1914-15 NHA season

The 1914–15 NHA season was the 6th season of the National Hockey Association and played from December 26, 1914 until March 3, 1915. Each team played 20 games.
The Ottawa Senators won the NHA championship in a two game, total goal playoff against the Montreal Wanderers. However, they fell to the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in the Stanley Cup championship. It was the first year of an agreement between the NHA and the PCHA to have each league's champion play for the cup.
==League Business==
===Directors===
* Emmett Quinn, president
* Frank Calder, secretary-treasurer
===Rule Changes===
* no player to come within five feet of players facing off,
* puck played after rebounding from goalkeeper no longer is offside,
* charging a player into the boards is a major foul,
* match foul penalized by 10 minutes off and $15 fine.
===Players' Salaries===
Prior to the season Art Ross was suspended for trying to organize a rival league, with higher players's salaries. The organizing attempt was not successful, and by January 7, Mr. Ross was reinstated. He signed with Ottawa.
==Regular Season==
The Ontarios changed their team name to Shamrocks from the February 3 game forward.
Ottawa traded Percy LeSueur to the Ontarios for Fred Lake.
===Highlights===
A record long overtime game was played in Quebec on January 13 between Quebec and the Canadiens. Quebec defeated Montreal 3–2 after 50 minutes and 28 seconds of overtime, on a goal by Jack McDonald. Coach Jack Laviolette had to take over for Georges Vezina after Vezina was penalized.
The Ontarios had to forfeit their February 3 game with the Wanderers after the McNamara brothers took a personal leave to attend their fathers' funeral. Owner Eddie Livingstone of the Ontarios asked for a postponement but the Wanderers refused.
A game on February 17 between Toronto and Ottawa turned into a brawl before Toronto police arrested Art Ross and Roy McGiffen to calm the proceedings.
===Final standings===
Playoff qualifiers in bold.
League Standings 	GP	W 	L 	Pts	GF 	GA
Ottawa Senators 	20	14	6 	28 	74 	65
Montreal Wanderers 	20	14	6 	28 	127	82
Quebec Bulldogs 	20	11	9 	22 	85 	85
Toronto Blueshirts 	20	8 	12	16 	66 	84
Toronto Ontarios-Shamrocks	20	7 	13	14 	76 	96
Montreal Canadiens 	20	6 	14	12 	65 	81
===Results===
Month	Day	Visitor 	Score	Home 	Score
Dec. 	26 	Ottawa 	4 	Quebec 	1
Dec. 	26 	Wanderers	11 	Ontarios 	6
Dec. 	26 	Toronto 	4 	Canadiens	3
Dec. 	30 	Ontarios 	1 	Ottawa 	4
Dec. 	30 	Wanderers	5 	Toronto 	2
Dec. 	30 	Quebec 	8 	Canadiens	7
Jan. 	2 	Ottawa 	6 	Wanderers	15
Jan. 	2 	Canadiens	1 	Ontarios 	4
Jan. 	2 	Toronto 	2 	Quebec 	6
Jan. 	6 	Ottawa 	4 	Canadiens	2
Jan. 	6 	Ontarios 	3 	Toronto 	4
Jan. 	6 	Wanderers	5 	Quebec 	6
Jan. 	9 	Toronto 	1 	Ottawa 	2 (18' OT)
Jan. 	9 	Quebec 	2 	Ontarios 	3 (5' OT)
Jan. 	9 	Canadiens	4 	Wanderers	5 (6'45" OT)
Jan. 	13 	Ottawa 	3 	Ontarios 	5
Jan. 	13 	Toronto 	3 	Wanderers	11
Jan. 	13 	Canadiens	2 	Quebec 	3 (50'20" OT)
Jan. 	16 	Wanderers	3 	Ottawa 	4
Jan. 	16 	Quebec 	1 	Toronto 	3
Jan. 	16 	Ontarios 	7 	Canadiens	1
Jan. 	20 	Canadiens	1 	Ottawa 	3
Jan. 	20 	Ontarios 	3 	Toronto 	4
Jan. 	20 	Quebec 	2 	Wanderers	5
Jan. 	23 	Canadiens	7 	Wanderers	2
Jan. 	23 	Ontarios 	1 	Quebec 	4
Jan. 	23 	Ottawa 	2 	Toronto 	4
Jan. 	27 	Quebec 	2 	Ottawa 	7
Jan. 	27 	Canadiens	1 	Wanderers	2
Jan. 	30 	Ottawa 	3 	Quebec 	1
Jan. 	30 	Wanderers	2 	Toronto 	8
Jan. 	30 	Ontarios 	3 	Canadiens	4
Feb. 	3 	Toronto 	2 	Ottawa 	7
Feb. 	3 	Wanderers	 	Ontarios 	†
Feb. 	3 	Quebec 	2 	Canadiens	5
Feb. 	6 	Ottawa 	1 	Wanderers	8
Feb. 	6 	Ontarios 	5 	Quebec 	9
Feb. 	6 	Canadiens	4 	Toronto 	3
Feb. 	10 	Ottawa 	6 	Ontarios 	2
Feb. 	10 	Toronto 	5 	Quebec 	7
Feb. 	10 	Canadiens	3 	Wanderers	6
Feb. 	13 	Canadiens	3 	Ottawa 	5
Feb. 	13 	Quebec 	6 	Wanderers	4
Feb. 	13 	Ontarios 	6 	Toronto 	3
Feb. 	17 	Ottawa 	3 	Toronto 	1
Feb. 	17 	Ontarios 	7 	Wanderers	10
Feb. 	17 	Canadiens	2 	Quebec 	6
Feb. 	20 	Wanderers	5 	Ottawa 	1
Feb. 	20 	Toronto 	2 	Canadiens	7
Feb. 	20 	Quebec 	6 	Ontarios 	10
Feb. 	24 	Ottawa 	2 	Canadiens	3
Feb. 	24 	Wanderers	4 	Quebec 	5 (2' OT)
Feb. 	24 	Toronto 	5 	Ontarios 	1
Feb. 	27 	Ontarios 	2 	Ottawa 	3
Feb. 	27 	Quebec 	5 	Toronto 	4
Feb. 	27 	Wanderers	7 	Canadiens	3
Mar. 	3 	Quebec 	3 	Ottawa 	4 (25" OT)
Mar. 	3 	Toronto 	4 	Wanderers	5
Mar. 	3 	Canadiens	2 	Ontarios 	3
† Defaulted to Wanderers.
===Scoring leaders===
Player 	Team 	GP	G
Tommy Smith 	Quebec & Ontarios 	19	39
Didier Pitre 	Canadiens 	20	30
Gordon Roberts 	Wanderers 	18	29
Harry Broadbent 	Ottawa 	24	26
Harry Hyland 	Wanderers 	24	26
Sprague Cleghorn	Wanderers 	19	21
Cully Wilson 	Blueshirts 	18	17
Odie Cleghorn 	Wanderers 	12	16
Skene Ronan 	Ontarios-Shamrocks	18	20
Rusty Crawford 	Quebec 	20	19
===Goalkeeper Averages===
Name 	Club 	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Benedict, Clint 	Ottawa 	20	65	 	3.3
Vezina, Georges 	Canadiens 	20	81	 	4.1
Holmes, Harry 	Toronto 	20	84	 	4.2
Moran, Paddy 	Quebec 	20	85	 	4.3
McCarthy, Charlie	Wanderers 	19	82	 	4.3
LeSueur, Percy 	Ontarios-Shamrocks	19	96	 	5.1
==Playoffs==
===League championship===
Montreal and Ottawa played a two-game total-goals series to determine the league championship and the O'Brien Cup.
Game-by-Game 	Game-by-Game 	Winning Team 	Score 	Losing Team 	Location 	
1 	March 10 	Ottawa Senators 	4–0 	Montreal Wanderers 	Ottawa 	
2 	March 13 	Montreal Wanderers 	1–0 	Ottawa Senators 	Montreal 	
Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1	Senators win series 4–1
===Exhibition series===
The Wanderers, Canadiens and Bulldogs played an exhibition series in New York and Boston. The Ontarios and Torontos played an exhibitions series in Cleveland, Ohio.
===Stanley Cup Finals===
The 1914–15 season was the first year of an agreement by the Cup's trustees, the NHA and the PCHA where the champion of each league would compete for the Stanley Cup. It marked the end of the challenge era, and began a twelve year period where the NHA/NHL champion would have to compete against a Western league for the Cup.
All three games in this series were played in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the Millionaires sweeping the best of five series in three games.
Game-by-Game 	Game-by-Game 	Winning Team 	Score 	Losing Team 	Rules Used 	Location
1 	March 22 	Vancouver Millionaires 	6–2 	Ottawa Senators 	PCHA 	Denman Arena, Vancouver
2 	March 24 	Vancouver Millionaires 	8–3 	Ottawa Senators 	NHA 	Denman Arena, Vancouver
3 	March 26 	Vancouver Millionaires 	12–3 	Ottawa Senators 	PCHA 	Denman Arena, Vancouver
Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0	Millionaires win best-of-five series 3 games to 0
==Game Ads==
14-15NHACanadiensGameAd.jpg|Montreal Canadiens
14-15NHAWanderersGameAd.jpg|Montreal Wanderers
14-15NHAOttawaGameAd.jpg|Ottawa
14-15NHAQuebecGameAd.jpg|Quebec City
14-15NHABlueshirtsGameAd.jpg|Toronto Blueshirts
14-15NHAOntariosGameAd.jpg|Toronto Ontarios
14-15SCupVancouverGameAd.jpg|Stanley Cup @ Vancouver
==See Also==
*1914–15 PCHA season
*National Hockey Association
*List of pre-NHL seasons
*List of Stanley Cup champions
==References==
* 
Category:1915 in hockey
Category:National Hockey Association