1935-36 NIHA Season

 

Facing bankruptcy at the end of the 34-35 season, George Prince had no choice but to sell the team, so he did; he sold it to Edward Willway, owner of E.W. Machine, a factory that makes parts for vehicles, tanks, and more. Edward moved the team from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Waterloo, Ontario, and renamed it the Waterloo Engineers, named after an amateur hockey team from the old Toronto Hockey League. The jerseys have stripes everywhere on them. On the dark jersey, the stripes sit on the cuffs, while on the light jersey, they sit on the elbows. The main crest is just like the company logo, but the E and W have switched places to mean Waterloo Engineers.

Season Summery

With Winnipeg relocating to Waterloo being one of the big news stories, the other was a feud between New York and Minnesota. The Mad Hatters honoured the 1930 champions and gave them the title of the first American Alex Cup Champions, but there was one problem: in 1928, the Nationals won the Alex Cup, which led to a back-and-forth debate. On the one hand, the 1928 Nats had mostly Canadians on the roster; on the other, New York’s coaching staff were Canadians. Both sides were overhauling to prove once and for all which was the best American team in the NIHA.

NIHA president Jack Haultraugh made some changes across the league; the biggest is that next year the number of games will increase from 36 to 54, along with the introduction of an offside rule.

Even with the Mad Hatters Nationals feud going on, the Detroit Speed raced themselves back to first place for the second season in a row with the addition of 17-year-old forward Allen Talbot, with a 15-20-35 stat record in the first season of his career. After last season's championship loss, the Pittsburgh Iron began their season with a chip on their shoulders and played well enough to finish the season in second place, thanks to their goalie John Hallock winning 20 of 30 games, along with a career-high 8 shutouts so far. Many players within the Chicago Lynx stepped up to the plate, and with a record of 18-17-1, they would finish third place. Even though they lost some players due to an aging roster, they have, little by little, been bringing in new players, including Victor Smyth, a 20-year-old forward who had a good rookie season with 41 points. In the end, the Pros finished fourth. The Nats' Nick Watertown finally got back to the form he was in his first season, scoring goals and setting teammates up to score; he was ten points less than his first season, but it was enough for Minnesota to finish fifth place. In sixth place, the New Brunswick Brown Bears dropped from second place last season due to injuries on the roster; Jack Ranger played in barely 20 games this season. The New York Mad Hatters had a rough season; Rat Robinson was on pace, but his season was cut short due to injuries, and it was tough for rookie John Ruth, who didn’t do much but held his ground as the Mad Hatters finished this season in seventh place. The Buffalo Rams have some improvement, just enough to finish eighth place. Montreal fans just saw the writing on the wall as the Or Rouge finished ninth place, making things hard for Montreal. John Giroux, Marc Dupont, and Etienne Rehnquist announced they had called it a career; the trio had been part of the team since the early 1910’s and won two Alex Cups in the pre-NIHA era and two more in the first two years of the NIHA era. It’s a big loss for the team; many believed it would be a while before the Or Rouge got back into playoff contention. Lastly, the relocated Waterloo Engineers finished last.

1936 NIHA Playoffs

Round 1

For the second season in a row, it’s the first-place Speed vs. eighth-place Rams, and just like last year, it was Speed’s win in three games. This time, Duke Pepper allowed no goals in all three games; with that, the Speed moves on to the second round. In game one, the Mad Hatters took the victory, with controversy that Iron goalie John Hallock got hooked by one of the Mad Hatters players, which allowed Rat Robinson to score the game-winner; it would be the best the Mad Hatters could do, as the Iron would win three games in a row to win the series and head to the second round. It was a back-and-forth series, but in game five, Jack Ranger scored two goals with two minutes left to win it, and the Brown Bears are heading on to the second round. In the battle between the Pros and the Nats, Toronto had the upper hand with two games to one, but in game four, Maple Thomas took a puck to the face and suffered a broken nose; with that, he is out for the rest of the playoffs. Victor Smyth did play well, but the Nats would win game four and game five to win the series and will play in the second round.

Round 2

Detroit set out to return to the Alex Cup, but everyone thought they had no chance of beating the Brown Bears; however, rookie Allen Talbot stepped up and scored goals, giving the Speed a three-game-to-one series win and sending them to the Alex Cup Finals. Both Iron and Nats went all the way to game five, where Greg Washington scored a hat trick, and John Hallock was a brick wall as the Pittsburgh Iron beat the Minnesota Nationals 3-0 to win the series and move on to the Alex Cup Finals.

1936 Alexander Cup Finals

Two days before the championship began, NIHA president Jack Haultraugh announced that this season's championship would now be a best-of-7 series. Pittsburgh took both game one (3-2) and game two (4-1); in game three, Detroit bounced back with a 3-1 win, two days later, in game four, led by Allen Talbot, who scored three goals, Detroit won 5-2 to even the series two games apiece. Game five was anyone's guess as to who could win, and Detroit did just that with the score of 5-3. Game six could be Detroit's chance to finish this series, but one problem: in game five, Luke Pepper elbowed three Iron players in the head, which led to a one-game suspension; with that, the Iron took it as a chance and with Greg Washington scoring 2 goals and 5 points, they won 6-3 to even the series at three games apiece. Winner-take-all Game Seven was for all the marbles; Detroit’s Allen Talbot didn’t score, but he did set up four of his teammates for goals to take a 5-0 lead halfway through the second period; however, Pittsburgh was making a comeback, scoring four goals, two of them made by Greg Washington and one by Mitchell Stevenson. With five minutes left in the third period, Pittsburgh poured on the shots, but Duke Pepper held his ground, and Luke Pepper came back from his one-game suspension, knocking forwards down till the clock hit zero. Detroit won game seven, 5-4, and the Detroit Speed is 1936 Alexander Cup Champions for the second time in a row.

1934-35 NIHA Season

 

For the third straight season, the Detroit Speed made it to the top three, but this time they finished in first place thanks to Luke Pepper topping the team’s stats (15-24-39), and his brother Duke had a turnaround by getting his second 25-of-30-game season along with seven shutouts. Even with other players pinching in with goals and points, the 1934 Alex Cup champions, the Brown Bears, took second place; however, Jack Ranger missed the last three games due to injuries, and chances are he might not be able to play in the playoffs. The Pittsburgh Iron takes third place in the standings for the third time in four years. To top it all, James Lake announced that he bought land and is going to build a nice new arena for his team. Maple Thomas had a big fall this season, going from 87 points last season to 57 points this season, a 30-point drop; however, thanks to his teammates stepping up, the Toronto Pros won enough games to take fourth place. New York had a rough season; even though they finished in fifth place, the big news was that Rat Robinson suffered a broken arm in the last game of the season, and he’ll be out for the playoffs. The team is hoping that Rat can heal up for the next season. After signing new players, the Lynx improved from eighth place to sixth place; what’s lucky for them is that they signed David Boweville to a two-year contract worth $300 a year. After two years of being in the bottom two, the Nats got back on track and finished seventh in the league, and Nick Watertown is slowly and steadily playing like his first-season performance. In their second season of existence, the Buffalo Rams made a huge impact with their star player William “the Magic” Durocher leading the team into their first playoff appearance in team history. The Montreal Or Rouge had some hard times this season, with their top line not playing right, which led to losing streaks, and they even made one of their biggest mistakes by changing the lines in order to at least win some games, but in the end they finished in ninth place. In last place is Winnipeg Northmen; not only did they play badly, but they also did not sign their players to come back and to top all of it, they are bleeding money so badly to the point that George Prince had no other choice but to sell the team to anyone; sadly, it could be bought by someone who wants to move the team elsewhere.

1935 Playoffs

The first round was wild; the Detroit-Buffalo series was supposed to be one-sided; however, all three games ended by one goal, with the Speed scoring a goal with one minute to go in game two, to in game three, when Luke Pepper scored the tiebreaker with one second left to win the series. The Brown Bears kept their playoff winning streak going with a 3-0 sweep over the Nationals thanks to Jack Ranger, who scored 8 goals and 14 points within three games, and they proved everyone wrong about where he would play in the playoffs despite his injury. The Pittsburgh Iron were determined to go all the way; however, the Chicago Lynx had other plans, back-and-forth all the way to game five, where Mitchell Stevenson made a slap shot from the center line into the net with four seconds left in the game and with that, the Pittsburgh Iron moved on to the second round. The series between Toronto and New York was a war like no other, with high-scoring games; the total score in all five games was 35-33, and in the end, the New York Mad Hatters became the victor, winning the series 3-2 to move on to the second round.

The semi-finals were very different; in one series, Detroit Speed took out the New York Mad Hatters in three games; all three of their wins were by Duke Pepper, who didn’t let any pucks past him at all, leading him to become another goalie in NIHA history to win those three games in shutouts. In game one, Brown Bears' Jack Ranger suffered the same injury as he had before the season ended, with him out, which meant the Brown Bears' luck had run out. After losing game one, the Pittsburgh Iron won three in a row to win the series and head to the Alexander Cup Finals.

1935 Alexander Cup Finals

This is Pittsburgh Iron’s first Alex Cup Finals appearance, which is good news for them, but the bad news is this is Detroit Speed’s third Alex Cup Finals appearance in a row, and this time the Speed are determined to win it all. The Speed won both game one, 4-2 and game two, 3-1; however, the Iron took game three out of nowhere with a 2-1 win to stay alive, but in game four the Detroit Speed took the win 4-1 to win the series three games to one and become the 1935 Alexander Cup Champions.

1933-34 NIHA Season

 

New team and jerseys

Buffalo Rams: The new expansion team showed their set: their dark jersey is orange with a white yoke that extends to the cuffs, and a white stripe on the hem. The light jersey, both orange and white, switched roles. Both jerseys feature the black “RAMS” wordmark logo and black numbers. Both jerseys have white socks with an orange stripe.

Both the Pittsburgh Iron and the Winnipeg Northmen got their own light jersey with a few tweaks.

Season Summary

After two seasons as a nine-team league, the NIHA is back to ten teams, meaning the playoff format is moving from six to eight teams. Thanks to the addition of the Buffalo Rams, they ended their first season with 12 wins, marking the first time a last-seeded team finished with more than ten wins. The Brown Bears went from making it to sixth place last season to finishing top of the league, led by Jack Ranger with his 72 points (36G-36A), and Gil Flowers kept his guard all season. The defending champions, the Toronto Pros, had an okay season despite having some players injured. Maple Thomas led the team in scoring and helped the Pros finish second. In third place is Detroit. Despite finishing in the top three, many questions were raised about the team’s decision to start Duke Pepper for the playoffs after he won just 15 of 30 games, compared to his 25 wins last season. Pittsburgh had a hard time later in this season after placing second in the first half of the season, then having a 12-game losing streak to finish fourth. The Mad Hatters set the league's longest winless streak at 19 (0-10-9); however, they would win their last 10 games to finish fifth. Even though the Or Rouge won 16 games, they lost 18 games and had two ties, and because the Mad Hatters had the most points, Montreal was one point behind and placed sixth. After a poor performance last season, the Winnipeg Northmen fired their head coach during the off-season and then hired Walter Clover, despite finishing seventh. Team owner George Prince was very happy with the morale boost they needed going into the playoffs. The Lynx returned to the playoffs after two years of disappointing results, with David Boweville having a poor start to the season but making up points before the end of the season. Rounding out the last two are the Minnesota Nationals and the Buffalo Rams.

1934 Playoffs

In the first round, the Brown Bears swept the Lynx in three, while Toronto, Detroit, and Pittsburgh played all five games to win their series, including the Pittsburgh-New York series, where all five games went to overtime. The Brown Bears won the series in three games over Pittsburgh, while it took Detroit five games to get their last year’s championship revenge over Toronto to move on from the second round of the 1934 playoffs to the1934 Alexander Cup Finals.

Alexander Cup Finals

In the Finals, the New Brunswick Brown Bears made it clear they wanted to win the cup with a perfect playoff record, and the only thing standing between them and their goal was the Detroit Speed. The Speed did some playing at their high level, but the Brown Bears turned it up to the next level, led by Jack Ranger with scoring and Gil Flowers' leadership; the Brown Bears went on to sweep the Detroit Speed in three games to become the 1934 Alexander Cup Champions for the third time in four years, becoming the first team in NIHA history to have a dynasty made to happen; for the Speed, it was a back-to-back championship appearance without a single win under their belt.

1932-33 NIHA Season

 

Jerseys changes

Toronto Pros: The Pros changed their white jersey to grey to match their grey socks.New Brunswick Brown Bears: The Brown Bears simplified and downsized their stripes to normal stripes.

Season Summary

For the fourth season in a row, the Toronto Pros took the top spot, thanks to Maple Thomas with 84 points so far, the most points in a season in his career. Also, the Pros nearly went perfect this season, finishing with a 30-1-1 record. The Detroit Speed went from last place last season to second place this season, and it was a big bounce-back for goalie Duke Pepper, winning 25 of the 30 games he played this season after not recording a win last season. Pittsburgh Iron signed defence Mitchell Stevenson, who was their best move, helping them win games and claim third place for the second season in a row. Rat Robinson topped the Mad Hatters' stats once again; however, the coaching staff started to see signs that Rat could be declining over the next season or two, so they are planning to sign a new player to work with in hopes of being the next Rat Robinson. For now, the team is happy to finish in fourth place. Even though the team’s top-line point totals are starting to go down, they find themselves back in the playoffs, finishing fifth after missing them last season. The 1932 Alexander Cup champions, the Brown Bears, had a rough start to the season, but they somehow managed to win enough games to finish sixth. Rounding out the standings are Chicago, Winnipeg, and Minnesota.

1933 Playoffs

The first round was in the books as the Pittsburgh Iron took down last season's champions, the Brown Bears, in four games; meanwhile, New York took their series win over Montreal, though it took them five games. 

In the second round, Toronto didn’t give the Mad Hatters a chance to fight back as the Pros made their series a three-game-to-none sweep, while it took Detroit five games to beat Pittsburgh.

1933 Alexander Cup Finals

The Finals were all Toronto, as their top player, Maple Thomas, scored nine goals (three per game), and Shawn Trumen posted three shutouts, as the Toronto Pros are the 1933 Alexander Cup Champions.

Two days later, NIHA president Jack Haultraugh announced that a new team had been added to the league for the 1933-34 season. His name was Arthur Ram [real name Artur Radwańska], an immigrant from Poland who moved to New York in the early 1910’s and worked his way up to owning a meatpacking company called “Rams Meats” in Buffalo, New York. He is a big fan of the New York Mad Hatters and has a good business relationship with the Mad Hatters' owner, Robert Hatt. Hatt helped Ram get himself a team in Buffalo after many talks with other owners. It was official: Arthur Ram got a team in Buffalo, and the team will be called the Buffalo Rams.

1931-32 NIHA Season

 

Jerseys changes

Detroit Speed: The Speed got themselves a white jersey to complete the set.

Season Summary

With the Cleveland Otters gone, the league is down to nine teams, and President Jack Haultraugh decided to change the playoff format from eight to six, with the top two teams getting byes while the four teams battle it out.

For the third season in a row, the Toronto Pros take first place by using two goalies who share starting time; however, after signing 20-year-old Shawn Trumen despite his 10-6-0 record in 16 games, he shows potential to be a full-time goalie in the future. From finishing last place in the previous season to claiming second this season, the Winnipeg Northmen made lots of roster moves, including signing the best players within Manitoba and even claiming former Cleveland Otters defenceman Peter Coswell, who improved the defence line, and their top goalie, Kevin Vaughan, from winning just six games out of 30 games last season to winning 20 in 30 games this season a big turnaround for a team that everyone wrote off as another dead last team. The Pittsburgh Iron take third place with a roster pretty much the same as last season. They had signed a 17-year-old player named Mitchell Stevenson from Ottawa, who failed tryouts with the Pros, Speed, and Mad Hatters before finally making the Iron roster, but he had to wait until next season to skate with them. The defending champion New Brunswick Brown Bears improved enough to finish fourth, proving last season was no fluke and hoping to add another championship to their belt. Taking fifth place is the Minnesota Nationals; their star forward, Nick Watertown, struggled this season, finishing with 30 points, down from 90 last season. Early in the season, the Mad Hatters struggled to stay in the playoff picture, going back and forth with the Or Rouge for the sixth and final playoff spot. In the final game of the season between the two, the Mad Hatters' star Rat Robinson scored a hat trick to help them win sixth place over the Or Rouge 5-3. Rounding out the rest were the Montreal Or Rouge in 7th place, the Chicago Lynx in 8th place, and the Detroit Speed in 9th place.

1932 NIHA Playoffs

The first round was a success for the Brown Bears as they took down the Nationals in three games, while Pittsburgh had a two-game-to-none lead until the Mad Hatters came back to even the series and win game five to move on to the second round. 

In the second round, Toronto swept New York in three games, led by Maple Thomas, who scored 10 goals, and the Pros are headed back to the Alexander Cup finals. The series between the New Brunswick Brown Bears and the Winnipeg Northmen was back-and-forth until game five, when Jack Ranger scored 2 goals to send the Brown Bears back to the Alexander Cup finals.

1932 Alexander Cup Finals

A first all-Canadian series in the NIHA era went all the way to five games as both teams went back-and-forth all the way to game five, where the Brown Bears had a two-goal lead in the third period when Maple Thomas scored two goals out of nowhere to tie the game, and for the first time in Alexander Cup history, the last game would end in overtime, with three minutes left in overtime Gil Flowers made a shot to the net due his options of passing the puck to teammates was completely covered, Shawn Trumen thought he caught the puck but it pass the glove bounced off the goal post and in the net to end the game 4-3 and the New Brunswick Brown Bears are once again the Alexander Cup Champion with a three games to two series win.

1930-31 NIHA Season

 

New Teams

As Detroit prepares for its inaugural season, the four other teams have made some changes, mostly by moving elsewhere. One owner of the Nova Scotia team couldn’t make enough money to start a season, so he sold the team to Matthew Brown, who moved it to Moncton, New Brunswick, and named it the Brown Bears. John Lewiston, the owner of the London team, couldn’t get the arena built, so he moved the team to Cleveland, where it became the Cleveland Otters. An owner in Quebec City had issues with the city not building an arena for him, so he sold it to George Prince, took the team to Winnipeg, and called them the Winnipeg Northmen. James Lake had a team ready in Boston, but the city declined his request to place it there because of a change in the mayor's office. So, just like the other three teams, he moved his team to Pittsburgh and called them the Pittsburgh Iron.

Jersey changes

• With new teams entering the league, the Chicago Lynx add a white uniform to their set, and the logo shrinks a bit.

• The Nats add white uniforms to their set.

• Or Rouge got themselves a white uniform set to go along with their current set.

• Being no longer the only team wearing white jerseys, the Mad Hatters add a dark jersey in red, a rare thing to happen in New York sports.

• With word that a new team was wearing blue, the Toronto Pros quickly put together a white version of their current dark jersey, but they had plans to make a grey jersey set, which didn’t happen.

• The New Brunswick Brown Bears got lots of stripes on both dark and light jerseys.

• The Cleveland Otters jersey is red with cream stripes and red pants.

• Detroit Speed got a red jersey with black cuffs and a black hem with the “speed” in front of the jersey and black pants, not to be confused with the Otters set.

• A blue jersey with a gold and grey letter P for the Pittsburgh Iron.

• Winnipeg Northmen’s jersey is maroon with gold stripes on the arms.

Season Summary

The 1930-31 season began with a bang for the five new teams, with the Detroit Speed getting their first-ever win over the New York Mad Hatters 3-2, the next night, the Pittsburgh Iron won their game over the Winnipeg Northmen 4-2, the Northmen head back home two nights later to win their first home game over the Lancers 3-2, Cleveland Otters got their first win at home over the Speed 2-1, and finally it took ten games but the New Brunswick Brown Bears got their first win over the Toronto Pros 5-2.

The Toronto Pros took first place with a 28-6-2 record, one of the highest win totals in NIHA history. Taking second place is the Chicago Lynx, thanks to their top player, David Boweville, and a young player named Ryan Everett, who scored 23 goals and 55 points, not bad for an 18-year-old hockey player. The 1930 Alexander Cup Champ, New York Mad Hatters, had a good start early in the season, but after losing to Detroit Speed, they had a 10-game losing streak until finally snapping it with a win over the Northmen and finished the last 10 games with 8-1-1, and won enough to take third place. With losing so many players, the Minnesota Nationals are in a rough spot, but during the offseason, they signed forward Nick Watertown from Two Harbors, MN, who made a name for himself with 32 goals and 58 assists with a total of 90 points pretty well performance for an 18-year-old, they also got goalie Isaac Cheevers, a 20-year-old from Ely, MN who been a almost a brick wall with a 15-12-5 within 32 games but zero shutouts making him the first goalie in NIHA history to go through a 30 plus game season without a shutout, with these two key players the Nats finished fourth. Finally, after two disappointing seasons, the Or Rouge improved with the addition of a new defensive player from Quebec City. Lewis John has been giving some forwards from other teams a hard time with the bad news that they finished fifth, but the good news is that they finished fifth and are headed to the playoffs. The Detroit Speed had one of the best first years among the five new teams, thanks to the signing of the Pepper brothers: Luke on defence and Duke in net. The Speed finished sixth. Pittsburgh Iron made an impact on the league by signing future big-time player Greg Washington, who had only 15 goals, 21 assists, and 36 points at 17 years old —not bad. Also, they signed John Hallock after three years with the Mad Hatters, hoping that he would get better pay after winning the Alexander Cup, but the Mad Hatters would not give him what he was worth, so he signed with Pittsburgh, which gave him a better offer that would give the Iron a seventh-place finish. The battle for eighth place between Cleveland and New Brunswick was a back-and-forth, but in the end, the Otters won the season series over the Bears 2-1-1 in four games, as Cleveland heads to the playoffs while the Brown Bears' season ended. The Winnipeg Northmen finished last; their roster is mostly youth, with no one over 25, including 19-year-old goalie Kevin Vaughan, who won just six of 30 games.

1931 NHIA Playoffs

Two days before the 1931 playoffs began, the Brown Bears were about to pack their stuff for the off-season when their head coach came in and told the team to get on the rink to practice because they’re going to the playoffs. The reason is that the Cleveland Otters' owner, John Lewiston, ran out of money at the end of the season, couldn’t pay his players for the playoffs and had no other choice but to suspend operations for good. The Brown Bears finished with the same record as the Otters and claimed the 8th playoff spot.

The first round caught everyone off guard. The New Brunswick Brown Bears found a new life in a big way, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NIHA history over Toronto in four games. It took four games for the Chicago Lynx to take out the Pittsburgh Iron. The New York Mad Hatters swept the Detroit Speed in three games. Both Minnesota and Montreal went back and forth all the way to game five, where Montreal won it in a big way, with Lewis John scoring a game-winner.

The second round got wilder than the first round. The Chicago Lynx became another victim of the Brown Bears in four games, and it took New York four games just to beat Montreal and reach the Alexander Cup Finals.

1931 Alexander Cup Championship

The first two games were blowouts as the Mad Hatters won 8-1 and 10-1 over the Brown Bears, leading them to believe game three would be another championship clincher. However, the Brown Bears got their butterflies out of their stomachs by beating the Mad Hatters 3-2, with Jack Ranger scoring three goals for that win. In game four, Jack scored three goals again for a 3-2 win to even the series two games apiece. Game five is all-or-nothing for both teams. New York had a lot of shots at the net, but the Brown Bears found a way to put pucks in the net, thanks to Jack scoring three goals for a 3-0 win over the Mad Hatters, and the New Brunswick Brown Bears are the 1931 Alexander Cup Champions, and to make things more interesting, the Brown Bears are the first team to win the championship with the highest goals-against average in NIHA history.

1929-30 NIHA Season

 

Uniform changes: Both Toronto and Minnesota changed their pants colours.

Tragedy hit the league during the off-season as Paul Benjamin, the NIHA's first president, suffered another heart attack and died at the age of 85. Paul was also the president of the defunct THL before NIHA was established. The owners held an emergency meeting, voted, and named Jack Haultraugh the NIHA’s new president.

As the new president, Jack's first move was to approve adding five more teams to the league for this season. However, things didn’t go as planned due to financial issues in Nova Scotia, Boston, Quebec City, and London (Ontario). Detroit is the only one ready to go, but Jack told owner Ryan Troy to hold off at least until next season so he and the other 4 owners can resolve their financial issues.

Toronto continues where it left off, winning 24 of 32 games. It was a successful season for the Pros, and many fans believe another Alexander Cup title is on the horizon. The Chicago Lynx may get 19 wins instead of 20, but it was enough to finish second. Rat Robinson was on a pointless streak midway into the season, but he snapped out of it and started scoring and helped the Mad Hatters finish third place. Problems have arisen in Minnesota; after losing Victor Tillman two years ago, they now lost Harold Orton, who suffered an injury early in the season, came back only to struggle through the rest of the season to the point that Harold saw writing on the wall for himself and chose to call it a career, leaving the Nats finishing fourth place and no top star heading into the playoffs. Just like last season, Montreal hit rock bottom, and they couldn’t even keep players without offers, which made them walk away, and that’s when Jonathon Laflamme fired the manager, Jack Levis, and hired Matthew Hebert, who pretty much tore the roster down and rebuilt from the ground up, signing a young defenceman named Lewis John, but there’s a problem: he’s from Quebec City; many don’t like seeing a QC player in the Or Rouge uniform.

1930 Playoffs

For the second time since winning the Alexander Cup in 1928, the Toronto Pros beat the Nationals, this time in three games, led by Maple Thomas, who scored most of the series. It was a back-and-forth series, but New York’s Rat Robinson scored a hat trick per game, in game five, he scored a hat trick, making him the first player in NIHA history to score a hat trick in each game of the 5-game series, which helped the Mad Hatters win the series and head back to the Alexander Cup.

1930 Alexander Cup Championship

For the first time, not just in the NIHA but also in the history of the Alexander Cup championship, there is a back-to-back match-up between two teams. Toronto Pros believed they had this series in hand, but the New York Mad Hatters got Rat Robinson leading the way, scoring goals to win the series in 4 games, and the New York Mad Hatters are the 1930 Alexander Cup champions.

1928-29 NIHA Season

 

Uniform Changes: Chicago and Montreal pants change colour. New York also changes the colour of their pants and adds blue trim around the numbers as well.

Season Summary

The Minnesota Nationals had a rough start after losing Victor Tillman to a career-ending injury. Many players rose to the challenge, but most of their wins came in low-scoring games; ultimately, the Nats finished in first place. After a slow finish last season in fourth place, the Mad Hatters were able to jump to second place, with Rat Robinson improving from 39 points last season to 69 points (39G, 30A) this season and becoming the top player in statistics. After two years of missing the playoffs, the Chicago Lynx finished third place in the standings, with some help from their star, David Boweville, who finally lived up to expectations after hitting 65 points (25G, 40A) this season became success, the team’s owner Edward Elsbridge, got the green light from the city of Chicago to build a new arena that would be the best thing to ever happen to Chicago. The Toronto Pros held first place on site, but their top player, Maple Thomas, was injured midseason, and they lost many games. By the time Maple returned from injury, it was too late, and they finished in fourth place. The Montreal Or Rouge was in decline, with many players leaving the team because they were not paid as much as John Giroux, Marc Dupont, and Etienne Rehnquist. Even though the Or Rouge signed new players, it didn’t help, as they finished in last place.

1928 NIHA Playoffs

The entire league witnessed an upset as the Toronto Pros not only came back from a 2-0 deficit to force a game five but also won the series after a 3-2 game five win over the Nationals, led by Maple Thomas, who scored 12 of the 15 goals in those five games. The Chicago Lynx got a win in game one, but that's all they could do as the Mad Hatters won three in a row to win the series in four.

1929 Alexander Cup Championship

On the eve of game one of the Championship, NIHA President Paul Benjaman suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While Paul was in the hospital, both New York and Toronto went back and forth all the way to game five. Despite the Mad Hatters having the upper hand in strength, the Pros got the heart, and with Maple on the team, the Pros won the series and took home the Alexander Cup Championship to Toronto.

1927-28 NIHA Season

 

During the off-season, the Chicago Lynx acquired a new owner, Edward Elsbridge, a businessman from Chicago's West Side. After several failed attempts to buy a professional baseball team, Edward was given the opportunity to buy the Lynx hockey team, and he took it, hoping to turn it around. Many owners are planning an expansion, adding five more teams as it was supposed to have before the league’s inaugural season, but the NIHA president, Paul Benjaman, shot it down because he didn’t want to go through the same issues as the last time, and he said, “As long as I’m the NIHA president, we are not going to expand a big number of teams, and that’s that!”

The Minnesota Nationals finished first in the standings the hard way, experiencing some good winning streaks, but also endured a rough eight-game losing streak in the last ten games of the season, led by their top player, Victor Tillman, who had been playing in amateur leagues for years until he got on the Nats roster and became the first player in NIHA history to reach 100 points (32 goals, 68 assists), one of the biggest successes that any player could pull off. The Toronto Pros had the opportunity to take first place, but that plan backfired after losing the last four games to both New York and Chicago. For the second year in a row, the Montreal Or Rouge finished in third place, losing players from the 1910s to retirements, which means a rebuild is on the way. From first to fourth, the New York Mad Hatters lost a significant portion of their roster as they fought for the last playoff spot, particularly in the last game of the season, where they defeated Chicago 3-1 to secure fourth place. Even though they had youth on the roster, it didn’t help the Lynx get themselves out of the bottom of the barrel. However, they scored 21 points, four more than last season.

1928 Playoffs

The Minnesota Nationals took out the Mad Hatters in three games without issues, with Nats' rookie Victor Tillman leading the way with 10 goals within those three games. It was a back-and-forth series between the Pros and the Or Rouge all the way to game five, where both were tied 4-4 after the third period. With five minutes left in overtime, Maple Thomas scored the game-winner to win the series and send the Toronto Pros to the Alexander Cup Championship.

Alexander Cup Championship

The Minnesota Nationals made no mistakes; they made the right plays and shut down the Pros' offence in many ways. As game three ended, the Nationals celebrated as the first American pro hockey team to win the Alexander Cup in the trophy's history. Victor Tillman had one of the best seasons in his hockey career. Sadly, one month after winning the Cup, Victor got into a car accident that paralyzed him and ended his career.

1926-27 NIHA Season

 

After last year's disappointment, the Mad Hatters made major roster changes, replacing most of the core veterans with fresh new players like Joe “Rat” Robinson, who didn’t make the cut last year. This year, he topped the league with 35 goals and 56 points, helping the team go from worst to first.  The Nationals improved from third place last year to second this year, thanks in part to Harold Orton, who has been a brick wall for the team since last season. The defending Alex Cup champions, Montreal, had lost several key players to retirement, including Jean Ranou, who was part of the team in its pre-NIHA days. With some new players added, the team would finish third. Toronto’s Maple Thomas had a rough season, being the only player on the team to play a full 32 games; some players barely made it past 16 games, but Maple's contributions helped the Pros finish fourth. Even though the Lynx made it to the playoffs last year, they couldn’t keep the roster intact due to players not being paid, which led to their top player, Trevor Bell, who was on a roll in scoring, choosing not to put more effort in for the rest of the season until he and other teammates got paid. Later, it was discovered that owner Rick Kitchen was losing money badly, and he couldn’t raise ticket prices to keep the team afloat; in the end, the Chicago Lynx finished last.

Playoffs

Semi-Finals

Both semi-finals went to five games. In one semi, the Mad Hatters thought they would take out the Pros, but the Pros gave them a hard time. In game five, Rat Robinson led the team with three goals to win 5-2 over the Pros to advance to the Alexander Cup Championship. The rematch from last year's Alexander Cup Championship and the Nationals made huge wins to lead the series 2-0, but Montreal bounced back and became the first team in history to come back from trailing 2-0 to win the series 3-2, all thanks to Marc Dupont, who didn’t play well this season but stepped up in the playoffs.

Alexander Cup Championship

The New York Mad Hatters may be the top team in the league, but their young roster was no match for the Montreal Or Rouge, Montreal would win the first two games in New York until in game three were the Mad Hatters won it in Montreal but in game four the Mad Hatters ran out of fuel as the Or Rouge filled with veterans was scoring from all angles for a 6-1 score to win the Alexander Cup Championship for the second year in a row, the last team to ever win the Cup back-to-back was the Rimouski Otters (1920-1921) before the NIHA was established.

1925-26 NIHA Season

 

It took a while to get the league going, but on November 20, 1925, the first game of the NIHA inaugural season was played, as NIHA president Paul Benjamin watched the Toronto Pros beat the New York Mad Hatters 4-2. The Pros' top scorer, Maple Thomas, led the team with his first hat trick of the season. The next night, spectators witnessed a very competitive game between the Chicago Lancers and the Minnesota Nationals, which ended in a 5-5 tie. The Montreal Or Rouge was the top team in the league, thanks to John Giroux, Marc Dupont, and Etienne Rehnquist, who formed the league's most dominant line. Behind them were the Toronto Pros in second place, followed by the Minnesota Nationals in third, the Chicago Lynx in fourth, and the New York Mad Hatters in last place.

The playoff format features the top 4 teams, with the last-place team eliminated. The semi-final and final are both best-of-5-game series. In the semi-final, the OR Rouge wastes no time and beats the Lynx in three games, while the Nationals shock the league and end the Pros' season, and it took all five games to do it.

The battle between the Montreal Or Rouge and the Minnesota Nationals for the Alexander Cup. The Nationals played well, but it wasn't enough, as Or Rouge star Etienne Rehnquist scored six of the nine goals to win in three games, becoming the first Alexander Cup champions in NIHA history.