Jets First Playoff Game, 1973

Lore & Background

In the winter of 1972-73, Winnipeg was a city that had been without a major professional hockey team for years, and the arrival of the Jets in the WHA felt almost like a rescue. The arena filled with a crowd that had been waiting, and the energy in the building during that first playoff series carried a weight that no veteran franchise could replicate. These were fans who had built their identity around the hope of this team, and every shift, every save, every goal felt like it belonged to the whole city. The Jets of that era were a young, hungry roster competing in a league that was itself young and still fighting for legitimacy against the NHL. There was no legacy to lean on, no dynasty to reference. Every game was a question mark, and the first playoff game in particular carried the weight of 'do we actually belong here?' The answer, delivered in front of a packed and electric Winnipeg crowd, was a resounding yes. For Jets supporters, that 1973 playoff night sits in a special place in the oral history of the franchise. It is the night the club stopped being a concept and became a competitor. It is the night the city's patience was rewarded with the sound of a puck hitting the net in a game where losing meant the season was over. It is the origin point from which every subsequent Jets playoff memory is measured.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights hummed overhead, casting long shadows across the ice that still bore the faint scuff marks of warmup drills. A young player in the Jets' early jersey laced his skates in the tunnel, the rubber creaking under his fingers, and listened to the crowd noise rolling in like a tide. He could feel the vibration in the floorboards. Around him, teammates gripped their sticks and muttered prayers in a dozen languages. The Zamboni had just finished its final pass, the ice gleaming like a sheet of glass under the floodlights. Somewhere in the stands, a woman in a fur-stole coat tapped her glass of champagne against the railing and whispered, 'Tonight's the night, honey. Tonight's the night.' The puck dropped, and the city held its breath.

Reader's Guide

The occasion: the Winnipeg Jets, a 1972 expansion club in the World Hockey Association, reached postseason play for the first time in franchise history during the 1972-73 season. This was a league still in its infancy, challenging the NHL for attention and legitimacy, and a first-year team making the playoffs was no small feat. What happened: the Jets stepped into elimination hockey with nothing to lose and everything to prove. The game unfolded in front of a Winnipeg crowd that had waited years for a team of its own, and the atmosphere in the arena was electric, almost chaotic with hope. The Jets played with the urgency of a club that knew every shift was being watched by a nation of hockey fans deciding whether the WHA—and whether this team—was for real. Why it is remembered: it is the night the Jets stopped being a novelty and became a competitor. For a city that had been without a major pro hockey club, that first playoff game was a rite of passage. It established the template for every future Jets playoff night: a small city, a big stage, and a team that refused to be a footnote. Fans who were there in 1973 still talk about the noise, the feeling, the sense that something permanent had been set in motion on that ice.

Did You Know?

• The Winnipeg Jets were one of the original 12 founding teams of the World Hockey Association, which launched in 1972 as a direct rival to the NHL.
• The Jets' 1972-73 season was the franchise's very first, meaning there was no prior playoff experience, no veteran leadership, and no established identity to build on.
• The WHA of that era was still proving its place in Canadian hockey culture, so a Jets playoff appearance was as much a statement for the league as it was for the club.
• Winnipeg had been without a major professional hockey team for years before the Jets arrived, making the first playoff night a long-awaited emotional milestone for the city.

A Franchise Forged in Ambition

On December 27, 1971, Winnipeg was handed one of the founding franchises of the World Hockey Association, a bold new league challenging the NHL's monopoly. The man behind the curtain was Ben Hatskin, a local businessman who had built his fortune in cardboard shipping containers and who named the club after his earlier Western Canada Hockey League team. The Jets' first season began in October 1972, and the roster was assembled with extraordinary ambition. Norm Beaudin became the club's first signing, earning the nickname "the Original Jet," while Ab McDonald was tapped as the inaugural captain. But the true statement of intent came on June 27, 1972, when Bobby Hull—already the most prolific active scorer in the NHL—jumped to the upstart league for a record $1 million bonus and a package worth at least $2.5 million over ten years. That single acquisition gave the WHA instant legitimacy and set the tone for a franchise that would immediately compete at the highest level, including a run to the Avco Cup Finals in its very first postseason.

Pioneers of the European Game

The Winnipeg Jets were the first North American professional club to treat Europe as a genuine talent pipeline, and by the time they laced up for their first postseason in 1973, that philosophy had already reshaped their identity. Swedish forwards Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson paired with Bobby Hull to form the forward trio the press dubbed "the Hot Line," a unit whose passing and speed would later carry the franchise to multiple championships. Defenceman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, also from Sweden, served as a captain and earned recognition as the WHA's top defenceman. The roster was further enriched by Willy Lindstrom, Kent Nilsson, and Veli-Pekka Ketola, alongside Canadian and American players like Peter Sullivan, Norm Beaudin, and goaltender Joe Daley. These European stars had to acclimate to a noticeably more physical and violent style of play in Canada, and some openly pushed back against the intensity. Yet that blend of continental skill and North American grit gave the Jets a distinctive competitive edge that was already visible in their first playoff campaign.

First Postseason, First Finals

When the 1972–73 WHA regular season concluded, the Winnipeg Jets did not merely qualify for the postseason—they marched all the way to the Avco Cup Finals, the championship series of the league. This was remarkable for a franchise whose first regular-season game had been played only months earlier, on October 12, 1972, at Madison Square Garden against the New York Raiders, where captain Ab McDonald scored the club's first WHA goal. Reaching the finals in the team's inaugural postseason underscored how quickly the combination of Hull's scoring, the Hot Line's chemistry, and the depth of European talent had translated into sustained excellence. The Jets would go on to make the playoffs in every subsequent WHA season except 1974–75, and they would ultimately lift the Avco Cup three times. But the 1973 finals run was the proof of concept: a brand-new team, playing in a brand-new league, had already announced itself as a contender for the sport's top prize.

The Blueprint for a WHA Dynasty

The 1973 playoff run was not an isolated flash of brilliance; it was the opening chapter of what would become the most dominant stretch in the short-lived WHA's history. Over the league's seven seasons, the Jets appeared in the Avco Cup Finals five times, winning the world championship in 1976, 1978, and 1979. The 1976 title, claimed over the Houston Aeros, was the first major championship for the city of Winnipeg since the Blue Bombers captured the Grey Cup in 1962, and it was achieved by a team whose core was European—a first in North American professional hockey, as noted by The Winnipeg Sun. The 1979 Avco Cup victory came against Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers, with Tom McVie coaching. Three of those championship rosters were later enshrined in the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame. The foundation laid in that first 1973 postseason—Hull's leadership, the Hot Line's synergy, and the pioneering European recruitment—remained the architectural blueprint for everything that followed.