Always fun to see a new project! Looking forward to this!

It took a while to get the league going, but on November 20, 1925, the first game of the NIHA inaugural season was played as the president of NIHA, Paul Benjamin, watched the Toronto Pros beat the New York Mad Hatters 4-2. The Pros' top scorer, Maple Thomas, led the team with his first hat trick of the season. The next night, spectators witnessed a very competitive game between the Chicago Lancers and the Minnesota Nationals, which ended in a 5-5 tie. The Montreal Or Rouge was the top team in the league, thanks to John Giroux, Marc Dupont, and Etienne Rehnquist, who formed the league's most dominant line. Behind them were the Toronto Pros in second place, followed by the Minnesota Nationals in third, the Chicago Lynx in fourth, and the New York Mad Hatters in last place.

The playoff format features the top 4 teams, with the last-place team eliminated. The semi-final and final are both best-of-5-game series. In the semi-final, the OR Rouge wastes no time and beats the Lynx in three games, while the Nationals shock the league and end the Pros' season, and it took all five games to do it.
The battle between the Montreal Or Rouge and the Minnesota Nationals for the Alexander Cup. The Nationals played well, but it was not enough, as Or Rouge star Etienne Rehnquist scored six of the nine goals to go on and win it in three games, becoming the first Alexander Cup champions in NIHA history.


Next Post: 1926-27 Season

During the off-season, the Chicago Lynx acquired a new owner, Edward Elsbridge, a businessman from the west side of Chicago. After several failed attempts to purchase a professional baseball team, Edward was given the opportunity to buy the Lynx hockey team, and he took it, hoping to turn the team around. Many owners are planning an expansion, adding five more teams as it was supposed to have before the league’s inaugural season, but the NIHA president, Paul Benjaman, shot it down because he didn’t want to go through the same issues as the last time, and he said, “As long as I’m the NIHA president, we are not going to expand big number of teams and that’s that!”
The Minnesota Nationals finished first in the standings the hard way, experiencing some good winning streaks, but also endured a rough eight-game losing streak in the last ten games of the season, led by their top player, Victor Tillman, who had been playing amateur leagues for years until he got on the Nats roster and became the first player in NIHA history to reach 100 points (32 goals, 68 assists) one of big success that any player could pull off. The Toronto Pros had the opportunity to take first place, but that plan backfired after losing the last four games to both New York and Chicago. For the second year in a row, the Montreal Or Rouge finished in third place, losing players from the 1910s to retirements, which means a rebuild is on the way. From first to fourth, the New York Mad Hatters lost a significant portion of their roster as they fought for the last playoff spot, particularly in the last game of the season, where they defeated Chicago 3-1 to secure fourth place. Even though they had youth on the roster, it didn’t help the Lynx get themselves out of the bottom of the barrel. However, they scored 21 points, four more than last season.

1928 Playoffs
The Minnesota Nationals took out the Mad Hatters in three games without issues, with Nats' rookie Victor Tillman leading the way with 10 goals within those three games. It was a back-and-forth series between the Pros and the Or Rouge all the way to game five, where both were tied 4-4 after the third period. Five minutes left in overtime; Maple Thomas scored the game-winner for a series win and a trip to the Alexander Cup Championship for the Toronto Pros.

Alexander Cup Championship
The Minnesota Nationals made no mistakes; they made the right plays and shut down the Pros' offence in many ways. And so, as game three came to an end, the Nationals celebrated as they became the first American pro hockey team to win the Alexander Cup in the trophy's existence. Victor Tillman had one of the best seasons in his hockey career. Sadly, one month after winning the Cup, Victor got into a car accident that paralyzed him and ended his career.

Next Post: 1928-29 Season

Last edited by AJHFTW (7/25/2026 6:01 pm)

Uniform changes: Both Toronto and Minnesota changed their pants colours.

Tragedy hit the league during the off-season as Paul Benjamin, the NIHA's first president, suffered another heart attack and died at the age of 85. Paul was also the president of the defunct THL before NIHA was established. The owners held an emergency meeting, voted, and named Jack Haultraugh the NIHA’s new president.

The first move Jack made as the new president was to approve the addition of five more teams to the league, scheduled for this season. However, things didn’t go as planned due to financial issues in Nova Scotia, Boston, Quebec City, and London (Ontario). Detroit is the only one ready to go, but Jack told the owner, Ryan Troy, to hold off at least until next season, so he and the other 4 owners can resolve their financial issues.

Toronto continues where it left off, winning 24 of 32 games. It was a successful season for the Pros, and many fans believe another Alexander Cup title is on the horizon. The Chicago Lynx may get 19 wins instead of 20, but it was enough to finish second. Rat Robinson was on a pointless streak midway into the season, but he snapped out of it and started scoring and helped the Mad Hatters finish third place. Problems have arisen in Minnesota; after losing Victor Tillman two years ago, they now lost Harold Orton, suffering an injury early into the season, came back only to struggle through the rest of the season to the point that Harold saw writing on the wall for himself and chose to call it a career, leaving the Nats finishing fourth place and no top star heading into the playoffs. Just like last season, Montreal hit rock bottom, and they couldn’t even keep players without offers that made them walk away, and that’s where Jonathon Laflamme fired the manager, Jack Levis and hired Matthew Hebert, who pretty much tore the roster down and rebuilt from the ground up, signing a young defenceman named Lewis John but there’s a problem he’s from Quebec City many don’t like seeing a QC player in the Or Rouge uniform.

1930 Playoffs

For the second time since losing the Alexander Cup in 1928, the Toronto Pros took out the Nationals, this time within three games, led by Maple Thomas, who scored most of that series. It was a back-and-forth series, but New York’s Rat Robinson scored a hat trick per game, in game five, he scored a hat trick, making him the first player in NIHA history to score a hat trick in each game of the 5-game series, which helped the Mad Hatters win the series to head back to the Alexander Cup.

1930 Alexander Cup Championship

For the first time, not just in the NIHA but also in the history of the Alexander Cup championship, there is a back-to-back match-up between two teams. Toronto Pros believed they had this series in hand, but the New York Mad Hatters got Rat Robinson leading the way, scoring goals to win the series in 4 games, and the New York Mad Hatters are the 1930 Alexander Cup champions.

Next Post: 1930-31 Season

Last edited by AJHFTW (8/09/2026 3:46 pm)

ZO82 wrote:

I thought Minnesota was the 1st American Team to win

You are correct; my bad on that one. Let's just say my autocorrect was being a pain, and I didn't see it well enough; thanks for catching the error.

New Teams
As Detroit prepares for its inaugural season, the four other teams have made some changes, mostly by moving elsewhere. One owner of the Nova Scotia team couldn’t make enough money to start a season, so he sold the team to Matthew Brown, who moved it to Moncton, New Brunswick, and named it the Brown Bears. John Lewiston, the owner of the London team, couldn’t get the arena built, so he moved the team to Cleveland, where it became the Cleveland Otters. An owner in Quebec City had issues with the city not building an arena for him, so he sold it to George Prince, took the team to Winnipeg, and called them the Winnipeg Northmen. James Lake had a team ready in Boston, but the city declined his request to place it there because of a change in the mayor's office. So, just like the other three teams, he moved his team to Pittsburgh and called them the Pittsburgh Iron.
Jersey changes
• With new teams entering the league, the Chicago Lynx add a white uniform to their set, and the logo shrinks a bit.
• The Nats add white uniforms to their set.
• Or Rouge got themselves a white uniform set to go along with their current set.
• Being no longer the only team wearing white jerseys, the Mad Hatters add a dark jersey in red, a rare thing to happen in New York sports.
• With the word that a new team was wearing blue, the Toronto Pros quickly put together a white version of their current dark jersey, but they had plans to make a grey jersey set, but it didn’t happen.
• The New Brunswick Brown Bears got lots of stripes on both dark and light jerseys.
• The Cleveland Otters jersey is red with cream stripes and red pants.
• Detroit Speed got a red jersey with black cuffs and a black hem with the “speed” in front of the jersey and black pants, not to be confused with the Otters set.
• A blue jersey with gold and grey letter P for the Pittsburgh Iron.
• Winnipeg Northmen’s jersey is maroon with gold stripes on the arms.

Season Summary
The 1930-31 season began with a bang for the five new teams, with the Detroit Speed getting their first-ever win over the New York Mad Hatters 3-2, the next night, the Pittsburgh Iron won their game over the Winnipeg Northmen 4-2, the Northmen head back home two nights later to win their first home game over the Lancers 3-2, Cleveland Otters got their first win at home over the Speed 2-1, and finally it took ten games but the New Brunswick Brown Bears got their first win over the Toronto Pros 5-2.
The Toronto Pros took first place with a 28-6-2 record, one of the highest win totals in NIHA history. Taking second place is the Chicago Lynx, thanks to their top player, David Boweville, and a young player named Ryan Everett, who scored 23 goals and 55 points, not bad for an 18-year-old hockey player. The 1930 Alexander Cup Champ, New York Mad Hatters, had a good start early in the season, but after losing to Detroit Speed, they had a 10-game losing streak until finally snapping it with a win over the Northmen and finished the last 10 games with 8-1-1, and won enough to take third place. With losing so many players, the Minnesota Nationals are in a rough spot, but during the offseason, they signed forward Nick Watertown from Two Harbors, MN, who made a name for himself with 32 goals and 58 assists with a total of 90 points pretty well performance for an 18-year-old, they also got goalie Isaac Cheevers, a 20-year-old from Ely, MN who been a almost a brick wall with a 15-12-5 within 32 games but zero shutouts making him the first goalie in NIHA history to go through a 30 plus game season without a shutout, with these two key players the Nats finished fourth. Finally, after two disappointing seasons, the Or Rouge improved with the addition of a new defensive player from Quebec City. Lewis John has been giving some forwards from other teams a hard time with the bad news that they finish fifth, but the good news is that they finish fifth and are headed to the playoffs. The Detroit Speed had one of the best first years among the five new teams, thanks to the signing of the Pepper brothers: Luke on defence and Duke in net. The Speed finished sixth. Pittsburgh Iron made an impact on the league by signing future big-time player Greg Washington, who had only 15 goals, 21 assists, and 36 points at 17 years old —not bad. Also, they signed John Hallock after three years with the Mad Hatters, hoping that he would get better pay after winning the Alexander Cup, but the Mad Hatters would not give him what he was worth, so he signed with Pittsburgh, which gave him a better offer that would give the Iron a seventh-place finish. The battle for eighth place between Cleveland and New Brunswick was a back-and-forth, but in the end, the Otters won the season series over the Bears 2-1-1 in four games, as Cleveland heads to the playoffs while the Brown Bears' season ended. Taking last place is the Winnipeg Northmen; their roster is mostly youth, with none over 25 years old, including 19-year-old goalie Kevin Vaughan, who won just six of 30 games.


1931 NHIA Playoffs
Two days before the 1931 playoffs began, the Brown Bears were about to pack their stuff for the off-season when their head coach came in and told the team to get on the rink to practice because they’re going to the playoffs. The reason is that the Cleveland Otters owner, John Lewiston, ran out of money at the end of the season, couldn’t pay his players for the playoffs and had no other choice but to suspend operations for good. The Brown Bears finished with the same record as the Otters and claimed the 8th playoff spot.
The first round caught everyone off guard. The New Brunswick Brown Bears found a new life in a big way, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NIHA history over Toronto in four games. It took four games for the Chicago Lynx to take out the Pittsburgh Iron. The New York Mad Hatters swept the Detroit Speed in three games. Both Minnesota and Montreal went back and forth all the way to game five, where Montreal won it in a big way, with Lewis John scoring a game-winner.
The second round got wilder than the first round. The Chicago Lynx became another victim of the Brown Bears in four games, and it took New York four games just to beat Montreal and reach the Alexander Cup Finals.

1931 Alexander Cup Championship
The first two games were blowouts as the Mad Hatters won 8-1 and 10-1 over the Brown Bears, leading them to believe game three would be another championship clincher. However, the Brown Bears got their butterflies out of their stomachs by beating the Mad Hatters 3-2, with Jack Ranger scoring three goals for that win. In game four, Jack scored three goals again for a 3-2 win to even the series two games apiece. Game five is all-or-nothing for both teams. New York had a lot of shots at the net, but the Brown Bears found a way to put pucks in the net, thanks to Jack scoring three goals for a 3-0 win over the Mad Hatters, and the New Brunswick Brown Bears are the 1931 Alexander Cup Champions, and to make things more interesting the Brown Bears are the first team to win the championship with the highest goals against average in NIHA history.

Last edited by AJHFTW (8/09/2026 4:14 pm)