1920–21 Ottawa Senators season

The 1920–21 Ottawa Senators season was the club's 36th season of play, fourth season in the NHL, and they were out to defend their 1920 Stanley Cup championship. The club would win the NHL championship and defeat Vancouver in the Stanley Cup Final to win the club's ninth Stanley Cup.

Regular season

Cy Denneny led the club offensively, scoring 34 goals, which was the 2nd highest total in the NHL, and his 39 points ranked him 3rd in the entire league. Denneny had a 6-goal game against the Hamilton Tigers on March 7.

Frank Nighbor had another great season with 18 goals, and Buck Boucher provided the team toughness, leading the club with 43 penalty minutes.

Clint Benedict also had a great season, earning 14 wins and a league best GAA of 3.08.

The team started the season 8–2–0 and won the 1st half of the season and a spot in the O'Brien Cup finals, but the Senators slumped to a 6–8–0 record in the second half leading to a playoff with the Toronto St. Patricks in a 2-game most goals series.

On December 30, 1920, the Senators were ordered to give up Sprague Cleghorn to Toronto, on the orders of the league. The league ruled that the Senators were over the total salary limit for players and Cleghorn was ordered to report to Toronto. The same day, the league ruled that Punch Broadbent would have to go to Hamilton to complete a trade made before the season, but not completed.^[1] Both players refused to report to their new teams. Cleghorn eventually reported to Toronto, but returned to Ottawa in time to play in the playoffs. Broadbent resumed play for Ottawa in the second half of the season.

Final standings

First Half
	GP	W	L	Pts	GF	GA
Ottawa Senators	10	8	2	16	49	23
Toronto St. Patricks	10	5	5	10	39	47
Montreal Canadiens	10	4	6	8	37	51
Hamilton Tigers	10	3	7	6	34	38

Second Half
	GP	W	L	Pts	GF	GA
Toronto St. Patricks	14	10	4	20	66	53
Montreal Canadiens	14	9	5	18	75	48
Ottawa Senators	14	6	8	12	48	52
Hamilton Tigers	14	3	11	6	58	94

^[2] Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Note: Teams that qualified for playoffs highlighted in bold.

Schedule and results

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record	Pts
1	December 22	Toronto St. Pats	3–6	Ottawa Senators	1–0–0	2
2	December 27	Hamilton Tigers	1–3	Ottawa Senators	2–0–0	4
3	December 29	Ottawa Senators	8–1	Toronto St. Pats	3–0–0	6
4	January 3	Montreal Canadiens	2–8	Ottawa Senators	4–0–0	8
5	January 6	Ottawa Senators	5–1	Hamilton Tigers	5–0–0	10
6	January 8	Ottawa Senators	4–5	Montreal Canadiens	5–1–0	10
7	January 12	Montreal Canadiens	0–2	Ottawa Senators	6–1–0	12
8	January 15	Ottawa Senators	5–2	Toronto St. Pats	7–1–0	14
9	January 19	Hamilton Tigers	3–4	Ottawa Senators	8–1–0	16
10	January 22	Toronto St. Pats	5–4	Ottawa Senators	8–2–0	16
11	January 26	Ottawa Senators	3–5	Montreal Canadiens	8–3–0	16
12	January 29	Ottawa Senators	2–1	Hamilton Tigers	9–3–0	18
13	February 2	Toronto St. Pats	3–4	Ottawa Senators	10–3–0	20
14	February 5	Ottawa Senators	7–3	Hamilton Tigers	11–3–0	22
15	February 9	Hamilton Tigers	4–7	Ottawa Senators	12–3–0	24
16	February 12	Montreal Canadiens	3–1	Ottawa Senators	12–4–0	24
17	February 16	Ottawa Senators	3–4	Toronto St. Pats	12–5–0	24
18	February 19	Ottawa Senators	1–8	Montreal Canadiens	12–6–0	24
19	February 23	Montreal Canadiens	3–1	Ottawa Senators	12–7–0	24
20	February 26	Ottawa Senators	2–4	Toronto St. Pats	12–8–0	24
21	February 28	Ottawa Senators	2–6	Hamilton Tigers	12–9–0	24
22	March 2	Toronto St. Pats	3–2	Ottawa Senators	12–10–0	24
23	March 5	Ottawa Senators	1–0	Montreal Canadiens	13–10–0	26
24	March 7	Hamilton Tigers	5–12	Ottawa Senators	14–10–0	28

Playoffs

In the NHL Championship, the Senators faced the Toronto St. Patricks in a 2-game total-goals series. The Senators, led by the strong goaltending of Clint Benedict, would win the series by a 7–0 score and face the Vancouver Millionaires in the 1921 Stanley Cup Finals.

Ottawa Senators 7, Toronto St. Pats 0

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 10	Toronto St. Pats	0–5	Ottawa Senators	1–0
2	March 14	Ottawa Senators	2–0	Toronto St. Pats	2–0

Ottawa Senators 3, Vancouver Millionaires 2

Main article: 1921 Stanley Cup Finals

The series would take place in Vancouver, British Columbia at Denman Arena, and a record breaking crowd of 11,000 people would see the Millionaires win the first game 2–1 to take an early series lead. The Senators would rebound, winning the next 2 before Vancouver would tie the series up at 2 with a win in game 4. Then, for the 2nd straight year, the Senators would win the 5th and deciding game, winning the 1921 Stanley Cup, and became the first team since the 1912 and 1913 Quebec Bulldogs to win back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships.

All of the contests in the series, which went to the full five games, were decided by only one goal. The Millionaires won games one and four with victories of 2–1 and 3–2, respectively. The Senators were victorious in games two and three with 4–3 and 3–2 wins. Then in the fifth game, Jack Darragh scored both of Ottawa's goals in the 2–1 victory to clinch the Cup.

Darragh led the Senators in scoring with five goals during the series, while goaltender Clint Benedict only allowed just 12 goals in the five games, earning a 2.40 goals-against average.

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	March 21	Ottawa Senators	1–2	Vancouver Millionaires	0–1
2	March 24	Ottawa Senators	4–3	Vancouver Millionaires	1–1
3	March 28	Ottawa Senators	3–2	Vancouver Millionaires	2–1
4	March 31	Ottawa Senators	2–3	Vancouver Millionaires	2–2
5	April 4	Ottawa Senators	2–1	Vancouver Millionaires	3–2

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Cy Denneny	24	34	5	39	10
Frank Nighbor	24	18	3	21	10
Jack Darragh	24	11	8	19	20
Buck Boucher	23	12	5	17	43
Eddie Gerard	24	11	4	15	18

Goaltending

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	T	GA	SO	GAA
Clint Benedict	24	1462	14	10	0	75	2	3.08

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Ottawa Senators 1921 Stanley Cup champions

Roster

Centres

Frank Nighbor

Wingers

Defencemen

Goaltenders

Clint Benedict

Coaching and administrative staff

Edgar Dey Sr. (President)
Tommy Gorman (Manager/Secretary)
Pete Green(Coach)
Frank Dolan (Trainer)

Stanley Cup engraving

Just like the previous season, the Senators never engraved their name on the Cup for their 1921 championship. It was not until the trophy was redesigned in 1948 that the words "1921 Ottawa Senators" was put onto its then-new collar.

References

SHRP Sports
The Internet Hockey Database
National Hockey League Guide & Record Book 2007

↑ "This Should Help To Balance Race". The Globe. December 31, 1920. p. 12.
↑ Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al., eds. THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.

Ottawa Hockey Club / Ottawa Senators (original) seasons

1880s	1880–81 . 1881–82 . 1882–83 . 1883–84 1884–85 . 1885–86 . 1886–87 . 1887–88 . 1888–89 1889–90

1890s	1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00

1900s	1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10

1910s	1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20

1920s	1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30

1930s	1930–31 . 1931–32 . 1932–33 1933–34 St. Louis

Highlighted seasons indicate Stanley Cup or other championship

1920–21 NHL season

NHL	Hamilton Montreal Ottawa Toronto

See also	Stanley Cup Finals Transactions

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