United States National Hockey League

It formed in January 1918 after the American Amateur Hockey League, in which New York and Boston teams had previously participated, failed to survive the player shortages of World War I.

[2] The Pittsburgh Athletic Association won its first ten games to clinch the league title.

[3] The team thus earned the right to face the holders of the Art Ross Cup in a three-game international championship series.

Pittsburgh defeated the Montreal Hochelaga club in that series to claim a new honor called the Fellowes International Trophy.

[4][5] At one point during the season, the league's governing body, the International Skating Union of America, was hopeful that the circuit would not only return for the following winter but also expand to Cleveland, Detroit, and possibly Chicago and New Haven.