1978 WHA playoffs

The 1978 WHA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the World Hockey Association's 1977–78 season. With the abolishing of divisions, six of the eight teams would reach the playoffs. However, the league went for a unique format where there would three Quarterfinal playoffs and that the highest-seeded winner from those rounds would advance directly to the Avco Cup Final. The sixth WHA tournament, it was the only one with six teams in competition with each other. The playoffs were the last games played by the Houston Aeros in their history, as they dissolved in the offseason. This was the first and only playoff appearance for the Birmingham Bulls. The defending champion Quebec Nordiques fell in the Semifinal. For the fourth time in franchise history, the Winnipeg Jets advanced to the Avco Cup Final, where they played the New England Whalers, who last made the Avco Cup Final in 1973. The Winnipeg Jets won the Avco Cup over the New England Whalers for their second championship, with Bob Guindon being named WHA Playoffs MVP.^[1][2]

The top six teams made the playoffs.

1. Winnipeg Jets, regular season champions – 102 points
2. New England Whalers – 93 points
3. Houston Aeros – 88 points
4. Quebec Nordiques – 83 points
5. Edmonton Oilers – 79 points
6. Birmingham Bulls – 75 points

New England had gone 7–3–1 against Edmonton in the regular season.^[3] Game 2 saw a litany of penalties, with thirteen players receiving penalties in the first period alone as the Whalers scored two goals in the first period and held the lead the whole way around (curiously, records do not exist about how many people attended the game). Game 4 saw domination by the Whalers, who led 34 seconds into the game to go along with an announcement of the birth of Mark Howe's child that made his father Gordie Howe the first active hockey player to be a grandfather.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

The two teams had gone 5–5–1 against each other in the regular season.^[9] Both teams traded victories at the Summit, with Ted Taylor giving Houston the win in Game 1 and Marc Tardif giving Quebec the victory on the only shot taken in overtime in Game 2 (as it turned out, this was the last WHA playoff game to finish in overtime). Houston won Game 5 in what ended up as the last WHA game played in Houston, Texas, with Scott Campbell providing the first goal of a three-goal third period to help the Aeros pull away.^[10][11]

In Game 6, four defensemen scored goals in a rout that saw Réal Cloutier tie Larry Lund's postseason record for goals with four in Game 6 (a record which lasted one year) that saw Houston's goaltender pulled after it was 3-0. Quebec eliminated Houston in the last game played by the Aeros prior to the team folding.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Winnipeg had gone 6–4–1 against Birmingham in the regular season.^[16] In the decisive Game 5, the Jets set a record for power-play goals in one series (12) with a goal by Anders Hedberg, which ended up being the go-ahead winner.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

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

Quebec had gone 8–4 against New England in the regular season.^[17]

The Winnipeg Jets, as coached by Larry Hillman, were matched against the New England Whalers, as coached by Harry Neale. Winnipeg had gone 7–3–1 against New England in the regular season.^[18] Although the Jets had the best record in the league, they did not host the first two games due to the circus being booked at Winnipeg Arena for the opening two dates.^[19] The two teams defended each other well in the first two periods of Game 1 (as attended by 8,125 fans) before Winnipeg exploded for four goals in the third period for victory. They dominated Game 2, rocketing to a 4–0 lead after two periods before closing out to a 5–2 victory. Now back home in Winnipeg for Game 3 in front of 10,250 fans, the Jets scored eight goals in the first two periods and shut out the Whalers for 44 minutes before the Whalers scored a couple of goals in a game that ultimately finished with a 10–2 victory for Winnipeg. 10,348 attended Game 4 in Winnipeg. New England scored twice in the opening period of Game 4, but the Jets whittled the lead down with a powerplay goal coming by Dave Kryskow three minutes into the second period. Twelve seconds later, Lyle Moffat found the net to tie the game at two before Anders Hedberg gave Winnipeg the lead with 2:01 remaining in the second period. In the third period, a power-play set up Bobby Hull to deliver what ended up as the series-clinching goal at 3:26 in the third period to make it 4–2 (as it turned out, this was the last postseason goal scored by Hull in his career). George Lyle narrowed the lead to 4–3 with 8:35 remaining, but Anders Hedberg ended the scoring with an empty net goal with 0:32 seconds remaining. It was the final game for Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson with the Jets, as they signed with the New York Rangers to play there for 1978. The two members of the "Hot Line" were asked to skate with the Avco Cup trophy to the Winnipeg crowd after the series ended, which they obliged. The Jets had a parade for their championship down Portage Avenue.^[20][21][22]

These were the top ten skaters based on points.^[23]

1977–78 Winnipeg Jets

WHA playoffs