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1979–80 WHL season

Junior ice hockey season

Field	Value
title	1979–80 WHL season
league	Western Hockey League
sport	Ice hockey
playoffs	Playoffs
finals_champ	Regina Pats (2)
finals_runner-up	Victoria Cougars
no_of_teams	11
season	Regular season
season_champ_name	Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy
season_champs	Portland Winter Hawks (1)
MVP_link	Four Broncos Memorial Trophy
MVP	Doug Wickenheiser (Regina Pats)
top_scorer_link	Bob Clarke Trophy
top_scorer	Doug Wickenheiser (Regina Pats)
seasonslistnames	WHL
prevseason_year	[1978–79](1978-79-whl-season)
nextseason_year	[1980–81](1980-81-whl-season)

| finals_runner-up = Victoria Cougars | finals_runner-up = Peterborough Petes (OMJHL)

The 1979–80 WHL season was the 14th season of the Western Hockey League (WHL). It featured eleven teams completing a 72-game regular season. The Portland Winter Hawks became the first American-based club to top the regular season standings, capturing the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy. In the playoffs, the Regina Pats won their second President's Cup, defeating the Victoria Cougars in the championship final.

The season was the first for the Great Falls Americans, after the Edmonton Oil Kings relocated to Great Falls prior to the season. However, the team lasted only 28 games before ceasing operations on December 16, 1979, for the remainder of the season. Thus while twelve teams opened the season, only eleven played it through to completion.

League notes

The WHL changed its divisional format, opting for a two division format of eight teams in the East and four in the West over the previous three division format.

Team changes

The Edmonton Oil Kings relocated to Great Falls, Montana, becoming the Great Falls Americans.

Regular season

Final standings

East Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
x Regina Pats	72	47	24	1	95	429	311
x Calgary Wranglers	72	43	27	2	88	376	319
x Medicine Hat Tigers	72	37	30	5	79	344	315
x Billings Bighorns	72	37	34	1	75	326	284
x Brandon Wheat Kings	72	33	37	2	68	319	343
x Lethbridge Broncos	72	28	39	5	61	329	349
Saskatoon Blades	72	27	40	5	59	331	382
Great Falls Americans1	28	2	25	1	5	73	186

West Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA
x Portland Winter Hawks	72	53	18	1	107	398	293
x Victoria Cougars	72	51	21	0	102	349	226
x Seattle Breakers	72	29	41	2	60	297	364
New Westminster Bruins	72	10	61	1	21	244	443

1Folded mid-season

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Doug Wickenheiser	Regina Pats	71	89	81	170	99
Tim Tookey	Portland Winter Hawks	70	58	83	141	55
Barry Pederson	Victoria Cougars	72	52	88	140	50
Kelly Kisio	Calgary Wranglers	71	65	73	138	64
Jim Dobson	Portland Winter Hawks	72	66	68	134	179
Ron Flockhart	Regina Pats	65	54	76	130	63
Gord Williams	Lethbridge Broncos	72	57	65	122	92
Darren Veitch	Regina Pats	71	29	93	122	118
Brian Varga	Regina Pats	70	39	79	118	97
Doug Morrison	Lethbridge Broncos	68	58	59	117	188

1980 WHL Playoffs

First round

Regina defeated Lethbridge 4 games to 0
Brandon defeated Calgary 4 games to 3
Medicine Hat defeated Billings 4 games to 3

Division semi-finals

Round Robin format

Medicine Hat (3–1) advanced
Regina (2–2) advanced
Brandon (1–3) eliminated
Victoria (5–3) advanced
Seattle (4–4) advanced
Portland (3–5) eliminated

Division finals

Regina defeated Medicine Hat 4 games to 1
Victoria defeated Seattle 4 games to 0

WHL Championship

Regina defeated Victoria 4 games to 1

WHL awards

Regular season Champions - Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy: Portland Winter Hawks

All-Star teams

First Team	Second team
Goal	Grant Fuhr
Defense	Dave Babych
Darren Veitch	Regina Pats
Center	Doug Wickenheiser
Left wing	Greg C. Adams (tied)
Florent Robidoux (tied)	Portland Winter Hawks
Right wing	Jim Dobson

References

2005–06 WHL Guide

before = 1978–79 WHL season | after = 1980–81 WHL season | title = WHL seasons | years = |

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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