1920 Stanley Cup Finals

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The 1920 Stanley Cup Finals took place between March 22 and April 1. The National Hockey League (NHL) champion Ottawa Senators defeated the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Seattle Metropolitans 3 games to 2 in the best-of-five game series. Although all of the games for the series was scheduled to be played at Dey's Arena in Ottawa, unseasonably warm weather and poor ice conditions forced the last two contests to be played on the artificial ice at Toronto's Arena Gardens (also known as the Mutual Street Arena).

The Senators captured the 1919-20 NHL title after they won both halves of the regular season, thus eliminating the need for a league championship playoff. Meanwhile, Seattle finished the 1919-20 PCHA regular season in first place with a 12-10 record, but had to defeat the second place Vancouver Millionaires in a two game total goals championship series, 7-3, to win the PCHA title.

Before the finals began, a problem arose as Seattle's green, red, and white uniforms looked almost alike to Ottawa's black, red, and white uniforms. The Senators agreed to play in white sweaters.

Ottawa won the first 2 games of the series. After Jack Darragh scored the game-winning goal in their 3-2 victory in Game 1, goaltender Clint Benedict led the Senators to a 3-0 shutout win in Game 2. Seattle won Game 3, 3-1, before the series was shifted to Toronto because of Ottawa's slushy ice conditions(Ottawa did not have artificial ice). Frank Foyston then scored twice to lead the Mets to a 5-2 victory in Game 4 even the series. But in Game 5, Darragh recorded a hat-trick as the Senators won 6-1 to clinch the Cup.

For the series, Frank Nighbor led Ottawa in goals with 6, while Darragh scored 5. Benedict recorded a 2.20 goals-against average during the series

Game-by-Game Winning Team Score Losing Team Location
1 March 22 Ottawa Senators 3-2 Seattle Metropolitans Dey's Arena, Ottawa
2 March 24 Ottawa Senators 3-0 Seattle Metropolitans
3 March 27 Seattle Metropolitans 3-1 Ottawa Senators
4 March 30 Seattle Metropolitans 5-2 Ottawa Senators Arena Gardens, Toronto
5 April 1 Ottawa Senators 6-1 Seattle Metropolitans
Senators win best-of-five series 3 games to 2

[edit] Cup engravings

For reasons unknown, the Senators never did engrave their names on the Cup for their 1920 championship. It was only until the trophy was redesigned in 1948 that the words "1920 Ottawa Senators" was put onto its then-new collar.

[edit] References

Preceded by:
1919 Stanley Cup Finals
Stanley Cup Champions Succeeded by:
1921 Stanley Cup Finals