1968-69

The fall of 1968 began with PHL President Alan Garcia announcing the largest expansion in league history. In a year, six teams from the rival Global Hockey League would be joining the PHL, bringing the league to 20 teams. During the 1968-69 season, several teams saw improvement thanks largely to the results of the first-ever amatuer draft. The New York Civics moved up to 5th place in the American Division, just five games out of a playoff position, thanks in large part to 2nd overall pick Freddie Huff. Despite the hype surrounding Buffalo and their new franchise player Brian Hunt, the Bulls barely improved on their 1968 record, once again finishing last in the American Division. On ice failure was becoming the least of the Bulls' concerns, however, as the team's financial issues continued to mount. In February, owner Bill Ryan announced he was selling the team. Speculation immediately began about relocation, especially when well-known Denver Millionaire Mark Kirkpatrick began to show interest in the franchise. Kirkpatrick had been attempting to land a PHL franchise in Denver since the league began expanding to the west and clearly had no intention of keeping the club in western New York. If a better suitor was not found, 1969-70 would likely be the Bulls' final season in Buffalo. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Fred Garfield Jr began to seriously regret ignoring his father's advice concerning goaltender Bobby Sorel. While the young Shamrocks missed the playoffs, Sorel found his game once again, leading the Lumberjacks to a third place finish. In the Canadian Division, Ottawa found themselves back in the playoffs, while the once-powerful Quebec Nationale once again dropped out of the playoffs as age continued to catch up to them. Nova Scotia enjoyed their best regular season yet, finishing second in the Division.

Entering the post-season, the obvious Lewis Cup favorite was the defending champion Montreal Royale, who had finished 1st overall in the league. The Royale would face the Ottawa Beavers, who barely reached the playoffs. Ottawa stunned Montreal, however, winning the first two games in Montreal. The Royale responded with a win in Ottawa in game 3, but found themselves unbelievably facing elimination after losing game 4. After winning a face-saver in game 5, the Royale gave up a two goal lead in game 6 as the Beavers completed one of the biggest upsets in history. In other first-round action, Nova Scotia avenged their loss to Toronto the previous year, defeating the Racers in 6 games, the Boston Bulldogs made fairly short work of the their aging arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Redshirts, while it took 7 games for the Detroit Mustangs to put away Bobby Sorel and the emerging powerhouse Minnesota Lumberjacks. In the second round, Detroit rode the momentum of their victory over Minnesota to a 4-1 upset over Boston, while Nova Scotia skated to a fairly easy 5 game victory over Ottawa in the battle of '59 expansion clubs to advance to the Lewis Cup finals for the second time in franchise history. In the finals, it appeared the Claymores would win their second title after winning game one 3-0. The Mustangs found their game in game 2 however and never looked back, winning the series and claiming their second cup in 5 games.

Standings:

Round 1

Round 2

Lewis Cup Finals