1972 - 73 WHA Season The 1972 – 73 WHA season was the first regular season of the now defunct World Hockey Association ( WHA ) . Twelve teams played 78 games each . The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Garry L . Davidson and Dennis A . Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States . The league championship trophy , the Avco World Trophy , was donated by AVCO Financial Services Corporation along with $ 500 , 000 . The New England Whalers won the first Avco World Trophy . Regular Season Summary . The first WHA game , on 12 October , 1972 , was won by the Alberta Oilers 7 - 4 over the Ottawa Nationals . The WHA was split into two divisions , the Eastern Division and the Western Division . Each division sported 6 teams . The New England Whalers led the Eastern Division and had the best record in the league . The other playoff qualifiers in the East were Cleveland , Philadelphia , and Ottawa . The Winnipeg Jets led the Western Division and had the second best record in the league . Behind Winnipeg , the West had a thrilling race with 4 teams fighting for three playoff spots , trading 2nd through 5th place all season . Houston won 3 of its last 4 games to finish 2nd with 82 points . With 2 games remaining , Minnesota had 79 points , Alberta had 77 , and Los Angeles had 76 . Los Angeles won their last two games to finish 3rd , while Minnesota and Alberta both lost their next to last game of the season , setting up a final game showdown in Minnesota against each other with Minnesota 2 points ahead of Alberta . Alberta won the game 5 - 3 , so both teams finished with identical records . The league now faced a dilemma . The first standings tiebreaker was number of wins , and the teams both had 38 . The second tiebreaker was head to head record and the teams split their 8 games with 4 wins apiece . The league by - laws did not specify further tiebreakers . In the NHL , the next two tie breakers were goal differential and goals scored , both with favored Alberta . But because the WHA by - laws did not specify additional tiebreakers , the league Board of Governors met to decide how to break the tie . They ultimately decided on a 1 game playoff at a neutral site . The Alberta Oilers missed the playoffs , despite having a superior goal - differential to the Minnesota Fighting Saints , because they lost the neutral - site , tie - breaking game against the Saints in Calgary by a score of 4 - 2 . Final standings . " GP = Games Played , W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , Pts = Points , GF = Goals for , GA = Goals against , PIM = Penalties in minutes " < br > " Teams that qualifies for the playoffs are highlighted in bold " All - Star Game . January 6 , 1973 , Quebec City , att . 5435 . East 6 , West 2 MVP : Wayne Carleton ( East , Ottawa Nationals ) Playoff Summary . Compared to the thrilling race in the West Division , the playoffs were unexciting in that the team with the better record won every series and only one series went beyond 5 games . That was the West semifinal between Houston and Los Angeles . After getting blown out in game one in Houston by a score of 7 - 2 , Los Angeles rallied to win game two 4 - 2 and even the series . The Sharks then won a thrilling game three in L . A . 3 - 2 . Game 4 was the turning point of the series . The teams headed into overtime tied at 2 ; a Houston goal would even the series while a Los Angeles goal would give the Sharks a commanding 3 - 1 series lead . The Aeros scored in overtime to even the series , then won game 5 in Houston , 6 - 3 . Game six in L . A . was another thriller , with Houston scoring late to win the game 3 - 2 and win the series . Avco World Trophy playoffs . Avco World Trophy finals . New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets , 4 games to 1 . The Whalers defeated the Jets 9 to 6 in the deciding game , with Larry Pleau scoring a hat trick .