1906–07 MPHL season

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The 1906–07 Manitoba Professional Hockey League (MPHL) season would see the 1906 MPHL champion Kenora Thistles challenge the Montreal Wanderers in a Stanley Cup 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.^[1]

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 an exhibition in Ottawa. In this game Billy McGimsie suffered a career-ending shoulder injury. The team signed Fred Whitcroft to replace him. Tom Hooper of the Thistles was injured late in the season, and the Thistles signed Alf Smith and Rat Westwick of Ottawa, whose season with the ECAHA was already over, for the final game of the season and the playoffs.^[1]

All games
Team	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pts
Brandon Wheat Kings	10	5	2	3	13
Portage La Prairie	10	5	3	2	12
Kenora Thistles	6	4	2	0	8
Winnipeg Strathconas	10	1	8	1	3

Adjusted
Team	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Pts
Brandon Wheat Kings	6	4	2	8
Kenora Thistles	6	4	2	8
Portage La Prairie	6	3	3	6
Winnipeg Strathconas	6	1	5	2

Source: Zwieg, 2012^[2]

Playoff

Kenora would play and win the MPHL playoff against Brandon to successfully defend the Cup, winning a best-of-three series 2–0. At the time of this series, the acting Stanley Cup trustee William Foran 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.^[3]

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
March 16, 1907	Kenora Thistles	8–6	Brandon Wheat City	Winnipeg Arena
March 18, 1907	Kenora Thistles	4–1	Brandon Wheat City	Winnipeg Arena
Kenora wins series 2–0

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 Montreal Wanderers 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 Famers Tom Hooper, Tommy Phillips, 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 Kings and was borrowed by Kenora for just the challenge games.

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
January 17, 1907	Kenora Thistles	4–2	Montreal Wanderers	Montreal Arena
January 21, 1907	Kenora Thistles	8–6	Montreal Wanderers	Montreal Arena
Kenora wins total goals series 12 goals to 8

Wanderers vs. Kenora at Winnipeg

Kenora went ahead and used Alf Smith and Rat Westwick 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.”^[4]

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.^[5]

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
March 23, 1907	Montreal Wanderers	7–2	Kenora Thistles	Winnipeg Arena
March 25, 1907	Kenora Thistles	6–5	Montreal Wanderers	Winnipeg Arena
Montreal wins total goals series 12 goals to 8

Kenora Thistles - January–March 1907 Stanley Cup champions

Eddie Geroux(Goal), Art Ross(Point), Silas Griffis(Coverpoint), Tom Hooper(Rover), Billy McGimsie(Center), Tom Phillips(Left Wing- Captain), Roxy Beaudro(Right Wing), Russell Phillips(dressed, but did not play/Forward on team picture), Joe Hall(dressed, but did not play/defense on team picture), Alf Smith(right wing)†, Harry Westwick(rover)†, Fred Whitcroft(rover)†.

Non-players

Lowrey Johnson (President/missing from the team picture), Fred A. Hudson (Manager), James A. Link (Coach/Trainer), G.F McGillvary (Secretary/Treasurer).

† Not part of team when Kenora when they won the Stanley Cup in January 1907. However, joined the team in March 1907 to play against the Brandon Wheat Kings in 2 playoff games.

Stanley Cup engraving

Kenora engraved their name inside the bowl of the Stanley Cup.^[6]

References

Bibliography

Coleman, Charles L. (1966), The Trail of the Stanley Cup, Vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc., NHL
Podnieks, Andrew: Lord Stanley Cup, Fenn Publishing Company, 2004
Zweig, Eric (2012). Stanley Cup: 120 years of hockey supremacy. Firefly Books. ISBN 978-1-77085-104-7.

Notes

↑ 1.0 1.1 Zweig 2012, p. 295.
↑ Zweig 2012, p. 294.
↑ "The Protest From Kenora", The Globe, March 19, 1907: 9
↑ "Never Too Late to Mend", The Globe, March 25, 1907: 9
↑ "The News of Sport", The Globe, March 26, 1907: 9
↑ [Podnieks]

Preceded by 1905–06	MHA seasons 1906–07	Succeeded by 1907–08

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