The 1906–07

Manitoba Professional Hockey League The Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) was an early men's senior ice hockey league playing around 1900 in Manitoba, Canada. The league started as an elite amateur league in 1892, became professional in 1905, had a professional and an amateur leagu ...

(MPHL) season would see the 1906 MPHL champion

Kenora Thistles The Kenora Thistles, officially the Thistles Hockey Club, were a Canadian ice hockey team based in Kenora, Ontario. Founded in 1894, they were originally known as the Rat Portage Thistles. The team competed for the Stanley Cup, the ice hock ...

challenge the

Montreal Wanderers The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association ...

in a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

challenge in January and win the MPHL championship, only to lose the Cup in a challenge in March.

Regular season

The Winnipeg Hockey Club and Winnipeg Victorias left the league which now accepted professionals openly. The teams organized an amateur league. Teams played ten games, except for Kenora, which played the Stanley Cup challenge. As a consequence, the standings were adjusted to account for the challenge. After the Thistles won the Stanley Cup in Montreal, the team played exhibitions in Ottawa and Toronto. In the Ottawa game Billy McGimsie suffered a career-ending shoulder injury. At the time, it was not described as serious, only a "badly bruised and slightly dislocated shoulder". He played in the Thistles' next exhibition in Toronto on January 25. The team signed Fred Whitcroft to replace him. Kenora signed Alf Smith and

Rat Westwick Harry "Rat" Westwick (April 23, 1876 – April 3, 1957) was a Canadian athlete in ice hockey and lacrosse. Westwick – nicknamed the ''Rat'' for his small size – is most noted for his play with the Ottawa Hockey Club, nicknamed the ''Silver ...

of Ottawa, whose season with the ECAHA was already over, for the final game of the season and the playoffs to play in place of future Hall of Famers Art Ross and

Joe Hall Joseph Hall may refer to: Sports * Joe Hall (American football) (born 1979), American football player * Joe Hall (baseball) (born 1966), American baseball player * Joe Hall (ice hockey) (1881–1919), Canadian ice hockey player * Joe B. Hall (192 ...

who were back playing for Brandon. Source: Zwieg, 2012

Playoff

Kenora would play and win the MPHL playoff against Brandon to successfully defend the Cup, winning a best-of-three series 2–0. Hall and Ross played for Brandon in the series, while Smith, Westwick and Whitcroft played for the Thistles. At the time of the series, the acting Stanley Cup trustee

William Foran William Michael Foran (February 4, 1871 – November 30, 1945) was an ice hockey executive, Stanley Cup trustee and government official. For over 50 years, he was secretary of the Board of Civil Service Examiners and its follow-up organizatio ...

had already declared Smith and Westwick ineligible for the challenge series. After the series was over, the Manitoba League registered their disapproval over Mr. Foran's decision to exclude the players. - Goal scorers in both games are unknown

Stanley Cup challenges

As the Thistles were Manitoba champions for 1906, they were accepted as Stanley Cup challengers. However, the challenge did not take place until January 1907.

Wanderers vs. Kenora at Montreal

The Thistles played the

in a Stanley Cup challenge during the season, defeating the Wanderers 4–2 and 8–6 on January 17–21. Aided by future

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

Tom Hooper Thomas George Hooper (born 5 October 1972)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. 5d: 2485. is a British-Australian filmmaker. Hooper began making short films as a teenager and had his first professional short, ...

Tommy Phillips Thomas Neil Phillips (May 22, 1883 – November 30, 1923) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger. Like other players of his era, Phillips played for several different teams and leagues. Most notable for his time with the Kenora T ...

, and Art Ross, the Thistles came away with 4–2 and 8–6 victories for a combined score of 12–8 to win a two-game total goals series. A "ringer", Ross was a member of the Brandon Wheat City team and was signed by Kenora for just the challenge games. Brandon's

also signed for the challenge games and returned to Brandon afterward.

Wanderers vs. Kenora at Winnipeg

Kenora went ahead and used Alf Smith and

of Ottawa for the challenge, against the wishes of Stanley Cup trustee Mr. Foran. The series was supposed to start on March 21 in Kenora, but Montreal protested the use of Smith and Westwick, and also wanted to play the series in Winnipeg. Foran ruled that both players were ineligible. The clubs went ahead and started the series on March 23 in Winnipeg. Mr. Foran was notified by the press (inaccurately) that Montreal had dropped its protest and that the clubs intended to play anyway. Mr. Foran threatened to take the Cup back to Ottawa:

If the two clubs ignore the instructions of the cup trustees by mutually agreeing to play against Westwick and Smith when both were positively informed these men were ineligible to participate in the present cup matches, the series will be treated as void, and the cup will be taken charge of by the trustees. It will remain in their possession till the various hockey leagues can educate themselves up to a standard where decent sport will be the order of the day.”

The teams went ahead and played the series. However, Mr. Foran changed his mind after the Wanderers won the Cup, stating that the Wanderers could keep the Cup, because they had not rescinded their protest.

Kenora Thistles - January–March 1907 Stanley Cup champions

References

;Bibliography * * Podnieks, Andrew: Lord Stanley Cup, Fenn Publishing Company, 2004 * ;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:1906-07 MPHL season Manitoba Hockey Association seasons

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