1920–21 Ottawa Senators season

1920–21 Ottawa Senators
Stanley Cup champions
O'Brien Cup winners
1920–21 record 8–2–0 (1st half)
6–8–0 (2nd half)
Home record 8–4–0
Road record 6–6–0
Goals for 97
Goals against 75
 Team information
General Manager Tommy Gorman
Coach Pete Green
Captain Eddie Gerard
Arena The Arena
Team leaders
Goals Cy Denneny (34)
Assists Jack McKell (10)
Points Cy Denneny (39)
Penalties in minutes Buck Boucher (43)
Wins Clint Benedict (14)
Goals against average Clint Benedict (3.08)
<1919–20 1921–22>

The 1920–21 Ottawa Senators season was the club's 36th season of play, fourth season in the NHL, and they were out to defend their 1920 Stanley Cup championship. The club would win the NHL championship and defeat Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Final to win the club's ninth Stanley Cup.

Regular season

Cy Denneny led the club offensively, scoring 34 goals, which was the 2nd highest total in the NHL, and his 39 points ranked him 3rd in the entire league. Denneny had a 6-goal game against the Hamilton Tigers on March 7.

Frank Nighbor had another great season with 18 goals, and Buck Boucher provided the team toughness, leading the club with 43 penalty minutes.

Clint Benedict also had a great season, earning 14 wins and a league best GAA of 3.08.

The team started the season 8–2–0 and won the 1st half of the season and a spot in the O'Brien Cup finals, but the Senators slumped to a 6–8–0 record in the second half leading to a playoff with the Toronto St. Patricks in a 2-game most goals series.

On December 30, 1920, the Senators were ordered to give up Sprague Cleghorn to Toronto, on the orders of the league. The league ruled that the Senators were over the total salary limit for players and Cleghorn was ordered to report to Toronto. The same day, the league ruled that Punch Broadbent would have to go to Hamilton to complete a trade made before the season, but not completed.[1] Both players refused to report to their new teams. Cleghorn eventually reported to Toronto, but returned to Ottawa in time to play in the playoffs. Broadbent resumed play for Ottawa in the second half of the season.

Final standings

First Half
GP W L T Pts GF GA
Ottawa Senators 10 8 2 0 16 49 23
Toronto St. Patricks 10 5 5 0 10 39 47
Montreal Canadiens 10 4 6 0 8 37 51
Hamilton Tigers 10 3 7 0 6 34 38
Second Half
GP W L T Pts GF GA
Toronto St. Patricks 14 10 4 0 20 66 53
Montreal Canadiens 14 9 5 0 18 75 48
Ottawa Senators 14 6 8 0 12 48 52
Hamilton Tigers 14 3 11 0 6 58 94

[2] Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Note: Teams that qualified for playoffs highlighted in bold.

Schedule and results

# Date Visitor Score Home Record Pts
1 December 22 Toronto St. Pats 3–6 Ottawa Senators 1–0–0 2
2 December 27 Hamilton Tigers 1–3 Ottawa Senators 2–0–0 4
3 December 29 Ottawa Senators 8–1 Toronto St. Pats 3–0–0 6
4 January 3 Montreal Canadiens 2–8 Ottawa Senators 4–0–0 8
5 January 6 Ottawa Senators 5–1 Hamilton Tigers 5–0–0 10
6 January 8 Ottawa Senators 4–5 Montreal Canadiens 5–1–0 10
7 January 12 Montreal Canadiens 0–2 Ottawa Senators 6–1–0 12
8 January 15 Ottawa Senators 5–2 Toronto St. Pats 7–1–0 14
9 January 19 Hamilton Tigers 3–4 Ottawa Senators 8–1–0 16
10 January 22 Toronto St. Pats 5–4 Ottawa Senators 8–2–0 16
11 January 26 Ottawa Senators 3–5 Montreal Canadiens 8–3–0 16
12 January 29 Ottawa Senators 2–1 Hamilton Tigers 9–3–0 18
13 February 2 Toronto St. Pats 3–4 Ottawa Senators 10–3–0 20
14 February 5 Ottawa Senators 7–3 Hamilton Tigers 11–3–0 22
15 February 9 Hamilton Tigers 4–7 Ottawa Senators 12–3–0 24
16 February 12 Montreal Canadiens 3–1 Ottawa Senators 12–4–0 24
17 February 16 Ottawa Senators 3–4 Toronto St. Pats 12–5–0 24
18 February 19 Ottawa Senators 1–8 Montreal Canadiens 12–6–0 24
19 February 23 Montreal Canadiens 3–1 Ottawa Senators 12–7–0 24
20 February 26 Ottawa Senators 2–4 Toronto St. Pats 12–8–0 24
21 February 28 Ottawa Senators 2–6 Hamilton Tigers 12–9–0 24
22 March 2 Toronto St. Pats 3–2 Ottawa Senators 12–10–0 24
23 March 5 Ottawa Senators 1–0 Montreal Canadiens 13–10–0 26
24 March 7 Hamilton Tigers 5–12 Ottawa Senators 14–10–0 28

Playoffs

In the NHL Championship, the Senators faced the Toronto St. Patricks in a 2-game total-goals series. The Senators, led by the strong goaltending of Clint Benedict, would win the series by a 7–0 score and face the Vancouver Millionaires in the 1921 Stanley Cup Finals.

Ottawa Senators 7, Toronto St. Pats 0

# Date Visitor Score Home Record
1 March 10 Toronto St. Pats 0–5 Ottawa Senators 1–0
2 March 14 Ottawa Senators 2–0 Toronto St. Pats 2–0

Ottawa Senators 3, Vancouver Millionaires 2

The series would take place in Vancouver, British Columbia at Denman Arena, and a record breaking crowd of 11,000 people would see the Millionaires win the first game 2–1 to take an early series lead. The Senators would rebound, winning the next 2 before Vancouver would tie the series up at 2 with a win in game 4. Then, for the 2nd straight year, the Senators would win the 5th and deciding game, winning the 1921 Stanley Cup, and became the first team since the 1912 and 1913 Quebec Bulldogs to win back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships.

All of the contests in the series, which went to the full five games, were decided by only one goal. The Millionaires won games one and four with victories of 2–1 and 3–2, respectively. The Senators were victorious in games two and three with 4–3 and 3–2 wins. Then in the fifth game, Jack Darragh scored both of Ottawa's goals in the 2–1 victory to clinch the Cup.

Darragh led the Senators in scoring with five goals during the series, while goaltender Clint Benedict only allowed just 12 goals in the five games, earning a 2.40 goals-against average.

# Date Visitor Score Home Record
1 March 21 Ottawa Senators 1–2 Vancouver Millionaires 0–1
2 March 24 Ottawa Senators 4–3 Vancouver Millionaires 1–1
3 March 28 Ottawa Senators 3–2 Vancouver Millionaires 2–1
4 March 31 Ottawa Senators 2–3 Vancouver Millionaires 2–2
5 April 4 Ottawa Senators 2–1 Vancouver Millionaires 3–2

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Player GP G A Pts PIM
Cy Denneny 24 34 5 39 10
Frank Nighbor 24 18 3 21 10
Jack Darragh 24 11 8 19 20
Buck Boucher 23 12 5 17 43
Eddie Gerard 24 11 4 15 18

Goaltending

Player GP TOI W L T GA SO GAA
Clint Benedict 24 1462 14 10 0 75 2 3.08

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Ottawa Senators 1921 Stanley Cup champions

Roster

  Centres
  Wingers
  Defencemen
  Goaltenders


  Coaching and administrative staff

Stanley Cup engraving

Just like the previous season, the Senators never engraved their name on the Cup for their 1921 championship. It was not until the trophy was redesigned in 1948 that the words "1921 Ottawa Senators" was put onto its then-new collar.

See also

References

  1. "This Should Help To Balance Race". The Globe. December 31, 1920. p. 12.
  2. Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al., eds. THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.