falls, the FAHL champion.

Queen's vs. Ottawa

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
February 27, 1906	Ottawa HC	16–7	Queen's University	Dey's Arena
February 28, 1906	Ottawa HC	12–7	Queen's University
Ottawa wins best-of-three series 2 games to 0

The lopsided score of game 1 gave indications that the series would be quickly over. One interesting emergence was that of Marty Walsh. Walsh would help hold Ottawa to a 5-3 lead scoring 2 goals. Unfortuneatly in the games second half Ottawa broke away after the score was made 5-4 with 9 unanswered goals. Ottawa would win game 1 16-7. The game featured many multiple goal scorers; Westwick, McGee, A. Smith and H Smith would all score 4 goals for the Senators, and Richardson, Dobbson, and Walsh would each score 2 for Queen's.

Smiths Falls vs. Ottawa

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
March 6, 1906	Ottawa HC	6–5	Smiths Falls	Dey's Arena
March 8, 1906	Ottawa HC	8–2	Smiths Falls
Ottawa wins best-of-three series 2 games to 0

ECAHA Playoff

As the season produced a tie for the season championship, the defending champion Ottawas and Wanderers played a two-game playoff, with the winner being awarded the Stanley Cup. The series took place on March 14 in Montreal and March 17 in Ottawa. The Wanderers would win the series 9–1, 3–9 (12–10) in dramatic fashion..

Game one

Ottawa was installed as 2–1 betting favourites, but the Wanderers upset the bookies. In the first game in Montreal, the Wanderers dominated Ottawa, as Ernie Russell got four goals, Frank Glass got three and Moose Johnson would get two for a 9–1 victory.

Game two

After the first game, the Ottawas would replace their goalie Billy Hague with the Smiths Falls goalie Percy LeSueur in to play his first game for the club. Despite being down by eight goals, interest in Ottawa for the return match was high. Rush seats on sale the day of the game produced a throng that caused the ticket seller's glass to break. The venue, Dey's Arena, was modified to hold more spectators, including setting up temporary bleachers, removing the grandstand which had been used as a press box, and the installation of a press box attached to the rafters. Over 5,400 would attend the game and the top $2 tickets were being sold for $10. Betting interest was high, including one $12,000 bet.

After twelve minutes, the first goal was scored by the Wanderers' Moose Johnson to increase the goal lead to nine. Ottawa's Frank McGee, Harry Smith, and McGee again scored before half-time, cutting the deficit to 10–4. Harry Smith would score to open the second half, followed by Rat Westwick. Then Westwick scored again to make it 10-7 before Harry Smith scored three straight goals to make the score 9–1, evening the series with ten minutes to play to tie the series, causing a five-minute standing ovation. With seven minutes to play Smith was sent off for the rest of the game and Lester Patrick would score with ninety seconds to play to put the Wanderers back in the lead. Patrick would ice the game with a goal with a few seconds to play. The Silver Seven reign was over.

The Toronto Globe called it the "greatest game of hockey ever played on Canadian ice, or any other." The Sporting News would later dub it the "Greatest Hockey Game in History." Moose Johnson would end up with the Governor-General's top hat. It had been knocked of the Earl Grey's head, and a fan had snatched it up, giving it to Johnson later in the dressing room.

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
March 14, 1906	Montreal Wanderers	9–1	Ottawa HC	Montreal Arena
March 17, 1906	Ottawa HC	9–3	Montreal Wanderers	Dey's Arena
Montreal wins total goals series 12 goals to 10

Because of the need for the play-off, no challenges were made against western teams until the following winter. Ottawa had won Stanley Cup challenges that season, which meant that the 1906 season would have two Stanley Cup holders: Ottawa until March, and Montreal Wanderers for the balance of the year.

Ottawa Hockey Club January 1906 Stanley Cup champions

Roster

  Centres

• Tommy Smith(center)
• Frank McGee(rover)

  Wingers

• Hamilton Billy Gilmour
• Harry Smith
• Harry Westwick(also played Rover)
• Jack Ebbs
• Coo Dion
• Alf Smith(playing-Coach)

  Defencemen

• Harvey Pulford(point-Captain),
• Arthur Moore(coverpoint),
• Rod Kennedy(coverpoint)

  Goaltenders

• Billy Hague

  Coaching and administrative staff

• G.P. Murphy(President)† Robert "Bob" Shillington(Manager)
• Patrick Basketville(Treasurer), Thomas D'Arcy McGee(Secretary)
• Halder Kirby(Club Doctor), David Barred(Team Denist)
• Llewellyn Bates, J.P. Dickson†, Martin Rosenthal, Charles Sparks(Directors)
• Pete Green(Trainer), Mac MacGilton (Ass't Trainer)

• No team picture including all executive has been found for 1906 Ottawa.
• † Two executives names remain unknown.

Stanley Cup engraving

Between 1903 and 1906 Ottawa engraved each of 10 Stanley Cup series they won, and teams they played outside the bowl. The first 8 series were listed separately, but both of the 1906 series are listed together in same space.

Montreal Wanderers March 1906 Stanley Cup champions

Roster

  Forwards

• Frank "Pud" Glass (Rover)
• Lester Patrick (rover)
• Josh Arnold
• Ernie Moose Johnson
• Ernie Russell

  Defencemen

• Cecil Blachford(point-rover-Captain)
• Billy Strachan(point)
• Rod Kennedy(coverpoint)

  Goaltenders

• Henri "Doc" Menard

  Coaching and administrative staff

• James Strachan (President), Clarence MacKerrow (Hon. President),
• Dickie Boon (Manager), George Guile (Vice President), George Hodges (Hon. Vice President)
• George Hodges (Hon. Vice President), Robert "Bob" Stephenson (Secretary-Treasurer) Tom Hodges (Hon. Secretary-Treasurer),
• Robert "Bob" Ahern, William Jennings (Directors), Paul Lefebvre (Trainer).

(Team picture includes 8 players in uniform, and 10 members in suites, plus a mascot. The Mascot's name remains unknown.)

Stanley Cup engraving

Wanderers engraved their name on top outside of the bowl. They included both challenges series, plus date and scores that goes all way around the Stanley Cup.

See also

• 1905–06 Ottawa Hockey Club season
• Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
• List of pre-NHL seasons
• List of ice hockey leagues
• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

• Coleman, Charles L. (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc. NHL. 
• Podnieks, Andrew (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Fenn Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55168-261-3. 
• Whitehead, Eric (1980). The Patricks: Hockey's Royal Family. Toronto, Ontario: Doubleday Canada. ISBN 0-385-15662-6. 

Notes

Preceded by Ottawa Hockey Club 1905	Ottawa Hockey Club Stanley Cup Champions January 1906	Succeeded by Montreal Wanderers March 1906
Preceded by Ottawa Hockey Club January, 1906	Montreal Wanderers Stanley Cup Champions 1906	Succeeded by Kenora Thistles January 1907
Preceded by 1905 (CAHL)	ECAHA seasons 1906	Succeeded by 1907 ECAHA season