UHL - Fictional hockey league - 1920/21 season

[Niiklaz]

Introduction
The year is 1919 and hockey is increasing more and more in popularity, not just Canada but in the states aswell. There are a bunch of small hockey Leagues scattered around Canada and the northern parts of the u.s. There is no major League where the very best teams can match up against each other, partially because the is no league that coveres a larger geographical area. The owners of two of the most eminent Canadian teams, Toronto Ontarians and Ottawa Speed, seeked out to form a league with the very best teams around, hoping to get some good match up and to attract more people to their games. After many meetings and discussions the it was officially announced that the UHL - The Universal Hockey League - was going to have it´s inaugural season in the late fall of 1920. The teams that were going to participate were:
-Toronto Ontarians
-Ottawa Speed
-Rochester Nationals
-Hamilton Hammers

Having a League mixed with canadian and american teams had never been done before which which both intrigued and made people raise their eyebrows.

[Niiklaz]

1920

Toronto Ontarians
Founded back in 1912, the Ontarians is the oldest and most "pre-UHL" succesful team compared to the other three teams. Toronto is the biggest city and the capital city of Ontario and that´s exactly what they want to be seen like; the representans of Ontario, hence the name Ontarians .

Ottawa Speed
Owned by a rich businessman and is one of the two biggest teams in Ottawa. The name Speed comes from their vision of how to play hockey.

Rochester Americans
Being the top team in their state and being close to the canadian border, they took the chance(and risk) of joining the canadian teams in the UHL in order to test their ability. Being the only american team in the league, the name Americans fits well.

Hamilton Hammers
Founded by industrial workers. With hard work both on and of the ice in order to make their team flourish, they got the other team´s attention and got asked to join the UHL. They don´t have much of an economy and accepted the League invitation partly with the hopes of changing that.

[Niiklaz]

1920
UHL´s inaugural season started in the late autumn of 1920. It was decided that each team would play against each other 4 times, 2 home games and 2 away games, giving each team a total of 12 games. The top 2 teams would then play against each other in a final where the winner of that game would be crowned champions.

There were two favourites to win beforehand; Toronto Ontarians and Ottawa Speed. The latter played well throughout the season with several of their young players stepping forward. Ottawa´s two most outstanding players were the two youngsters in the first line, Gerald Odell(20 yrs) and Harold Archer(19 yes), who managed to score 25 and 29 points each, helping Ottawa ending up in first place.
The Americans suprised many in a positive way when they managed to claim 2nd Place which took them to the finals. Their star defender, Harry Mora, scored impressive 14 goals and got a total of 30 points which was the second best in League.
The most Points was scored by the Hammers star forward, Ernest Hartley, who single handedly won games for his team with a crazy total of 23 goals and 21 assists.
The Ontarians dissapointing season was due to a flawed defence who let in way to many goals. What´s positive is that their roster is full of Young players with their best seasons ahead of them.

Standings - 1920/21 regular season
1. Ottawa Speed

2. Rochester Americans

3. Hamilton Hammers

4. Toronto Ontarians

The final was a close one for almost the full game. Ottawa took the lead in the 4th minute and managed to keep that lead for the rest of the game. After scoring two goals with two minutes left to play, the score ended up being 5-3 and Ottawa Speed got crowned as the first ever Winners of the UHL.

UHL FINAL
Ottawa Speed 5-3 Rochester Americans