1965-66

Season Summary:

1965-66 would prove to be a very eventful year for the PHL. Ed Norman announced it would be his last season as league president, the Lewis Cup underwent some cosmetic changes, adding another block to hold more team names, And for the first time ever, there was a rival league to contend with, the Western Hockey Organization. During the summer, the six-team WHO had already robbed a few PHL teams of star players. David Zimmer signed with a team in San Francisco, while Will Pratt, who never heard of the new league until it's Calgary franchise drafted him, decided in the end to give it a shot, partly due to frustration with his struggling Hamilton Kings. Montreal star Tommy Cooper had been selected by St. Louis and even signed with the team before the PHL and the Royale stepped in. The PHL filed a lawsuit against the WHO and the defected players, stating that the league was tampering with it's business and that the players were not honouring their PHL contracts. In September, just as the season was about to begin, an arbitrator ruled that the PHL clubs could retain their players as long as they could match the WHO offers. Montreal immediately matched St. Louis' offer to Tommy Cooper, keeping him in Montreal for one more year. The cash-strapped Bulls and Kings, however, where not so lucky. Neither team could afford to match the offers given to their star players and David Zimmer and Will Pratt were free to join the new league. On the ice, both teams felt the effects. Hamilton finished dead last in the league once again with only 13 victories, while Buffalo won only 29 games and once again finished outside the American Division playoff picture. In Montreal Tommy Cooper struggled, dissatisfied with his situation and angry that St. Louis didn't work out, he scored only 21 goals, a career low. despite this, Montreal still managed to finish in third place and secure a playoff spot. Quebec once again dominated the Canadian Division, winning 57 games to claim the top spot, but the regular season belonged to Detroit, who once again finished 1st overall in the league with Andy Reid having a big year with 55 goals. Strong play from Micheal McArdle in net pushed the Redshirts back into the playoffs despite losing Ted Mulroney to the WHO. Rookie Gill Parsons proved to be a more than adequate replacement for Mulroney. Chicago finally found themselves near the top again with Don Sims finally breaking out with 37 goals.

As the playoffs began, Montreal looked to be in over their heads with several players under-preforming. However they seemed to catch fire as the first round began, upsetting Toronto in 7 games. Quebec made pretty short work of Ottawa to set up a battle-of-Quebec Canadian Division Final. Meanwhile, in the American Division, the rejuvenated Shamrocks quickly dispatched Boston, while Detroit had a surprising struggle against Philadelphia, falling behind 3-2 to the Redshirts before winning the next two in a row to take the series. In the Division final, the Mustangs again found themselves down, this time 3 games to 1. When it appeared Chicago was headed back to the Lewis Cup finals for the second straight season, Don Banks scored a hat-trick in game 5, while Andy Reid scored a hat-trick of his own in game 6 to force a game 7. After giving up the first goal in game 7, the Mustangs tied it late in the first period and never looked back, winning game seven 6-1. In the Canadian Final, Montreal continued their momentum against the Nationale, upsetting their hated rivals in a close, hard-fought seven game series. Detroit seemed to run out of gas during the Lewis Cup Championship, winning game 1 but losing the next three. After coming from behind in the previous two rounds, most fans believed that their team would pull it off again. However, the Mustangs had tempted fate a little too much this time. Guy Duponte scored in overtime for Montreal to kill any hopes for a Detroit comeback. For the first time in their 27-year history in the PHL, the Montreal Royale were finally Lewis Cup Champions.

Standings:

Playoffs: