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]

1978 WHA playoffs

Tournament details
Dates	April 14 – May 22, 1978
Season	1977–78
Teams	6
Final positions
Champions	Winnipeg Jets (2nd title)
Runners-up	New England Whalers
Semifinalists	Quebec Nordiques
← 1977 1979 →

Playoff seeds

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

Bracket

	Quarterfinals					Semifinal					Finals
	2	New England Whalers	4
	5	Edmonton Oilers	1
						2	New England Whalers	4
						4	Quebec Nordiques	1
	3	Houston Aeros	2
	4	Quebec Nordiques	4
											1	Winnipeg Jets	4
											2	New England Whalers	0
	1	Winnipeg Jets	4
	6	Birmingham Bulls	1

Quarterfinals

(2) New England Whalers vs. (5) Edmonton Oilers

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]}

April 14

Edmonton Oilers

4–6 (1–1, 0–3, 3–2)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: 6,530

Box score
	Don McLeod	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	3:07 (1st) – Pierre Jarry 3:10 (3rd) – Ron Chipperfield 9:10 (3rd) – Mike Zuke 16:14 (3rd) – Randy Rota Goals 2:53 (1st) – Dave Keon 1:56 (2nd) – Mike Antonovich 10:28 (2nd) – Gordie Howe 14:30 (2nd) – Larry Pleau 14:46 (3rd) – Marty Howe 18:09 (3rd) – Mike Antonovich
	23 (6–4–13)	Shots	39 (7–15–17)

April 16

Edmonton Oilers

1–4 (0–2, 0–0, 1–2)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: Unknown

Box score
	Don McLeod	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	9:14 (3rd) – Blair MacDonald Goals 4:14 (1st) – Mike Rogers 5:35 (1st) – John McKenzie 10:54 (3rd) – Mark Howe 11:37 (3rd) – Steve Carlson
	26 (9–10–7)	Shots	35 (12–9–14)

April 19

New England Whalers

0–2 (0–1, 0–0, 0–1)

Edmonton Oilers

Northlands Coliseum Attendance: 11,924

Box score
	Jean-Louis Levasseur	Goalies	Don McLeod
	18:48 (1st) – Pierre Guite 1:56 (3rd) – Mike Zuke Goals No scoring
	19 (6–8–5)	Shots	28 (9–12–7)

April 21

New England Whalers

9–1 (4–1, 4–0, 1–0)

Edmonton Oilers

Northlands Coliseum Attendance: 14,888

Box score
	Jean-Louis Levasseur	Goalies	Don McLeod / Dave Dryden
	0:34 (1st) – John McKenzie 2:04 (1st) – Gordie Howe 2:49 (1st) – Dave Keon 13:23 (1st) – Mike Antonovich 2:03 (2nd) – Steve Carlson 8:23 (2nd) – Mike Antonovich 15:04 (2nd) – Mike Antonovich 18:14 (2nd) – Larry Pleau 14:49 (3rd) – Danny Bolduc Goals 6:55 (1st) – Dennis Sobchuk
	32 (13–11–8)	Shots	29 (9–10–10)

April 23

Edmonton Oilers

1–4 (0–0, 0–1, 1–3)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: 6,212

Box score
	Dave Dryden	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	7:33 (3rd) – Paul Shmyr Goals 18:58 (2nd) – Gordie Howe 5:28 (3rd) – Mike Antonovich 19:10 (3rd) – John McKenzie 19:35 (3rd) – Dave Keon
	26 (5–10–11)	Shots	39 (15–13–11)

(3) Houston Aeros vs. (4) Quebec Nordiques

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]

April 16

Quebec Nordiques

3–4 (OT) (2–1, 0–0, 1–2, 0–1)

Houston Aeros

The Summit Attendance: 5,337

Box score
	Richard Brodeur	Goalies	Lynn Zimmerman
	5:12 (1st) – Jean Bernier 16:25 (1st) – Paul Baxter 0:42 (3rd) – Réal Cloutier Goals 15:59 (1st) – André Lacroix 0:15 (3rd) – Al McLeod 15:49 (3rd) – Don Larway 7:19 (OT) – Ted Taylor
	35 (19-5-8-3)	Shots	38 (9-8-18-3)

April 18

Quebec Nordiques

5–4 (OT) (1–1, 0–0, 3–3, 1–0)

Houston Aeros

The Summit Attendance: 6,068

Box score
	Richard Brodeur	Goalies	Lynn Zimmerman
	8:45 (1st) – Marc Tardif 15:42 (3rd) – Bob Fitchner 17:08 (3rd) – Réal Cloutier 18:42 (3rd) – Paul Baxter 2:59 (OT) – Marc Tardif Goals 9:51 (1st) – John Tonelli 8:15 (3rd) – André Lacroix 11:50 (3rd) – Ron Hansis 19:19 (3rd) – Morris Lukowich
	29 (12-6-10-1)	Shots	31 (10-13-8-0)

April 20

Houston Aeros

1–5 (0–1, 0–2, 1–2)

Quebec Nordiques

Colisée de Québec Attendance: 11,593

Box score
	Lynn Zimmerman	Goalies	Richard Brodeur
	13:29 (3rd) – John Hughes Goals 18:10 (1st) – Steve Sutherland 13:18 (2nd) – Marc Tardif 14:47 (2nd) – Norm Dube 3:38 (3rd) – François Lacombe 8:59 (3rd) – Réal Cloutier
	30 (7–10–13)	Shots	32 (14–10–8)

April 21

Houston Aeros

0–3 (0–1, 0–1, 0–1)

Quebec Nordiques

Colisée de Québec Attendance: 10,851

Box score
	Wayne Rutledge	Goalies	Richard Brodeur
	No scoring Goals 6:45 (1st) – Serge Bernier 7:36 (2nd) – Marc Tardif 14:42 (3rd) – Paulin Bordeleau
	26 (11–9–6)	Shots	41 (14–9–18)

April 23

Quebec Nordiques

2–5 (0–2, 2–1, 0–2)

Houston Aeros

The Summit Attendance: 5,881

Box score
	Richard Brodeur	Goalies	Wayne Rutledge
	11:06 (2nd) – Paulin Bordeleau 13:26 (2nd) – Paulin Bordeleau Goals 14:49 (1st) – Paul Terbenche 15:36 (1st) – Cam Connor 8:25 (3rd) – Scott Campbell 10:33 (3rd) – Ted Taylor 19:50 (3rd) – Ted Taylor
	24 (4–14–6)	Shots	26 (6–5–15)

April 25

Houston Aeros

2–11 (0–4, 0–2, 2–5)

Quebec Nordiques

Colisée de Québec Attendance: 11,684

Box score
	Lynn Zimmerman / Wayne Rutledge	Goalies	Richard Brodeur
	7:30 (3rd) – Steve West 15:43 (3rd) – Terry Ruskowski Goals 2:56 (1st) – Garry Lariviere 7:27 (1st) – Curt Brackenbury 11:23 (1st) – Jean Bernier 18:23 (1st) – Réal Cloutier 5:50 (2nd) – Wally Weir 10:40 (2nd) – Réal Cloutier 2:05 (3rd) – Paulin Bordeleau 2:26 (3rd) – Norm Dube 7:08 (3rd) – Paul Baxter 8:21 (3rd) – Réal Cloutier 19:22 (3rd) – Réal Cloutier
	37 (8–13–16)	Shots	33 (14–9–10)

(1) Winnipeg Jets vs. (6) Birmingham Bulls

Winnipeg had gone 6–4–1 against Birmingham in the regular season.^[15]

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]}

April 14

Birmingham Bulls

3–9 (1–4, 2–0, 0–5)

Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Arena Attendance: 9,301

Box score
	John Garrett	Goalies	Joe Daley / Gary Bromley
	1:15 (1st) – Ken Linseman 1:51 (2nd) – Frank Beaton 12:04 (2nd) – Dave Gorman Goals 1:48 (1st) – Anders Hedberg 8:37 (1st) – Mike Amodeo 10:18 (1st) – Bobby Hull 16:54 (1st) – Bob Guindon 8:11 (3rd) – Lyle Moffat 9:02 (3rd) – Kent Ruhnke 13:19 (3rd) – Bobby Hull 16:37 (3rd) – Bob Guindon 19:51 (3rd) – Anders Hedberg
	12 (3–4–5)	Shots	48 (21–13–14)

April 16

Birmingham Bulls

3–8 (1–3, 2–3, 0–2)

Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Arena Attendance: 10,401

Box score
	John Garrett / Wayne Wood	Goalies	Gary Bromley
	10:56 (1st) – Paul Henderson 12:54 (2nd) – Frank Beaton 17:18 (2nd) – Frank Mahovlich Goals 2:53 (1st) – Dave Kryskow 5:56 (1st) – Peter Sullivan 13:41 (1st) – Bobby Hull 3:24 (2nd) – Kent Ruhnke 3:33 (2nd) – Dave Kryskow 11:31 (2nd) – Bobby Hull 3:18 (3rd) – Bob Guindon 14:17 (3rd) – Bill Lesuk
	20 (6–6–8)	Shots	44 (15–16–13)

April 19

Winnipeg Jets

2–3 (0–2, 2–1, 0–0)

Birmingham Bulls

Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center Attendance: 8,585

Box score
	Joe Daley	Goalies	John Garrett
	4:48 (2nd) – Anders Hedberg 5:24 (2nd) – Bobby Hull Goals 1:21 (1st) – Ken Linseman 5:35 (1st) – Jim Turkiewicz 16:51 (2nd) – John Stewart
	21 (5–10–6)	Shots	35 (11–14–10)

April 21

Winnipeg Jets

5–1 (2–0, 2–1, 1–0)

Birmingham Bulls

Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center Attendance: 12,250

Box score
	Gary Bromley	Goalies	John Garrett
	0:37 (1st) – Anders Hedberg 14:18 (1st) – Dave Kryskow 13:53 (2nd) – Lyle Moffat 14:36 (2nd) – Anders Hedberg 15:06 (3rd) – Bobby Hull Goals 10:45 (2nd) – Steve Alley
	21 (7–6–8)	Shots	26 (5–7–14)

April 23

Birmingham Bulls

2–5 (1–2, 0–1, 1–2)

Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Arena Attendance: 9,491

Box score
	John Garrett	Goalies	Joe Daley
	7:05 (1st) – Serge Beaudoin 9:52 (3rd) – Phil Roberto Goals 13:27 (1st) – Bill Lesuk 17:48 (1st) – Mike Ford 8:25 (2nd) – Anders Hedberg 0:42 (3rd) – Dave Dunn 18:51 (3rd) – Bob Guindon
	18 (7–7–4)	Shots	37 (17–8–12)

Semifinal

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

(2) New England Whalers vs. (4) Quebec Nordiques

Quebec had gone 8–4 against New England in the regular season.^[16]

April 28

Quebec Nordiques

1–5 (0–2, 0–1, 1–2)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: 7,206

Boxscore
	Richard Brodeur / Ken Broderick	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	13:24 (3rd) – Garry Lariviere Goals 10:30 (1st) – Mark Howe 5:13 (1st) – Ron Plumb 12:15 (2nd) – Mike Rogers 6:00 (3rd) – George Lyle 6:17 (3rd) – Jack Carlson
	24 (6–7–11)	Shots	39 (14–14–11)

April 30

Quebec Nordiques

3–2 (1–1, 1–0, 1–1)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: 7,448

Boxscore
	Richard Brodeur	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	12:11 (1st) – Marc Tardif 6:19 (2nd) – Réal Cloutier 16:23 (3rd) – Steve Sutherland Goals 10:23 (1st) – Mike Rogers 10:09 (3rd) – Danny Bolduc
	33 (13–15–5)	Shots	40 (15–7–18)

May 3

New England Whalers

5–4 (3–0, 1–1, 1–3)

Quebec Nordiques

Colisée de Québec Attendance: 11,660

Box score
	Jean-Louis Levasseur / Al Smith	Goalies	Richard Brodeur / Ken Broderick
	7:08 (1st) – John McKenzie 10:42 (1st) – Mike Antonovich 19:20 (1st) – Mark Howe 6:18 (2nd) – Mike Rogers 19:10 (3rd) – Larry Pleau Goals 9:41 (2nd) – Christian Bordeleau 1:07 (3rd) – Paul Baxter 8:42 (3rd) – Serge Bernier 14:25 (3rd) – Serge Bernier
	25 (15–6–4)	Shots	44 (10–19–15)

May 5

New England Whalers

7–3 (4–2, 2–0, 1–1)

Quebec Nordiques

Colisée de Québec Attendance: 11,751

Box score
	Jean-Louis Levasseur	Goalies	Richard Brodeur
	6:18 (1st) – Al Hangsleben 12:28 (1st) – Dave Keon 16:21 (1st) – Mark Howe 18:04 (1st) – Dave Keon 6:27 (2nd) – Mike Rogers 15:23 (2nd) – Mike Antonovich 0:57 (3rd) – Larry Pleau Goals 8:24 (2nd) – Marc Tardif 10:03 (2nd) – Réal Cloutier 14:43 (3rd) – Alain Cote
	39 (16–10–13)	Shots	22 (8–6–8)

May 7

Quebec Nordiques

3–6 (1–1, 1–3, 1–2)

New England Whalers

Springfield Civic Center Attendance: 8,125

Box score
	Richard Brodeur	Goalies	Jean-Louis Levasseur
	4:49 (1st) – Serge Bernier 19:18 (2nd) – Jean Bernier 11:15 (3rd) – Garry Lariviere Goals 12:37 (1st) – Mark Howe 2:54 (2nd) – John McKenzie 6:23 (2nd) – Mike Antonovich 12:03 (2nd) – Gordie Howe 16:12 (3rd) – Mark Howe 16:40 (3rd) – Mark Howe
	20 (7–5–8)	Shots	45 (16–16–13)

Avco Cup Final

(1) Winnipeg Jets vs. (2) New England Whalers

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.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.^[19][20][21]

May 12	Winnipeg Jets		4–1		New England Whalers	Springfield Civic Center	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			No scoring
4:31 – Bob Guindon (Moffat) 4:53 – Peter Sullivan 13:55 – Bob Guindon (Lesuk) 19:45 – en – Peter Sullivan		Third period			8:07 – Larry Pleau (Hangsleben, Bolduc)
Gary Bromley 32 saves / 33 shots		Goalie stats			Jean-Louis Levasseur 26 shots / 29 shots

May 14	Winnipeg Jets		5–2		New England Whalers	Springfield Civic Center	Recap
14:02 – Dan Labraaten (Lindstrom) 19:32 – Lyle Moffat (M. Amodeo, B. Lesuk)		First period			No scoring
1:21 – Bob Guindon (Lesuk, Moffat) 17:10 – Anders Hedberg (U. Nilsson)		Second period			No scoring
16:35 – Ulf Nilsson (Hedberg)		Third period			6:28 – pp – Gordie Howe (Plumb, Rogers) 15:17 – Mark Howe (J. Carlson)
Joe Daley 22 saves / 24 shots		Goalie stats			Jean-Louis Levasseur 22 saves / 27 shots

May 19	New England Whalers		2–10		Winnipeg Jets	Winnipeg Arena	Recap
No scoring		First period			4:56 – pp – Willy Lindström 5:09 – Bob Guindon (Lesuk, Moffat) 6:32 – Bobby Hull (U. Nilsson, Hedberg) 7:31 – Willy Lindström (Sullivan, Long) 7:46 – Kent Nilsson (Kryskow, Baird) 17:36 – Kent Nilsson (Lindstrom, Clackson)
No scoring		Second period			4:55 – Lynn Powis (Kryskow, K. Nilsson) 16:26 – Lyle Moffat (Dunn, Sullivan)
4:07 – John McKenzie (Keon, Marty Howe) 5:19 – Tim Sheehy (Lyle, Selwood)		Third period			8:30 – Lynn Powis (K. Nilsson, Kryskow) 12:12 – Willy Lindström (Labraaten, Sullivan)
Al Smith 23 saves / 33 shots		Goalie stats			Gary Bromley 28 saves / 30 shots

May 22	New England Whalers		3–5		Winnipeg Jets	Winnipeg Arena	Recap
1:37 – Mike Antonovich (Keon, McKenzie) 19:59 – Rick Ley (Sheehy)		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			3:26 – pp – Dave Kryskow (Hedberg, K. Nilsson) 3:38 – Lyle Moffat (Guindon) 17:59 – Anders Hedberg (Sjoberg, U. Nilsson)
11:25 – George Lyle (Hangsleben, S. Carlson)		Third period			3:26 – pp – Bobby Hull (U. Nilsson, Hedberg) 19:28 – en – Anders Hedberg (U. Nilsson, Green)
Al Smith 23 saves / 27 shots		Goalie stats			Joe Daley 24 saves / 27 shots

Winnipeg won series 4–0

Statistical leaders

These were the top ten skaters based on points.^[22]

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+ / -	PIM
Mike Antonovich	New England Whalers	14	10	7	17	1	4
Real Cloutier	Quebec Nordiques	10	9	7	16	0	15
Dave Keon	New England Whalers	14	5	11	16	2	4
Anders Hedberg	Winnipeg Jets	9	9	6	15	5	2
Mark Howe	New England Whalers	14	8	7	15	0	18
Marc Tardif	Quebec Nordiques	11	6	9	15	-2	11
Serge Bernier	Quebec Nordiques	11	4	10	14	-1	17
Ulf Nilsson	Winnipeg Jets	9	1	13	14	5	12
Bob Guindon	Winnipeg Jets	9	8	5	13	9	5
John McKenzie	New England Whalers	14	6	6	12	-2	16
Lyle Moffat	Winnipeg Jets	9	5	7	12	3	9

Championship roster

1977–78 Winnipeg Jets

Players

  Centres

• Lynn Powis
• Peter Sullivan
• Kent Nilsson
• Ulf Nilsson

  Wingers

• Dan Labraaten
• Ken Baird
• Bill Lesuk
• Dave Kryskow
• Bobby Hull
• Lyle Moffat
• Bob Guindon
• Kent Ruhnke
• Willy Lindström
• Anders Hedberg

  Defencemen

• Ted Green
• Kim Clackson
• Dave Dunn
• Lars-Erik Sjöberg
• Mike Amodeo
• Mike Ford
• Barry Long

  Goaltenders

• Joe Daley
• Gary Bromley

Coaching and administrative staff

• Larry Hillman