PHL: 1964-65

As the 1963-64 season finished and the Toronto Racers celebrated their Lewis Cup victory, the PHL once again began talk of expansion. Air travel was becoming increasingly affordable and easy and the league became attracted to the idea of a couple of western franchises. After a board of governers meeting the June, 1964, the PHL anounced it would add two western based teams in time for the 1966-67 season. Immediately, Gerald Smythe submitted an application to revive his Vancouver franchise. Applications also came in from Minnesota, Winnipeg, Calgary, Los Angeles, Seattle, Edmonton, and Denver. Also during the summer, the league expanded it's regular season from 70 to 80 games. Playoffs would now begin the first week of April. Just prior to the drop of the puck for the 1964-65 season, Hamilton began their slow climb from the league basement by trading longtime captain Ted Forbes to Ottawa for second-year forward Brian Reed. It did not help their cause, however, as they finished the year with the worst record in PHL history at 6-70-4. In Buffalo, the Bulls enjoyed a massive jump, finishing the season with 100 points for the first time in franchise history and finishing in second place,thanks largely to a spectacular effort in net from David Zimmer.

In Philadelphia, the Redshirts experienced a disastrous season as star players Vince Ward, Richie Moore, and goaltender Micheal McArdle went down with injuries. In December, star defenceman Jean Lerouix quit the team after a falling out with coach Howie Smith. Montreal immediately pick him up and Philly was forced to call up another inexperienced rookie, Billy Patton. Detroit had another big year with Don Banks scoring 52 goals with a hat-trick in the final game of the season to put him over the 50 goal hump.

In March, 1965, the league finally made a big anouncement regarding expansion. Minnesota and Winnipeg were to be admitted as new PHL franchises beginning in the fall of 1966. The new franchises would be stocked through an expansion draft where each team would select players from the existing teams to fill out their rosters.

As the 1965 playoffs began, high expectations surrounded Buffalo, where the team was coming off their best-ever regular season after years in the basement. Those expectations would be short-lived, however, as star goaltender David Zimmer suffered a fractured jaw in game 1 of the Bulls' first round series against the Chicago Shamrocks on a shot from Shamrocks defenseman Bruce James, ending his year. The Shamrocks wold go on to win the series in five games. Meanwhile Detroit had little trouble with the Boston Bulldogs this time around, taking them out in five games, While Montreal took out the defending champion Racers in six. In the Division finals, Quebec met Montreal in a tough seven-game series while Detroit met Chicago. In stunning fashion, the underdog Shamrocks swept the Mustangs in four straight, with Bruce Wallace only allowing four goals all series. Meanwhile Quebec managed to give up a 3-1 series lead to the Royale before winning an emotional game 7 to advance to the Lewis Cup. In the Lewis Cup finals, Quebec managed to win game one in a 7-2 blowout. Game two was closer, going to double overtime with Chicago taking the win. the teams would split games 3 and 4 before Chicago would take a 3-2 series lead in game 5. The Nationale managed a big win in game 6 to force game 7 back home in Quebec thanks to a two goal preformance from Guy Benoit. Game seven would prove to be one of the most entertaining games in PHL history, with both teams trading leads until the game reached overtime. In overtime, Ben Williams finally scored for Quebec to give the Nationale their fourth Lewis Cup of the decade. It had been a very exciting year for the Nationale and the PHL, but the celebration would not last long before a shocking anouncement. Gerald Smythe was so furious at once again being shunned by the league, that while the playoffs consumed everyone's attention, he and the other rejected owners banded together to secretly start a major league of their own. In May, 1965, Smythe announced the founding of the Western Hockey Organization, which would amazingly begin play in the fall of 1965. The six-team league would include franchises in Vancouver, Calgary, San Francisco, Portland, Edmonton, and St. Louis. A draft would take place in early june to provide teams the opportunity to rob PHL teams of talent.

Standings:

American Division