1909 ECHA season

The 1909 ECHA season was the fourth and final season of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association (ECHA). Teams played a twelve-game schedule. The Ottawa Senators would win the league championship with a record of ten wins, two losses and take over the Stanley Cup.
==League business==
===Executive===
* Joe Power, Quebec (President)
* James Strachan, Wanderers (1st Vice-President)
* J. Eveleigh, Montreal (2nd Vice-President)
* Emmett Quinn, Quebec (Secretary-Treasurer)
The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association league meeting was held November 4, 1908, and was a pivotal meeting in the evolution from amateur to professional ice hockey leagues. At the meeting the two last amateur, or at least partly amateur teams resigned over the signing of players from other teams. Montreal HC and Montreal Victorias left the league and later would continue as senior level men's teams playing for the Allan Cup. Unpaid players would no longer play with paid players.
The league would continue with four professional teams. The league name was changed to Eastern Canadian Hockey Association to reflect the change in status.
==Regular season==
The Wanderers', Cecil Blatchford had retired and Bruce Stuart had moved to Ottawa. New additions included Joe Hall, Harry Smith, Jimmy Gardner and Steve Vair. The Wanderers would come close to their rivals, finishing second with nine wins and three losses.
Ottawa saw Harvey Pulford and Alf Smith retire, and Tom Phillips leave. Ottawa would replace these players with Edgar Dey, Billy Gilmour and Albert 'Dubby' Kerr from Toronto Professionals. Alf Smith would organize the Ottawa Senators of the Federal Hockey League.
Shamrocks added Harry Hyland, and Quebec saw the start of the career of Joe Malone.
Ottawa played an exhibition game prior to the season with the Toronto professionals on January 2 in Toronto. Toronto defeated Ottawa 5–4. Dubby Kerr played in the game for Toronto, and signed with Ottawa a week later.
On January 25, Wanderers played an exhibition game in Cobalt, Ontario, versus the Cobalt Silver Kings, betting $500 on themselves to win, but lost 6–4. After the game Harry Smith would leave the Wanderers to join Haileybury of the Timiskaming League.
===Highlights===
The rivalry between Ottawa and Wanderers continued, Wanderers winning the first on January 6 7–6 in overtime, with Harry Smith scoring four against his former team. Ottawa would win the next 5–4 in Ottawa, and defeat Montreal in Montreal 9–8 before 8000 fans. Ottawa would finish the series winning 8–3 in Ottawa to clinch the championship.
Marty Walsh of Ottawa would win the scoring championship with 38 goals. Ottawa would average nearly ten goals per game.
===Final standing===
Team 	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Ties	Goals For	Goals Against
Ottawa HC 	12 	10 	2 	0 	117 	63
Montreal Wanderers	12 	9 	3 	0 	82 	61
Quebec HC 	12 	3 	9 	0 	78 	106
Montreal Shamrocks	12 	2 	10 	0 	56 	103
==Stanley Cup challenges==
===Montreal vs. Edmonton===
Prior to the season, Wanderers would play a challenge against the Edmonton Hockey Club, champions of the Alberta Professional Hockey League. Despite all players except for one being a 'ringer' for Edmonton, Montreal would defeat them December 28–30, 1908, in Montreal. In game one, Harry Smith scored 5 goals as he led the Wanderers to a 7–3 victory. The Edmontons won game two, 7–6, but Montreal took the two-game total goals series, 13–10.
Date 	Winning Team 	Score 	Losing Team 	Location
December 28, 1908 	Montreal Wanderers 	7–3 	Edmonton HC 	Montreal Arena
December 30, 1908 	Edmonton HC 	7–6 	Montreal Wanderers 	Montreal Arena
Montreal wins total goals series 13 goals to 10	Montreal wins total goals series 13 goals to 10	Montreal wins total goals series 13 goals to 10	Montreal wins total goals series 13 goals to 10	Montreal wins total goals series 13 goals to 10
After the challenge, Edmonton would play an exhibition game in Ottawa on January 2 before returning to Edmonton, defeating the Ottawa Senators (of the FHL) 4–2. Ottawa played the Toronto Pros the same day in Toronto, losing 5–4. Lindsay, Pitre and Vair, having played with Edmonton for the challenge, would sign after the exhibition game with Renfrew of the Federal League. The players would help Renfrew to the FHL championship.
After the season, Ottawa took over the Cup, but a series against the Winnipeg Shamrocks could not be arranged and no challenge was played. (The Shamrocks would fold before the next season and never played a challenge.) Challenges from Renfrew of the Federal Hockey League and Cobalt of the Timiskaming League were disallowed when the Stanley Cup trustees ruled that the players on Renfrew and Cobalt were ineligible, having joined their teams after January 2.
===Post-season exhibition===
Ottawa and the Montreal Wanderers played a two-game series at the St. Nicholas Rink in New York on March 12 and March 13. Ottawa won the first game 6–4, and the second game was tied 8–8.
==Schedule and results==
Month	Day	Visitor 	Score	Home 	Score
Jan. 	2 	Quebec 	8 	Shamrocks	9
Jan. 	6 	Shamrocks	4 	Quebec 	12
Jan. 	6 	Ottawa 	6 	Wanderers	7 (7:40 OT)
Jan. 	9 	Quebec 	5 	Ottawa 	13
Jan. 	13 	Ottawa 	11 	Shamrocks	3
Jan. 	13 	Wanderers	7 	Quebec 	3
Jan. 	16 	Shamrocks	7 	Ottawa 	9
Jan. 	16 	Quebec 	6 	Wanderers	7
Jan. 	20 	Shamrocks	5 	Wanderers	7
Jan. 	23 	Ottawa 	18 	Quebec 	4
Jan. 	27 	Shamrocks	1 	Wanderers	5
Jan. 	30 	Wanderers	4 	Ottawa 	5
Jan. 	30 	Quebec 	4 	Shamrocks	8
Feb. 	6 	Ottawa 	9 	Wanderers	8
Feb. 	6 	Shamrocks	6 	Quebec 	9
Feb. 	10 	Shamrocks	6 	Wanderers	8
Feb. 	13 	Quebec 	6 	Ottawa 	14
Feb. 	17 	Wanderers	12 	Shamrocks	2
Feb. 	20 	Ottawa 	7 	Shamrocks	3
Feb. 	20 	Wanderers	7 	Quebec 	4
Feb. 	27 	Shamrocks	2 	Ottawa 	11
Feb. 	27 	Quebec 	6 	Wanderers	7
Mar. 	4 	Wanderers	3 	Ottawa 	8
Mar. 	7 	Ottawa 	6 	Quebec 	11
==Player statistics==
===Goaltending averages===
Name 	Club 	GP	GA 	SO	Avg.
Hern, Riley 	Wanderers	12	61 	 	5.1
LeSueur, Percy	Ottawa 	12	63 	 	5.3
Baker, W. 	Shamrocks	12	103	 	8.6
Moran, Paddy 	Quebec 	12	106	 	8.8
===Leading scorers===
Name 	Club 	GP	G
Walsh, Marty 	Ottawa 	12	38
Jordan, Herb 	Quebec 	12	29
Stuart, Bruce 	Ottawa 	11	22
Power, Charles	Quebec 	12	22
Kerr, Dubby 	Ottawa 	9 	20
Hyland, Harry 	Shamrocks	11	18
Glass, Frank 	Wanderers	12	17
Vair, Steve 	Wanderers	7 	12
Gilmour, Billy	Ottawa 	11	11
Gardner, Jimmy	Wanderers	12	11
==References==
*
* Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 48. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
Category:1909 in ice hockey 
Category:Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association seasons