The1925 Stanley Cup Final saw theWestern Canada Hockey League (WCHL) championVictoria Cougars defeat theNational Hockey League (NHL) championMontreal Canadiens three games to one in a best-of-five game series. The Canadiens were substitute NHL representatives, as the final series to decide the NHL champion was not played.

The Cougars were the last non-NHL team to win the Cup as the WCHL (renamed the Western Hockey League for the1925–26 season) folded after1926, leaving the Stanley Cup to become the NHL'sde facto championship trophy. The Cougars would also be the last team based west ofChicago to win the Cup until theEdmonton Oilers won the trophy in1984. These were also the last Stanley Cup Finals games to be played in Western Canada until theVancouver Canucks qualified for the1982 Finals. Games one, three, and four were held in Victoria. Game two, held in Vancouver, was the last neutral site game in Stanley Cup Finals history that did not involve theNew York Rangers until the2020 Stanley Cup Finals.

Prior to the season, thePacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) folded and two of its teams, the Cougars and theVancouver Maroons joined the WCHL. Victoria finished the1924–25 WCHL regular season in third place, but eventually upset theCalgary Tigers in the two-game total goals WCHL championship series by a combined score of 3–1.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens also finished theNHL regular season in third place. In the NHL playoffs, Montreal went on to beat the second placeToronto St. Patricks, 5–2, in a two-game total goals series. The winner of that series was to go on and play the first placeHamilton Tigers. However, the Tigers were suspended after Hamilton players staged astrike in an attempt to receive more compensation because the league extended the regular season from 24 to 30 games. As a result, the Canadiens were declared the 1924–25 NHL champions.

With the demise of the PCHA, the Stanley Cup playoffs reverted to a single best-of-five series to determine the champion. However, the Cup Finals still annually rotated between the east and the west, and thus all of the games in the 1925 Finals were played on the West Coast. Games one, three, and four were played at the 4,200 seatPatrick Arena in Victoria; game two was played at theDenman Arena in Vancouver.^[1] The decision to use the larger Denman Arena (10,500 seats) for game two was based on the huge demand for tickets.^[2] The Cougars jumped to a two games to none series lead with 5–2 and 3–1 victories, but the Canadiens won game three, 4–2. In game four,Gizzy Hart scored the game-winning goal in Victoria's 6–1 win to clinch the Cup.^[3]

Cougars goaltenderHap Holmes recorded a 2.00 goal-against average for the series.Jack Walker led Victoria in goals with four, whileFrank Fredrickson scored three. Overall, eight different player combining for the Cougars' 16 goals.

The 1925 Stanley Cup was presented to Cougars captain Clem Loughlin by the trophy's trusteeWilliam Foran, following the Cougars 6–1 win over the Canadiens in game four.

The following Cougars players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1924–25 Victoria Cougars

• After the series win, a new angled ring with the words "Won/By/'Cougars' Victoria, B.C. 1925" was added between the original bowl of the Cup and the original first ring of the base. All players and the manager were included on the new ring, but trainer Larry Brunnell was left off.
• Victoria players Frank Fredrickson and Haldor Halderson became the first players to win both an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup. Fredrickson and Halderson had been members of theWinnipeg Falcons who won gold at the1920 Olympic Games.^[4]

• 1924–25 NHL season
• 1924–25 WCHL season

• "1924–25 Stanley Cup Winner: Victoria Cougars".Hockey Hall of Fame. RetrievedMay 26, 2010.
• Podnieks, Andrew;Hockey Hall of Fame (2004).Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. pp. 12, 57.ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
• Dan Diamond, ed. (1992).The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. pp. 58–59.ISBN 1-895565-15-4.
• Zweig, Eric (2012).Stanley Cup: 120 years of hockey supremacy. Firefly Books.ISBN 978-1-77085-104-7.

Notes

• 1924–25 NHL season
• Stanley Cup Finals
• Montreal Canadiens games
• Western Canada Hockey League postseason
• 1924–25 in Canadian ice hockey
• March 1925 sports events in Canada
• Sports competitions in Victoria, British Columbia
• 20th century in Victoria, British Columbia
• Ice hockey competitions in Vancouver
• 1920s in Vancouver
• 1925 in British Columbia

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from August 2023