1906 ECAHA season

The inaugural 1906 Eastern Canadian 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; Ottawa brought in Harry and Tommy Smith; and Joe Hall joined Quebec.

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."

Leading scorers

ECAHA Playoff

As the season produced a tie for the season championship, the Ottawas and Wanderers played a two-game playoff, with the winner being awarded the Stanley Cup. The series took place on March 14–17th in Montreal and Ottawa. The Wanderers would win the series 9–1, 3–9 (12–10). After the first game, the Ottawas would replace their goalie with the Smiths Falls goalie Percy LeSueur in to play his first game for the club. Ottawa's Harry Smith would store Ottawa's 8th ad 9th 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.Citation |newspaper=Globe and Mail |title=Wanderers Won the Cup |pages=pg. 10|date=March 19, 1907] With seven minutes to play Smith was sent off for a penalty, and Lester Patrick would score with 6 minutes to play and ice the game with a goal with one minute to play.

Because of the need for the play-off, no challenges were made against western teams until the following winter.

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-March 1906 Stanley Cup champions

Stanley Cup champion
defence=*Harvey Pulford(point-Captain),
*Arthur Moore(coverpoint),
* Rod Kennedy(coverpoint)
centers=*Tommy Smith(center)
*Frank McGee(rover)
wingers=*Hamilton Billy Gilmour
*Harry Smith
*Harry Westwick(also played Rover)
*Ebbs
*Dion
*Alf Smith(playing-Coach)
goaltenders=*Billy Hague
non-players=*G.P. Murphy(President), 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)
all-notes=No team picture including all executive has been found for 1906 Ottawa.
engraving-notes=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.

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Montreal Wanderers March 1906 Stanley Cup champions

Stanley Cup champion
defence=*Cecil Blachford(point-rover-Captain)
*Billy Strachan(point)
* Rod Kennedy(coverpoint)
centers=*Frank "Pud" Glass (Rover)
*Lester Patrick (rover)
wingers=*Ernie Moose Johnson
*Ernie Russell
*Josh Arnold
goaltenders=*Henri "Doc" Menard
non-players=*James Strachan (President)
*Dickie Boon (Manager)
*Paul Lefbvre (Trainer)
all-notes=(Team picture includes 9 players, and 9 non-players, plus a mascot. Only 3 non-players names are unknown.)
engraving-notes=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. [ [Podnieks] ]

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References

*cite book
author=Coleman, Charles L.
title=The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc.
year=1966
publisher=NHL
* Podnieks, Andrew: Lord Stanley Cup, Fenn Publishing Company, 2004

ee also

* Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association
* List of pre-NHL seasons
* List of ice hockey leagues
* List of Stanley Cup champions