1907 ECAHA season

The Montreal Wanderers lost the Stanley Cup to the Kenora Thistles of the Manitoba Hockey Association mid-season, but went undefeated in the regular season to win the league championship.

They proceeded to defeat Kenora in a two-game total goals series to win back the Cup.

Prior to the season, Ottawa travelled to Winnipeg for a series of exhibition games against Manitoba league teams including the Kenora Thistles, who then came east to play a challenge in Montreal.

[1] The Montreal Victorias hosted the St. Nicholas Hockey Club from New York in an exhibition on December 22, 1906, defeating them 16–3.

After the game, a special league meeting was called to hand out discipline, with Victorias and Wanderers wanting Spittal and Alf Smith suspended for the season.

The Wanderers played one Stanley Cup challenge before the season, defeating the New Glasgow Cubs in a two-game series 10–3, 7–2, December 27–29, 1906.

This was the first series in which professional players played for the Stanley Cup, as the Wanderers and other teams in the ECAHA were starting to mix amateurs with pros in their squads.

Montreal Wanderers won the ECAHA regular-season champions and challenged to regain the Stanley Cup.

So a best of three game series was upset to see who the Manitoba League Champion and who defended the cup again the Montreal Wanderers.

Kenora signed three players to bolster its team: Alf Smith and Rat Westwick of Ottawa, and Fred Whitcroft of Peterborough to finish the season.

By the time of the MPHL playoff, Stanley Cup trustee William Foran notified Kenora that Smith and Westwick were ineligible for the challenge.

Foran was notified by the press (inaccurately) that Montreal had dropped its protest and that the clubs intended to play anyway.

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.”[9]The teams went ahead and played the series.