The 1896 Amateur Hockey Association of Canada season lasted from January 3 until March 7. Each team played 8 games, and Montreal Victorias

Montreal Victorias

The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was an early men's amateur ice hockey club. Its date of origin is ascribed to either 1874, 1877 or 1881, making it either the first or second organized ice hockey club after McGill University. The club played at its own rink, the Victoria Skating...

 were first with a 7–1 record. During the season, on February 14 the Victorias hosted a Stanley Cup

Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...

 challenge match with the Winnipeg Victorias

Winnipeg Victorias

The Winnipeg Victorias were a former amateur senior-level men's amateur ice hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, organized in 1889. They played in the Manitoba Hockey Association in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

 club. Winnipeg won 2–0 to win the Cup.

Executive

• W. Jack, Victorias (President)
• Weldy Young
  Weldy Young
  Weldon C. Young was a Canadian businessman and athlete. Young was an ice hockey player for the Ottawa Hockey Club, playing in its founding years in the 1880s and in the 1890s. Young later became a member of the Dawson City Nuggets which played against Ottawa in the 1905 Stanley Cup challenge...
  
  , Ottawa (1st. Vice-Pres.)
• Clarence Mussen, Montreal (Sec.-Treasurer)

Season

The Crystals were allowed to change their name to Shamrocks, which matched their new affiliation with the Shamrock A.A.A.

Highlights

The Victorias were truly the class of the league and only lost once, 3–2 to Ottawa. Their regular season team goal total was nearly double that of Ottawa.

Final Standing

Team	Games Played	Wins	Losses	Ties	Goals For	Goals Against
Montreal Victorias Montreal Victorias The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was an early men's amateur ice hockey club. Its date of origin is ascribed to either 1874, 1877 or 1881, making it either the first or second organized ice hockey club after McGill University. The club played at its own rink, the Victoria Skating...	8	7	1	0	41	24
Ottawa HC Ottawa Senators (original) The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...	8	6	2	0	22	16
Quebec Quebec Bulldogs The Quebec Bulldogs were a men's senior-level ice hockey team officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club, later as the Quebec Athletic Club. Their recorded play goes back as far as the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1889, although the Quebec Hockey Club is known to have played since 1880...	8	4	4	0	23	23
Montreal HC Montreal Hockey Club The Montreal Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was a senior-level men's amateur ice hockey club, organized in 1884. They were affiliated with Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and used the MAAA 'winged wheel' logo. The team is notable for winning the first Stanley Cup in 1893, and in a...	8	2	6	0	24	33
Montreal Shamrocks Montreal Shamrocks The Montreal Shamrocks were an amateur, later professional, men's ice hockey club in existence from 1886, merging with the Montreal Crystals club in 1896. They won the Stanley Cup ice hockey championship in 1899 and 1900...	8	1	7	0	16	30

Results

Month	Day	Visitor	Score	Home	Score
Jan.	3	Victorias	7	Montreal	5
	4	Ottawa	2	Shamrocks	1
	10	Montreal	5	Shamrocks	3
	11	Victorias	7	Quebec	5
	18	Montreal	1	Ottawa	3
	18	Quebec	2	Shamrocks	1
	25	Ottawa	2	Quebec	5
	25	Shamrocks	1	Victorias	5
Feb.	1	Ottawa	3	Victorias	2
	1	Montreal	1	Quebec	3
	5	Shamrocks	5	Montreal	3
	8	Shamrocks	1	Quebec	4
	8	Victorias	3	Ottawa	2
	15	Ottawa	3	Montreal	2
	22	Quebec	2	Montreal	3
	25	Montreal	4	Victorias	7
	29	Shamrocks	2	Ottawa	3
	29	Quebec	2	Victorias	4
Mar.	4	Victorias	6	Shamrocks	2
	7	Quebec	0	Ottawa	4

Goalkeeper Averages

Name	Club	GP	GA	SO	Avg.
Chittick, Fred	Ottawa	8	16	1	2.0
Stocking, Frank	Quebec	8	23		2.9
Jones, Robert Robert Jones (ice hockey) Robert Jones was a notable Canadian ice hockey player of the pre-NHL era of the sport. He played the position of Goaltender for the Montreal Victorias and was a member of a Stanley cup winning team .-Playing career:...	Victorias	8	24		3.0
Drysdale, J.	Shamrocks	8	30		3.8
Hamilton, G.	Montreal	2	8		4.0
Collins, Herbert	Montreal	6	25		4.1

Scoring Leaders

Name	Club	GP	G
McDougall, Robert Robert MacDougall Robert E MacDougall was a notable Canadian ice hockey player of the pre-NHL era of the sport. He played the position of forward for the Montreal Victorias and was a member of 5 Stanley cup winning teams....	Victorias	6	10
McKerrow, Clare	Montreal	6	8
Davidson, Shirley Shirley Davidson Shirley Davidson was a Canadian ice hockey player for the Montreal Victorias during the late 19th century. He was a member of several Stanley Cup Championship teams in the 1895, 1896 and 1897 AHAC seasons.-Playing career:...	Victorias	7	8
Swift, Arthur E.	Quebec	8	8
Westwick, Harry	Ottawa	8	8
Drinkwater, Graham Graham Drinkwater Charles Graham Drinkwater was a Canadian ice hockey player, businessman and philanthropist. Drinkwater played for the Montreal Victorias in the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in the early era before professionalism. Drinkwater was a rare player in that he had the ability to play both...	Victorias	8	7
Smith, Alf Alf Smith Alfred Edward Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Ottawa Senators, and Kenora Thistles. He had two brothers who played senior-level hockey Harry Smith and Tommy Smith...	Ottawa	8	7
Doyle, Pat	Quebec	8	6
Gillilan, David	Victorias	3	5
Mussen, Adurey	Montreal	5	5

Exhibitions

After the season, Montreal and Shamrocks played an exhibition series of games in the United States:

Washington, March 7, 1896:

• Shamrocks 3, Montreal 1

Baltimore, March 9, 1896:

• Montreal 6, Shamrocks 5

New York, March 10, 1896:

• Montreal 1, Shamrocks 1 ( completed March 11 with Shamrocks winning 2–1)

The Montreal Victorias travelled to New York City for an exhibition against the New York Athletic Club. The Athletic Club records the date as March 4, (although the date conflicts with an AHAC game), won by the Vics 6–1.

Victorias vs. Winnipeg at Montreal

The first successful challenge to the Cup came in February 1896 by the Winnipeg Victorias

Winnipeg Victorias

The Winnipeg Victorias were a former amateur senior-level men's amateur ice hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, organized in 1889. They played in the Manitoba Hockey Association in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...

, the champions of the Manitoba Hockey Association

Manitoba Hockey Association

The Manitoba Hockey Association was an early men's senior ice hockey league playing around 1900 in Manitoba, Canada. The league started as an elite amateur league in 1892, became professional in 1905, had a professional and an amateur league in 1908–09 and only an amateur league from 1909 until...

 (MHA). On February 14, Winnipeg beat defending champion Montreal Victorias, 2–0, becoming the first team outside the AHAC to win the Cup.

Date	Winning Team	Score	Losing Team	Location
February 14, 1896	Winnipeg Victorias	2 – 0	Montreal Victorias	Victoria Rink

Winnipeg at Montreal

Winnipeg	(2)	at	Montreal	(0)
George Merritt		G	Robert Jones
Rod Flett		P	Harold Henderson
Fred Higginbotham Fred Higginbotham Fred Higginbotham was an ice hockey defenceman for the Winnipeg Victorias. He was part of the team that won the Stanley Cup in 1896, in a challenge game against the Montreal Victorias....		CP	Mike Grant
Jack Armytage		F	Robert McDougall
Colin "Tote" Campbell	1	F	Shirley Davidson
Dan Bain Dan Bain Donald Henderson "Dan" Bain was a Canadian athlete and merchant. He was an all-around athlete, competing in ice hockey, roller skating, gymnastics, figure skating, golf, cycling and shooting among other sports. He was a member of the Winnipeg Victorias hockey team from 1894 until 1902 with whom he...	1	F	Ernest McLea
Attie Howard Tom Howard (ice hockey) Thomas Acheson "Attie" Howard was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player in the era before professional ice hockey. He was a member of the 1896 Winnipeg Victorias Stanley Cup championship team...		F	Reg Wallace
		sub	Hartland McDougall

Referee - A. F. Martin

According to The Globe, in its report on the game:

“The westerners started in with a rush and scored the two games; one in ten minutes and one in nine minutes before the Vics seemed to waken up. For the rest of the first half, the honors were even. In the second half, the Winnipeggers were strictly on the defensive. Shot after shot was fired on their goal but the Vics could not score due to the superb work of Merritt, the visitor's goalkeeper. The match ended 2 to 0 in favour of the visitors. Both sides were dissatisfied with the work of Mr. Alexis Martin of Toronto as referee; claiming he was utterly ignorant of the rules, an opinion which seemed to be shared by the spectators.”

Winnipeg Victorias 1896 Stanley Cup champions

• -Note Winnipeg engraved 1895, because they defeated 1895 champion before 1896 was completed.