1977–78 WHA season

1977–78 WHA season
League	World Hockey Association
Sport	Ice hockey
Regular season
Top scorer	Marc Tardif (Quebec)
Avco World Trophy
Champions	Winnipeg Jets
Runners-up	New England Whalers

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

League business

With a reduction of three teams from the end of the previous season (the San Diego Mariners, Phoenix Roadrunners, and Calgary Cowboys folded), the WHA abandoned its divisional format and grouped the remaining eight teams together. There had been a tentative merger agreement that would have had Cincinnati, Houston, New England, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Edmonton join the NHL but it could not be finalized.

In a unique move, two international All-Star teams, the Soviet All-Stars and Czechoslovakia All-Stars, played games that counted in the regular season standings. They played each WHA team once, on the WHA team's home ice. The Soviet team acquitted themselves well, winning three plus two additional games against WHA teams outside the regular standings, tying one and losing the other four; while the Czechoslovakian team only won once and tied once, losing six. This is the first time International teams competed in regular season competition in a major professional sports league in North America; those two teams as well as a Finnish team would come back to play the WHA teams the next year.

The best six teams qualified for the playoffs. However, instead of the standard schedule for a six-team playoff (i.e., giving the first and second place teams byes into the semifinals, with the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 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 a single semifinal. All series were best four-out-of-seven games.

Regular season

The Howe family of Gordie and his sons Mark and Marty moved to the New England Whalers from the Houston Aeros. The trio helped the Whalers to the Avco Cup final.

Final standings

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

WHA Team	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Winnipeg Jets	50	28	2	102	381	270	988
New England Whalers	44	31	5	93	335	269	1255
Houston Aeros	42	34	4	88	296	302	1543
Quebec Nordiques	40	37	3	83	349	347	1185
Edmonton Oilers	38	39	3	79	309	307	1296
Birmingham Bulls	36	41	3	75	287	314	2177
Cincinnati Stingers	35	42	3	73	298	332	1701
Indianapolis Racers	24	51	5	53	267	353	1189
Soviet All-Stars	3	4	1	7	27	36	120
Czechoslovakia All-Stars	1	6	1	3	21	40	87

Player stats

Scoring leaders

_{Bolded numbers indicate season leaders}

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Marc Tardif	Quebec Nordiques	78	65	89	154	50
Real Cloutier	Quebec Nordiques	73	56	73	129	19
Ulf Nilsson	Winnipeg Jets	73	37	89	126	89
Anders Hedberg	Winnipeg Jets	77	63	59	122	60
Bobby Hull	Winnipeg Jets	77	46	71	117	23
Andre Lacroix	Houston Aeros	78	36	77	113	57
Robbie Ftorek	Cincinnati Stingers	80	59	50	109	54
Kent Nilsson	Winnipeg Jets	80	42	65	107	8
Gordie Howe	New England Whalers	76	34	62	96	85
Mark Howe	New England Whalers	70	30	61	91	32

Leading goaltenders

_{Bolded numbers indicate season leaders}

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Al Smith	New England Whalers	55	3246	30	20	3	174	2	88.5	3.22
Joe Daley	Winnipeg Jets	37	2075	21	11	1	114	1	88.3	3.30
Gary Bromley	Winnipeg Jets	39	2252	25	12	1	124	1	88.6	3.30
Jean-Louis Levasseur	New England Whalers	27	1655	14	11	2	91	3	88.6	3.30
Ernie Wakely	Cincinnati – Houston	57	3381	28	23	4	192	2	89.1	3.41

All-Star Game

The 1978 WHA All-Star game pitted the defending champion Quebec Nordiques against the stars from the remaining WHA teams. The game was played on 17 January 1978, in Quebec City, and attracted 6,413 spectators. The Nordiques, coached by Marc Boileau, won the game 5–4. Marc Tardif and Mark Howe were named the players of the game.

Playoffs

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
	2	New England Whalers	4
	5	Edmonton Oilers	1
						2	New England Whalers	4
						4	Quebec Nordiques	1
	3	Houston Aeros	2
	4	Quebec Nordiques	4
											1	Winnipeg Jets	4
											2	New England Whalers	0
	1	Winnipeg Jets	4
	6	Birmingham Bulls	1

Avco World Cup playoffs

Quarterfinals

New England Whalers 4, Edmonton Oilers 1

Game	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Series
1	April 14	Edmonton Oilers	4–6	New England Whalers	1–0
2	April 16	Edmonton Oilers	1–4	New England Whalers	2–0
3	April 19	New England Whalers	0–2	Edmonton Oilers	2–1
4	April 21	New England Whalers	9–1	Edmonton Oilers	3–1
5	April 23	Edmonton Oilers	1–4	New England Whalers	4–1

Quebec Nordiques 4, Houston Aeros 2

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	April 16	Quebec Nordiques	3–4	Houston Aeros	0–1
2	April 18	Quebec Nordiques	5–4	Houston Aeros	1–1
3	April 20	Houston Aeros	1–5	Quebec Nordiques	2–1
4	April 21	Houston Aeros	0–3	Quebec Nordiques	3–1
5	April 23	Quebec Nordiques	2–5	Houston Aeros	3–2
6	April 25	Houston Aeros	2–11	Quebec Nordiques	4–2

Winnipeg Jets 4, Birmingham Bulls 1

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	April 14	Birmingham Bulls	3–9	Winnipeg Jets	1–0
2	April 16	Birmingham Bulls	3–8	Winnipeg Jets	2–0
3	April 19	Winnipeg Jets	2–3	Birmingham Bulls	2–1
4	April 21	Winnipeg Jets	5–1	Birmingham Bulls	3–1
5	April 23	Birmingham Bulls	2–5	Winnipeg Jets	4–1

Semifinals

The top ranked quarterfinal winner (Winnipeg) received a bye into the finals.

New England Whalers 4, Quebec Nordiques 1

Game	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Series
1	April 28	Quebec Nordiques	1–5	New England Whalers	1–0
2	April 30	Quebec Nordiques	3–2	New England Whalers	1–1
3	May 3	New England Whalers	5–4	Quebec Nordiques	2–1
4	May 5	New England Whalers	7–3	Quebec Nordiques	3–1
5	May 7	Quebec Nordiques	3–6	New England Whalers	4–1

Avco Cup Finals

Winnipeg Jets 4, New England Whalers 0

#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Record
1	May 12	New England Whalers	1–4	Winnipeg Jets	1–0
2	May 14	New England Whalers	2–5	Winnipeg Jets	2–0
3	May 19	Winnipeg Jets	10–2	New England Whalers	3–0
4	May 22	Winnipeg Jets	5–3	New England Whalers	4–0

WHA awards

Trophies

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-Erik 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

All-Star Team

Position	First Team	Second Team
Centre	Ulf Nilsson, Winnipeg	Robbie Ftorek, Cincinnati
Right Wing	Anders Hedberg, Winnipeg	Real Cloutier, Quebec
Left Wing	Marc Tardif, Quebec	Bobby Hull, Winnipeg
Defence	Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Winnipeg	Rick Ley, New England
Defence	Al Hamilton, Edmonton	Barry Long, Winnipeg
Goaltender	Al Smith, New England	Ernie Wakely, Houston

See also

• 1977 WHA Amateur Draft
• 1977–78 NHL season

References

• HockeyDB