1977–78 WHA season
1977–78 WHA season | |
---|---|
League | World Hockey Association |
Sport | Ice hockey |
Regular season | |
Top scorer | Marc Tardif (Quebec) |
Avco World Trophy | |
Champions | Winnipeg Jets |
Runners-up | New England Whalers |
The 1977–78 WHA season was the sixth season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Eight teams played 80 games each. The Avco World Trophy winner was the Winnipeg Jets.
League business[]
With a reduction of 3 teams from the end of the previous season (the San Diego Mariners, Phoenix Roadrunners, and Calgary Cowboys folded), the WHA abandoned its divisional format and grouped the remaining 8 teams together. There had been a tentative merger agreement that would have had Cincinnati, Houston, New England, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Edmonton join the NHL but it could not be finalized.
In a unique move, two international All-Star teams, the Soviet All-Stars and Czechoslovakia All-Stars, played games that counted in the regular season standings. They played each WHA team once, on the WHA team's home ice. The Soviet team acquitted themselves well, winning three plus two additional games against WHA teams outside the regular standings, tying one and losing the other four; while the Czechoslovakian team only won once and tied once, losing six. This is the first time International teams competed in regular season competition in a major professional sports league in North America; those two teams as well as a Finnish team would come back to play the WHA teams the next year.
The best six teams qualified for the playoffs. However, instead of the standard schedule for a six-team playoff (i.e., giving the 1st and 2nd place teams byes into the semifinals, with the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams opening in the quarterfinals), the WHA came up with a unique twist. There were three quarterfinal series instead of two, with the teams paired top to bottom (i.e., 1st vs. 6th, 2nd vs. 5th, 3rd vs. 4th). The highest-seeded quarterfinal winner then received a semifinal bye and advanced directly to the finals, while the remaining two quarterfinal series winners played off in a single semifinal. All series were best four-out-of-seven games.
Regular season[]
The Howe family of Gordie and his sons Mark and Marty moved to the New England Whalers from the Houston Aeros. The trio helped the Whalers to the Avco Cup final.
Final standings[]
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
WHA Team | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | PIM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winnipeg Jets | 50 | 28 | 2 | 102 | 381 | 270 | 988 |
New England Whalers | 44 | 31 | 5 | 93 | 335 | 269 | 1255 |
Houston Aeros | 42 | 34 | 4 | 88 | 296 | 302 | 1543 |
Quebec Nordiques | 40 | 37 | 3 | 83 | 349 | 347 | 1185 |
Edmonton Oilers | 38 | 39 | 3 | 79 | 309 | 307 | 1296 |
Birmingham Bulls | 36 | 41 | 3 | 75 | 287 | 314 | 2177 |
Cincinnati Stingers | 35 | 42 | 3 | 73 | 298 | 332 | 1701 |
Indianapolis Racers | 24 | 51 | 5 | 53 | 267 | 353 | 1189 |
Soviet All-Stars | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 27 | 36 | 120 |
Czechoslovakia All-Stars | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 40 | 87 |
Player stats[]
Scoring leaders[]
Bolded numbers indicate season leaders
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marc Tardif | Quebec Nordiques | 78 | 65 | 89 | 154 | 50 |
Real Cloutier | Quebec Nordiques | 73 | 56 | 73 | 129 | 19 |
Ulf Nilsson | Winnipeg Jets | 73 | 37 | 89 | 126 | 89 |
Anders Hedberg | Winnipeg Jets | 77 | 63 | 59 | 122 | 60 |
Bobby Hull | Winnipeg Jets | 77 | 46 | 71 | 117 | 23 |
Andre Lacroix | Houston Aeros | 78 | 36 | 77 | 113 | 57 |
Robbie Ftorek | Cincinnati Stingers | 80 | 59 | 50 | 109 | 54 |
Kent Nilsson | Winnipeg Jets | 80 | 42 | 65 | 107 | 8 |
Gordie Howe | New England Whalers | 76 | 34 | 62 | 96 | 85 |
Mark Howe | New England Whalers | 70 | 30 | 61 | 91 | 32 |
Leading goaltenders[]
Bolded numbers indicate season leaders
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
Player | Team | GP | Min | W | L | T | GA | SO | SV% | GAA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Al Smith | New England Whalers | 55 | 3246 | 30 | 20 | 3 | 174 | 2 | 88.5 | 3.22 |
Joe Daley | Winnipeg Jets | 37 | 2075 | 21 | 11 | 1 | 114 | 1 | 88.3 | 3.30 |
Gary Bromley | Winnipeg Jets | 39 | 2252 | 25 | 12 | 1 | 124 | 1 | 88.6 | 3.30 |
Jean-Louis Levasseur | New England Whalers | 27 | 1655 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 91 | 3 | 88.6 | 3.30 |
Ernie Wakely | Cincinnati – Houston | 57 | 3381 | 28 | 23 | 4 | 192 | 2 | 89.1 | 3.41 |
All-Star Game[]
The 1978 WHA All-Star game pitted the defending champion Quebec Nordiques against the stars from the remaining WHA teams. The game was played on 17 January 1978, in Quebec City, and attracted 6,413 spectators. The Nordiques, coached by Marc Boileau, won the game 5–4. Marc Tardif and Mark Howe were named the players of the game.
Playoffs[]
Bracket[]
Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||
2 | New England Whalers | 4 | 1 | Winnipeg Jets | 4 | ||||||||
5 | Edmonton Oilers | 1 | 6 | Birmingham Bulls | 1 | ||||||||
1 | Winnipeg Jets | 4 | |||||||||||
2 | New England Whalers | 0 | |||||||||||
3 | Houston Aeros | 2 | 2 | New England Whalers | 4 | ||||||||
4 | Quebec Nordiques | 4 | 4 | Quebec Nordiques | 1 |
Avco World Cup playoffs[]
Quarterfinals[]
New England Whalers 4, Edmonton Oilers 1
Game | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Series |
1 | April 14 | Edmonton Oilers | 4–6 | New England Whalers | 1–0 |
2 | April 16 | Edmonton Oilers | 1–4 | New England Whalers | 2–0 |
3 | April 19 | New England Whalers | 0–2 | Edmonton Oilers | 2–1 |
4 | April 21 | New England Whalers | 9–1 | Edmonton Oilers | 3–1 |
5 | April 23 | Edmonton Oilers | 1–4 | New England Whalers | 4–1 |
Quebec Nordiques 4, Houston Aeros 2
# | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Record |
1 | April 16 | Quebec Nordiques | 3–4 | Houston Aeros | 0–1 |
2 | April 18 | Quebec Nordiques | 5–4 | Houston Aeros | 1–1 |
3 | April 20 | Houston Aeros | 1–5 | Quebec Nordiques | 2–1 |
4 | April 21 | Houston Aeros | 0–3 | Quebec Nordiques | 3–1 |
5 | April 23 | Quebec Nordiques | 2–5 | Houston Aeros | 3–2 |
6 | April 25 | Houston Aeros | 2–11 | Quebec Nordiques | 4–2 |
Winnipeg Jets 4, Birmingham Bulls 1
# | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Record |
1 | April 14 | Birmingham Bulls | 3–9 | Winnipeg Jets | 1–0 |
2 | April 16 | Birmingham Bulls | 3–8 | Winnipeg Jets | 2–0 |
3 | April 19 | Winnipeg Jets | 2–3 | Birmingham Bulls | 2–1 |
4 | April 21 | Winnipeg Jets | 5–1 | Birmingham Bulls | 3–1 |
5 | April 23 | Birmingham Bulls | 2–5 | Winnipeg Jets | 4–1 |
Semifinals[]
The top ranked quarterfinal winner (Winnipeg) received a bye into the finals.
New England Whalers 4, Quebec Nordiques 1
Game | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Series |
1 | April 28 | Quebec Nordiques | 1–5 | New England Whalers | 1–0 |
2 | April 30 | Quebec Nordiques | 3–2 | New England Whalers | 1–1 |
3 | May 3 | New England Whalers | 5–4 | Quebec Nordiques | 2–1 |
4 | May 5 | New England Whalers | 7–3 | Quebec Nordiques | 3–1 |
5 | May 7 | Quebec Nordiques | 3–6 | New England Whalers | 4–1 |
Avco Cup Finals[]
Winnipeg Jets 4, New England Whalers 0
# | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Record |
1 | May 12 | New England Whalers | 1–4 | Winnipeg Jets | 1–0 |
2 | May 14 | New England Whalers | 2–5 | Winnipeg Jets | 2–0 |
3 | May 19 | Winnipeg Jets | 10–2 | New England Whalers | 3–0 |
4 | May 22 | Winnipeg Jets | 5–3 | New England Whalers | 4–0 |
WHA awards[]
Trophies[]
Avco World Trophy: | Winnipeg Jets |
Gordie Howe Trophy: | Marc Tardif, Quebec Nordiques |
Bill Hunter Trophy: | Marc Tardif, Quebec Nordiques |
Lou Kaplan Trophy: | Kent Nilsson, Winnipeg Jets |
Ben Hatskin Trophy: | Al Smith, New England Whalers |
Dennis A. Murphy Trophy: | Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Winnipeg Jets |
Paul Deneau Trophy: | Dave Keon, New England Whalers |
Robert Schmertz Memorial Trophy: | Bill Dineen, Houston Aeros |
WHA Playoff MVP: | Robert Guindon, Winnipeg Jets |
All-Star Team[]
Position | First Team | Second Team |
---|---|---|
Centre | Ulf Nilsson, Winnipeg | Robbie Ftorek, Cincinnati |
Right Wing | Anders Hedberg, Winnipeg | Real Cloutier, Quebec |
Left Wing | Marc Tardif, Quebec | Bobby Hull, Winnipeg |
Defence | Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Winnipeg | Rick Ley, New England |
Defence | Al Hamilton, Edmonton | Barry Long, Winnipeg |
Goaltender | Al Smith, New England | Ernie Wakely, Houston |
See also[]
References[]
- 1977–78 WHA season
- 1977–78 in American ice hockey by league
- 1977–78 in Canadian ice hockey by league
- World Hockey Association seasons
- 1977–78 in Czechoslovak ice hockey
- 1977–78 in Soviet ice hockey