The Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament would see Canada’s (and the World’s) elite hockey clubs play for supremacy between 1883 and 1889. The MWC Tournament was the first ever organized ice hockey tournament that lead to the creation of the first ice hockey league, making the MWC Tournament the direct predecessor to the AHAC for historical and statistical purposes.
The Tournament helped establish Ice Hockey through the following important events:
- First organized inter-city ice hockey competition, establishing Montreal as the premier ice hockey city in 1883.
- First international ice hockey tournament when Tournament was moved to Vermont, USA for one year in 1886.
- The top tournament teams went on to form first ice hockey league in 1887.
- Canada’s Governor General Lord Stanley was inspired by watching MWC Tournament play in 1889 to the point that he considered donating a Championship Cup to Canada’s top hockey teams. He would later donate the Stanley Cup in 1893, ten years after the Tournament was established.
Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament Summary:
| Year | Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament Location | Champion | # of Teams |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1883 | St. Lawrence River | McGill University | 3 |
| 1884 | McGill University’s Rink | Montreal Victorias | 5 |
| 1885 | Montreal Crystals’ Rink | Montreal Hockey Club | 5 |
| 1886 | Cancelled due to smallpox epidemic* | Montreal Hockey Club |
3 |
| 1887 | Various Rinks | Montreal Hockey Club | 4 |
| 1888 | Cancelled due to AHAC | none | nil |
| 1889 | Montreal Victorias’ Rink | Montreal Victorias | 4 |
* Tournament played in Vermont, USA.
Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament Cumulative Standings:
| Team | TGP | TW | TL | TT | TGF | TGA | TW/TP |
| Montreal Victorias | 11 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 2/4 |
| Montreal Hockey Club | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 2/3 |
| McGill University | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 23 | 1/5 |
| Ottawa Hockey Club | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 0/2 |
| Montreal Crystals | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 0/4 |
| Quebec Hockey Club | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0/1 |
| Montreal Wanderers | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0/1 |
| Montreal Football Club | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0/1 |
TW = Tournaments Won / TP = Tournaments Played
Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament Cumulative Championship Points
| Championships to 1889 Montreal Winter Carnival Tournament (Final) |
||
| Team | # of MWC Championships | MWC Championship Points |
| Montreal Hockey Club | 3 (1885-87) | 8 |
| Montreal Victorias | 2 (1884,89) | 7 |
| McGill University | 1 (1883) | 2 |
Al Young is a sports stats enthusiast and budding web designer. He loves how hockey history created legends and wanted to combine that with how hockey stats can be tell stories as well. IceHockeyLeagues.com is another web site dedicated to the FanSeeStats.com group of 'stats-as-stories' web properties.
Latest posts by Al Young (see all)
- Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, 1905 - December 17, 2017
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