1977-78 WHA season

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The 1977-78 WHA season was the sixth season of the now defunct World Hockey Association (WHA). Eight teams played 80 games each. The Avco World Trophy winner was the Winnipeg Jets.

Contents

With a reduction of 4 teams from the start of the previous season, the WHA abandoned its divisional format and grouped the remaining 8 teams together. 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 the semifinals. All series were best four-out-of-seven games.

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points

WHA Team GP W L T Pts GF GA PIM
Winnipeg Jets* 80 50 28 2 102 381 270 988
New England Whalers* 80 44 31 5 93 335 269 1255
Houston Aeros* 80 42 34 4 88 296 302 1543
Quebec Nordiques* 80 40 37 3 83 349 347 1185
Edmonton Oilers* 80 38 39 3 79 309 307 1296
Birmingham Bulls* 80 36 41 3 75 287 314 2177
Cincinnati Stingers 80 35 42 3 73 298 332 1701
Indianapolis Racers 80 24 51 5 53 267 353 1189

*qualified for playoffs

Quarterfinals

  • Winnipeg Jets defeated Birmingham Bulls, 4 games to 1
  • New England Whalers defeated Edmonton Oilers, 4 games to 1
  • Quebec Nordiques defeated Houston Aeros, 4 games to 2

Semifinals

  • New England Whalers defeated Quebec Nordiques, 4 games to 1

Championship

  • Winnipeg Jets defeated New England Whalers, 4 games to 0

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 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

Preceded by
1976-77 WHA season		 WHA seasons Succeeded by
1978-79 WHA season
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../1/9/7/1977-78_WHA_season_d232.html"
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