1926 Stanley Cup Finals

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The 1926 Stanley Cup Finals saw the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Montreal Maroons defeat the Western Hockey League (WHL) champion Victoria Cougars 3 games to 1 in the best-of-five game series. This was the last Stanley Cup playoffs before the WHL folded, leaving the Stanley Cup entirely to the NHL.

The Cougars finished the 1925-26 WHL regular season in third place, but eventually upset the Edmonton Eskimos in the WHL championship by a combined score of 5-3 to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. Meanwhile, the Maroons finished the NHL regular season in second place. Montreal went on to beat the third seed Pittsburgh Pirates and then defeated the first place Ottawa Senators 2 goals to 1 in a two game total goals series, thus capturing the Prince of Wales Trophy and the right to play Victoria for the Cup.

All of the games in the 1926 Stanley Cup Finals were played at the Montreal Forum. Aided by three future Hockey Hall of Famers, the Maroons ended up dominating the series. Goaltender Clint Benedict, who previously helped Ottawa in three Cup championships, recorded three shutouts. Rookie Nels Stewart scored 6 of Montreal's 10 overall goals in the 4 games. Punch Broadbent also recorded a goal for the Maroons. The Cougars' lone win came in Game 3, 3-2.

Game-by-Game		Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
1	March 30	Montreal Maroons	3-0	Victoria Cougars	Montreal Forum
2	April 1	Montreal Maroons	3-0	Victoria Cougars
3	April 3	Victoria Cougars	3-2	Montreal Maroons
4	April 6	Montreal Maroons	2-0	Victoria Cougars
Maroons win best-of-five series 3 games to 1

[edit] Cup engravings

After the series win, a new ring was added directly underneath the original bowl of the Cup with the words "Won/By Montreal 'Maroons' 1925-26". In addition to engraving players names' to the trophy, the Maroons became the first Cup champions to add non-players: team president James Strachan, vice-presidents Gordon Cushing and Tom Arnold, team secretary-treasurer Art Cayford, team trainer Bill O'Brien, and Donat Raymond who was the then-current president of the Forum.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

1925-26 Stanley Cup Winner: Montreal Maroons. Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
Podnieks, Andrew, Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 58. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
(1992) Dan Diamond (ed.): The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books, 67-68. ISBN 1-895565-15-4.