Phoenix Roadrunners (WHA)

This article is about the WHA team. For other uses, see Phoenix Roadrunners (disambiguation).

Phoenix Roadrunners
City	Phoenix, Arizona
League	Western Hockey League (1967–74) World Hockey Association (1974–77)
Operated	1974–1977
Home arena	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum

The Phoenix Roadrunners were a team in the now defunct World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977. They played at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. The organization folded for financial reasons before the remaining teams in the WHA merged with the NHL in 1979.

History

The franchise originally competed in the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1967 to 1974 after being moved from Victoria, British Columbia, where they had played for the three previous seasons as the Maple Leafs.

They won the championship trophy, the Lester Patrick Cup, twice during their tenure in the WHL (1972–73 and 1973–74). Prior to 1974, rumors had circulated that teams like the Minnesota North Stars were considering a move to Phoenix, but the Arizona capital would have to wait 22 years until the original Winnipeg Jets moved there, and become the Coyotes.

In 1974, the Roadrunners joined the WHA with their roster mostly intact when the WHL ceased operations. The Roadrunners achieved relative success during their first two WHA seasons, but lack of financial success resulted in the removal of local favorite Sandy Hucul as coach and his replacement with Al Rollins, who was disliked by Phoenix hockey fans. Rollins did not succeed in improving the team's fortunes. At one point, the team was forced to sell players just to pay the bills. The Roadrunners finally gave up and folded at the end of its third season.

Notable players WHA

• Robbie Ftorek - (WHA MVP 1977)

Notable players WHL 1967-74

• Jim Murray - played 364 games in 5 seasons on defence, scored 211 points
• Harry Shaw - played 335 games in 6 seasons on defence
• Larry Lund - scored 261 points in 203 games over 3 seasons
• Alex "Sandy" Hucul - played 308 games over 5 seasons, won Hal Laycoe Cup (best defenceman) in 1968 and 1972; coached the WHA team in 1974
• Andre Hinse - scored 143 goals and 313 points in 277 games over 4 seasons
• Wayne Hicks - finished career in Phoenix with 218 points in 275 games
• Bob Charlebois - scored 169 points in 224 games
• Bob Barlow - scored 199 points in 207 games
• Howie Young - for 3 of his 23 professional seasons, scored 170 points in 190 games, 1st Team All-Star 1974

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1974–75	78	39	31	8	86	300	265	1388	4th, Western	Lost quarterfinals (Quebec)
1975–76	78	39	35	4	82	302	287	1292	2nd, Western	Lost preliminaries (San Diego)
1976–77	80	28	48	4	60	281	383	915	6th, Western	Did not qualify
Totals	236	106	114	16	228	883	935	3595

See also

• Victoria Maple Leafs

External links

• http://web.archive.org/web/20091027092117/http://www.geocities.com/braniff73/roadrunners.html
• http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/team_data.php?tname=roadrunners&tcity=Phoenix&tstate=&tleague=&y1=&y2=&x=83&y=14