The 1980–81 WHL season was the 15th season for the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

. Thirteen teams completed a 72-game season. The

Victoria Cougars The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and (after the PCHA's merger with the Western Canada Hockey League) in the W ...

won the

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

League notes

* The Spokane Flyers and

Winnipeg Warriors The Winnipeg Warriors were a junior ice hockey team that played in the Western Hockey League. They were founded as an expansion team in 1980, but suffered from attendance problems competing with the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League and ...

joined the WHL as its 12th and 13th franchises.

Regular season

Final standings

Scoring leaders

''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes''

1981 WHL Playoffs

First round

*Regina defeated Brandon 4 games to 1 *Calgary defeated Billings 4 games to 1 *Lethbridge defeated Medicine Hat 4 games to 1 *Spokane defeated New Westminster in 4th place tiebreaker game

Division semi-finals

*Regina earned a bye *Calgary defeated Lethbridge 3 games to 1 *Victoria defeated Spokane 4 games to 0 *Portland defeated Seattle 4 games to 1

Division finals

* Calgary defeated Regina 4 games to 2 * Victoria defeated Portland 4 games to 0

WHL Championship

*Victoria defeated Calgary 4 games to 3

All-Star game

On January 20, the WHL All-Stars defeated the

8–3 at

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

with a crowd of 3,520.

WHL awards

All-Star Teams

References

whl.ca
* 2005–06 WHL Guide {{DEFAULTSORT:1980-81 Whl Season Western Hockey League seasons WCHL WHL