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.

1909 ECHA season
League	Eastern Canada Hockey Association
Sport	ice hockey
Duration	January 2, 1909 – March 6, 1909
Number of teams	4
1909
Champion	Ottawa Senators
Top scorer	Marty Walsh (38 goals)

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 Blachford 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 the 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.[1] 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.[2][3] After the game Harry Smith would leave the Wanderers to join Haileybury of the Timiskaming League.[4]

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 Amateur Hockey Association. 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 wins total goals series 13 goals to 10

December 28, 1908

Edmonton Eskimoes	3	at	Montreal Wanderers	7
		Pos
Bert Lindsay		G	William "Riley" Hern
Lester Patrick		P	Art Ross
Didier Pitre		CP	Walter Smaill
Fred Whitcroft	1	R	Harry Smith	5
Steve Vair	1	C	Frank "Pud' Glass Capt	2
Howard McNamara		RW	Ernie "Moose" Johnson
Tommy Phillips	1	LW	Jimmy Gardner
Referees – Frank Patrick & Russell Bowie

• Spares Edmonton Eskimoes - Bert Boulton, Harold Deeton, Jack “Hay” Miller
• Spares Montreal Wandeers - Ernie Liffton, Ernie Russell.

December 30, 1908

Edmonton Eskimoes	7	at	Montreal Wanderers	6
		Pos
Bert Lindsay		G	William "Riley" Hern
Lester Patrick	1	P	Art Ross
Didier Pitre		CP	Walter Smaill	1
Fred Whitcroft	1	R	Harry Smith	1
Harold Deeton	3	C	Frank "Pud' Glasss Capt	3
Jack "Hay" Millar	2	RW	Ernie "Moose" Johnson	1
Steve Vair	1	LW	Jimmy Gardner
Referees – Frank Patrick & Russell Bowie

• Spares Edmonton Eskimoes - Hugh Boulton, Howard McNamara, Tommy Smith.
• Spares Montreal Wandeers - Ernie Liffton, Ernie Russell.

Source: Coleman[5]

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.[6] Ottawa played the Toronto Pros the same day in Toronto, losing 5–4.[7] 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
	6	Shamrocks	4	Quebec	12
	6	Ottawa	6	Wanderers	7 (7:40 OT)
	9	Quebec	5	Ottawa	13
	13	Ottawa	11	Shamrocks	3
	13	Wanderers	7	Quebec	3
	16	Shamrocks	7	Ottawa	9
	16	Quebec	6	Wanderers	7
	20	Shamrocks	5	Wanderers	7
	23	Ottawa	18	Quebec	4
	27	Shamrocks	1	Wanderers	5
	30	Wanderers	4	Ottawa	5
	30	Quebec	4	Shamrocks	8
Feb.	6	Ottawa	9	Wanderers	8
	6	Shamrocks	6	Quebec	9
	10	Shamrocks	6	Wanderers	8
	13	Quebec	6	Ottawa	14
	17	Wanderers	12	Shamrocks	2
	20	Ottawa	7	Shamrocks	3
	20	Wanderers	7	Quebec	4
	27	Shamrocks	2	Ottawa	11
	27	Quebec	6	Wanderers	7
Mar.	4	Wanderers	3	Ottawa	8
	7	Ottawa	6	Quebec	11

Player statistics

Goaltending averages

Name	Club	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Riley Hern	Wanderers	12	61		5.1
Percy LeSueur	Ottawa	12	63		5.3
W. Baker	Shamrocks	12	103		8.6
Paddy Moran	Quebec	12	106		8.8

Leading scorers

Name	Club	GP	G
Marty Walsh	Ottawa	12	38
Herb Jordan	Quebec	12	29
Bruce Stuart	Ottawa	11	22
Charles Power	Quebec	12	22
Albert Kerr	Ottawa	9	20
Harry Hyland	Shamrocks	11	18
Frank "Pud" Glass	Wanderers	12	17
Steve Vair	Wanderers	7	12
Billy Gilmour	Ottawa	11	11
Jimmy Gardner	Wanderers	12	11

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1909 Stanley Cup was presented by the trophy's trustee William Foran.

The following Ottawa Hockey Club players and staff were eligible to have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

Winning team, 1909

1909 Ottawa Hockey Club

Players

  Centres

• Bruce Stuart(rover – Captain)
• Marty Walsh

  Wingers

• Albert "Dubbie" Kerr
• Hamilton Billy Gilmour (Also played rover)

  Defencemen

• Fred Lake(point),
• Fred "Cyclone" Taylor (cover point),
• Edgar Dey Jr.(also played wing)
• Horace Merrill (did not play-on team picture)

  Goaltenders

• Percy LeSueur

Coaching and administrative staff

• Thomas D'arcy McGee (President), Llewellyn Bates (Vice President)
• Pete Green (Coach), Patrick Basketville (Treasurer)
• Martin Rosenthal (Secretary), Mac McGilton (Trainer)
• Charles Sparks, George Bryson, Dave Mulligan (Directors)
• Percy Butler, S.N. Nagle† (Directors)

• There are two team picture one including only players were included on the team picture, which is reproduced in Coleman, p. 177. The other include all the players and executives Podnieks Page 41.
• †Unknown first name.

Stanley Cup engraving

Ottawa added a new ring to the bottom of the Stanley Cup and put their name on it.[8]

See also

• 1909 FHL season
• List of pre-NHL seasons
• List of ice hockey leagues
• List of Stanley Cup champions

References

1. "Ottawa Not Invincible". The Globe. January 4, 1909. p. 7.
2. "Big Doings at Cobalt". The Globe. January 28, 1909. p. 9.
3. "Enthusiastic Rufus Ryan". The Globe. January 29, 1909. p. 9.
4. "Smith at Haileybury". The Globe. January 29, 1909. p. 9.
5. Coleman, p. 174
6. "Edmonton Gagne a Ottawa". La Patrie. January 4, 1909. p. 2.
7. "Les Ottawa Sont Surpris". La Patrie. January 4, 1909. p. 2.
8. [Podnieks]

• Coleman, Charles L. (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc. NHL.

• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books, 12, 48. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.