The 1912 PCHA season was the first season of the now defunct men's professional ice hockey Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), a league founded on December 7, 1911. The three teams, all based in British Columbia, Canada, were to play a sixteen-game schedule, but one game was cancelled. The season ran from January 2 to March 19, 2012, ending with the New Westminster Royals as the first PCHA champions. In February, the PCHA had issued a challenge to the two-year-old National Hockey Association (NHA) to have the two leagues' champions play a series for the Stanley Cup, but the season ended too late for the Royals to travel east to face the NHA champion Quebec Bulldogs, who retained the Stanley Cup without further challenge for the 1911–12 season.[1]

1912 PCHA season
LeaguePacific Coast Hockey Association
Sportice hockey
DurationJanuary 2, 1912, until March 19, 1912
Number of teams3
Results
ChampionNew Westminster Royals
Top scorerNewsy Lalonde (Vancouver)
PCHA seasons
New Westminster Royals, 1912 PCHA champions.

The season was not profitable. Frank Patrick, captain of the Vancouver Millionaires and director of the Vancouver Arena Company, was interviewed on March 6, 1912, by The Globe and expressed his hopes that the 1912–13 PCHA season, with an expected new team in Seattle, would provide better financial results.[2] As it turned out, the PCHA did not expand beyond three teams until 1915–16, when the Seattle Metropolitans started operations.

Teams

edit
1912 Pacific Coast Hockey Association
Team City Arena Capacity
New Westminster Royals Vancouver, British Columbia Denman Arena 10,500
Vancouver Millionaires Vancouver, British Columbia Denman Arena 10,500
Victoria Senators Victoria, British Columbia Patrick Arena 4,000

Map of teams

edit
  PCHA Teams

Regular season

edit

Most of the players for the league were recruited from the east. Many players joined the PCHA from the National Hockey Association (NHA), including Tom Dunderdale, Jimmy Gardner, Pud Glass, Newsy Lalonde, Bert Lindsay, Tommy Phillips and Skinner Poulin. Frank and Lester Patrick had actively targeted the NHA for players as British Columbia had a smaller base of players. In the previous season, the NHA had imposed maximums on player salaries and a salary cap per team that were extremely unpopular with players. Goaltender Hughie Lehman was signed from Berlin of the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL).

The PCHA played seven-man rules with a rover, while the NHA experimented with six-man rules.

Final standings

edit

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals against

Pacific Coast Hockey Association GP W L T GF GA
New Westminster Royals 15 9 6 0 78 77
Vancouver Millionaires 15 7 8 0 102 94
Victoria Senators 16 7 9 0 81 90

Schedule and results

edit
Month Day Visitor Score Home Score
Jan. 2 New Westminster 8 Victoria 3
5 Vancouver 8 New Westminster 3
9 Victoria 8 Vancouver 4
12 Vancouver 7 Victoria 10
16 Victoria 3 New Westminster 4 (7:30 OT)
19 New Westminster 6 Vancouver 4
23 New Westminster 2 Victoria 3
26 Victoria 8 Vancouver 10
30 Victoria 2 New Westminster 5
Feb. 2† Vancouver 7 New Westminster 6 (3:30 OT)
6 Vancouver 11 New Westminster 6
9 Vancouver 7 Victoria 8 (7:15 OT)
13 Victoria 6 Vancouver 4
16 New Westminster 4 Victoria 2
20 New Westminster 2 Vancouver 9
23 Victoria 3 New Westminster 4
27 Vancouver 7 Victoria 3
Mar. 1 Victoria 7 Vancouver 3
5 New Westminster 6 Vancouver 10
8 New Westminster 5 Victoria 1
12 Victoria 6 New Westminster 10
15 Vancouver 6 Victoria 8
19 New Westminster 7 Vancouver 5

† Played in Victoria

A game between Vancouver and New Westminster was cancelled at the end of the season.

Player statistics

edit

Goaltending averages

edit

Note: GP = games played, GA = goals against, SO = shutouts, GAA = Goals against average

Name Club GP GA SO GAA
Hughie Lehman New Westminster 15 77 5.1
Bert Lindsay Victoria 16 90 5.6
Allan Parr Vancouver 15 94 6.3

Scoring leaders

edit
Player Team GP G PIM
Newsy Lalonde Vancouver Millionaires 15 27 51
Harry Hyland New Westminster Royals 15 26 44
Tommy Dunderdale Victoria Senators 16 24 25
Frank Patrick Vancouver Millionaires 15 23 0
Don Smith Victoria Aristocrats 16 19 22
Sibby Nichols Vancouver Millionaires 15 19 35
Tommy Phillips Vancouver Millionaires 17 17 38
Ran McDonald New Westminster Royals 15 16 56
Ken Mallen New Westminster Royals 13 14 30
Lester Patrick Victoria Senators 16 10 9
Bobby Rowe Victoria Senators 16 10 62

See also

edit

References

edit

Bibliography

edit

Coleman, Charles (1966), The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1936 inc.

Notes

edit
  1. ^ "Coast Champions Not Coming", The Globe, p. 12, March 5, 1912
  2. ^ "Not Profitable in B. C.", The Globe, p. 12, March 7, 1912