1925 Stanley Cup Finals

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The 1925 Stanley Cup Finals saw the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) champion Victoria Cougars defeat the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1 in the best-of-five game series. The Cougars were the last non-NHL team to win the Cup as the WCHL (renamed the Western Hockey League for the 1925-26 season) folded after the 1926 Cup Finals, leaving the trophy entirely to the NHL.

Prior to the season, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) folded and two of its teams, the Cougars and the Vancouver Maroons joined the WCHL. Victoria finished the 1924-25 WCHL regular season in third place, but eventually upset the Calgary Tigers in the two-game total goals WCHL championship series by a combined score of 3-1.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens also finished the NHL regular season in third place. In the NHL playoffs, Montreal went on to beat the second place Toronto St. Patricks, 5-2, in a two game total goals series. The winner of that series was to go on and play the first place Hamilton Tigers. However, the Tigers were suspended after Hamilton players staged a strike in an attempt to receive more compensation because the league extended the regular season from 24 to 30 games. As a result, the Canadiens were declared the 1924-25 NHL champions.

With the demise of the PCHA, the Stanley Cup Playoffs reverted back to a one best-of-five series to determine the champion. However, the Cup Finals still annually rotated between the east and the west, and thus all of the games in the 1925 Finals were played at the Victoria Arena. The Cougars jumped to a 2-0 series lead with 5-2 and 3-1 victories, but the Canadiens won Game 3, 4-2. In Game 4, Gizzy Hart scored the game-winning goal in Victoria's 6-1 win to clinch the Cup.

Cougars goaltender Hap Holmes recorded a 2.00 goal-against average for the series. Jack Walker led Victoria in goals with 4, while Frank Fredrickson scored 3. Overall, eight different player combining for the Cougars' 16 goals.

Game-by-Game		Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
1	March 21	Victoria Cougars	5-2	Montreal Canadiens	Victoria Arena
2	March 23	Victoria Cougars	3-1	Montreal Canadiens
3	March 27	Montreal Canadiens	4-2	Victoria Cougars
4	March 30	Victoria Cougars	6-1	Montreal Canadiens
Cougars win best-of-five series 3 games to 1

[edit] Cup engravings

After the series win, a new angled ring with the words "Won/By/'Cougars' Victoria, B.C. 1925" was added between the original bowl of the Cup and the original first ring of the base.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

1924-25 Stanley Cup Winner: Victoria Cougars. Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
Podnieks, Andrew, Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 57. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
(1992) Dan Diamond (ed.): The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books, 58-59. ISBN 1-895565-15-4.