The 1972–73 WHA season was the first season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Twelve teams played 78 games each. The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Gary Davidson and Dennis A. Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States to rival the National Hockey League (NHL). The league instituted a ten-minute sudden-death overtime period for games not decided in the first sixty minutes while still awarding a point for a tie if a goal was not scored. The NHL, which had abolished overtime since 1942, did not re-adopt overtime until 1982; ironically, the WHA only instituted sudden-death overtime after their plan of having a shootout (in the style of a penalty shot) saw an exhibition last 18 rounds that dissuaded them. 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.
1972 General Player Draft
The WHA's inaugural player draft was held in Anaheim, California on February 12 and 13, 1972. All 12 WHA franchises took part in the draft. There were no drafting constraints, and the WHA teams selected players from all levels of play, including established National Hockey League players, minor leaguers, college, junior players, Europeans, and even retired players. The first player selected in the general draft was United States men's national ice hockey team member Henry Boucha, taken by the Minnesota Fighting Saints (who also selected the Governor of Minnesota, Wendell Anderson, with a late pick). After 70 rounds the Winnipeg Jets selected Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin and then stopped participating in the draft, while the other teams continued making selections. This process continued, with teams arbitrarily dropping out from the draft, while others kept going, until attrition finally ended the process. The final two teams participating in this draft were the Dayton Aeros and the Los Angeles Sharks. In all, just under 1100 selections were made by the 12 teams, who could now focus their efforts on signing players for the first season of play.
Regular season summary The first WHA games, on October 11, 1972, were won by the Alberta Oilers 7–4 over the Ottawa Nationals at the Ottawa Civic Centre and the Cleveland Crusaders 2–0 over the Quebec Nordiques at Cleveland Arena. Ron Anderson of the Oilers scored the first goal in WHA history at 6:19 in the first period. In the first weekend of play, Gary Davidson claimed 100,000 fans attended WHA games.
The WHA was split into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. Each division sported six 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 four teams fighting for three playoff spots, trading second through fifth place all season. Houston won three of its last four games to finish second with 82 points. With two games remaining, Minnesota had 79 points, Alberta had 77, and Los Angeles had 76. Los Angeles won their last two games to finish third, 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 two 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 eight games with four 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 of which 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 league Board of Governors, meeting quickly to decide, elected to move on a one-game playoff while allowing the Oilers to have a choice of site, and due to prior booking in Edmonton, the team elected to pick Calgary to host the one-game playoff. Mel Pearson scored the first goal seventeen minutes into the game for the Fighting Saints, who ultimately won the tiebreaker game, the only one held in WHA history.
Final standings
GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Teams that qualifies for the playoffs are highlighted in bold
Player stats
Scoring leaders Bolded numbers indicate season leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes Player Team GP G A Pts PIM Andre Lacroix Philadelphia Blazers 78 50 74 124 83 Ron Ward New York Raiders 77 51 67 118 28 Danny Lawson Philadelphia Blazers 78 61 45 106 35 Tom Webster New England Whalers 77 53 50 103 89 Bobby Hull Winnipeg Jets 63 51 52 103 37 Norm Beaudin Winnipeg Jets 78 38 65 103 15 Chris Bordeleau Winnipeg Jets 78 47 54 101 12 Terry Caffery New England Whalers 74 39 61 100 14 Gord Labossiere Houston Aeros 77 36 60 96 56 Wayne Carleton Ottawa Nationals 75 42 49 91 42
Leading goaltenders Bolded numbers indicate season leaders
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average Player Team GP Min W L T GA SO SV% GAA Gerry Cheevers Cleveland Crusaders 52 3144 32 20 2 149 5 91.2 2.84 Russ Gillow Los Angeles Sharks 38 1892 17 13 2 96 2 88.7 2.91 Wayne Rutledge Houston Aeros 36 2163 20 14 2 110 0 90.7 3.05 Jack Norris Alberta Oilers 64 3702 28 37 3 189 1 90.2 3.06
All-star game
The WHA held its first all-star game on January 6, 1973, in Quebec City. The attendance of 5,435 was lower than expected, perhaps because it was locally televised and Quebec City was hit by a major snow storm. The East defeated the West 6–2. Wayne Carleton of the Ottawa Nationals was named the game MVP.
During the all-star break, the WHA Players' Association was officially formed, with Curt Leichner of Portland as general counsel and Bill Hicke of the Alberta Oilers as president.
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, 63. Game six in L.A. was another thriller, with Houston scoring in the final minutes to win the game 3–2 and win the series.
Avco World Trophy playoffs
Avco World Trophy finals The New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1. The Whalers defeated the Jets 9–6 in the deciding game in Boston on May 6, 1973, "1972-73 WHA Playoff Results", The Internet Hockey Database with Larry Pleau scoring a hat trick. Upon their win, The Avco World Trophy had not yet been completed. As a result, the Whalers skated their victory lap with their divisional trophy on display instead.
WHA awards
Trophies Avco World Trophy: New England WhalersGary L. Davidson Award: Bobby Hull, Winnipeg JetsBill Hunter Trophy: Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia BlazersLou Kaplan Trophy: Terry Caffery, New England Whalers Ben Hatskin Trophy: Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland CrusadersDennis A. Murphy Trophy: J. C. Tremblay, Quebec NordiquesPaul Deneau Trophy: Ted Hampson, Minnesota Fighting SaintsHoward Baldwin Trophy: Jack Kelley, New England Whalers
All-Star Team Position First Team Second Team Third Team Centre Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia Ron Ward, New York Chris Bordeleau, Winnipeg Right Wing Danny Lawson, Philadelphia Tom Webster, New England Norm Beaudin, Winnipeg Left Wing Bobby Hull, Winnipeg Gary Jarrett, Cleveland Wayne Carleton, Ottawa Defence J. C. Tremblay, Quebec Jim Dorey, New England Ted Green, New England Defence Paul Shmyr, Cleveland Larry Hornung, Winnipeg Rick Ley, New England Goaltender Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland Bernie Parent, Philadelphia Al Smith, New England
Debuts The following is a list of players of note who played their first major professional game in 1972–73 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
Mike Antonovich, Minnesota Fighting Saints Richard Brodeur, Quebec Nordiques Gavin Kirk, Ottawa Nationals Bruce Landon, New England Whalers Bob MacMillan, Minnesota Fighting Saints Rusty Patenaude, Alberta Oilers Gene Peacosh, New York Raiders Ron Plumb, Philadelphia Blazers Tim Sheehy, New England Whalers
Last game The following is a list of players of note who played their final major professional game in 1972–73:
Kent Douglas, New York Raiders Bill Hicke, Alberta Oilers Marcel Paille, Philadelphia Blazers
See also 1972–73 WHA All-Star Game 1972–73 NHL season 1972 in sports 1973 in sports
References
External links HockeyDB