Editing Stanley Cup (section)

===Challenge Cup era===
{{main|List of Stanley Cup Challenge Games}}

During the challenge cup period, none of the leagues that played for the trophy had a formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. However, in 1894, four teams out of the five-team AHAC tied for the championship with records of 5–3–0. The AHAC had no tie-breaking system. After extensive negotiations and Quebec's withdrawal from the championship competition, it was decided that a three-team tournament would take place in Montreal, with the Ottawa team receiving a [[bye (sports)|bye]] to the final because they were the only road team. On March 17, in the first Stanley Cup playoff game, the Montreal Hockey Club (Montreal HC) defeated the Montreal Victorias, 3–2. Five days later, in the first Stanley Cup Finals game, Montreal HC beat the Ottawa Hockey Club 3–1.{{sfn|Podnieks|2004|p=20}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1893-94 | title=Stanley Cup Winners: Montreal AAA 1893–94|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]] | access-date=July 11, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930080711/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1893-94 |archive-date = September 30, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Premiere Coupe Stanley 1893.jpg|thumb|right|The first Stanley Cup]]
In 1895, [[Queen's University, Kingston|Queen's University]] was the first official challenger for the Cup, although it was controversial. The Montreal Victorias had won the league title and thus the Stanley Cup, but the challenge match was between the previous year's champion, Montreal HC, and the university squad. The trustees decided that if the Montreal HC won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The Montreal HC won the match 5–1 and their cross-town rivals were crowned the champions.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1894-95 | title=Stanley Cup Winners: Montreal Victorias 1894–95|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]] | access-date=July 11, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080307224825/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1894-95 |archive-date = March 7, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> The first successful challenge to the Cup came the next year by the [[Winnipeg Victorias]], the champions of the Manitoba Hockey League. On February 14, 1896, the Winnipeg squad defeated the champions 2–0 and became the first team outside the AHAC to win the Cup.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1895-96Feb | title=Stanley Cup Winners: Winnipeg Victorias 1895–96Feb|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]] | access-date=July 11, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930080341/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1895-96Feb |archive-date = September 30, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players. Only nine months after winning the Cup, in March 1906, the [[Montreal Wanderers]] pushed through a resolution at the annual meeting of the [[Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association]] (ECAHA) to allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. The Cup trustees agreed to [[Open (sport)|open]] the challenges to professional teams, because the ECAHA was the top hockey league in Canada at the time.{{sfn|Diamond|Zweig|Duplacey|2003|p=19}} The first professional competition came one month later during the Wanderers' two-game, total goals challenge series, which they won 17 goals to 5.{{sfn|Podnieks|2004|p=37}}

The smallest municipality to produce a Stanley Cup champion team is [[Kenora]], Ontario; the town had a population of about 4,000 when the [[Kenora Thistles]] captured the Cup in January 1907.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1906-07Jan|title=Stanley Cup Winners: Kenora Thistles 1906–07Jan|publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]]|access-date=July 24, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051123215217/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1906-07Jan |archive-date = November 23, 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref> Led by future Hall of Famers [[Art Ross]] and "Bad" [[Joe Hall (ice hockey)|Joe Hall]], the Thistles defeated the Montreal Wanderers in a two-game, total goals challenge series. The Thistles successfully defended the Cup once, against a team from [[Brandon, Manitoba]]. In March 1907, the Wanderers challenged the Thistles to a rematch. Despite an improved lineup, the Thistles lost the Cup to Montreal.

In 1908, the [[Allan Cup]] was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup started to become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.{{sfn|Diamond|Zweig|Duplacey|2003|p=19}} In that same year, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers from the newly created [[Ontario Professional Hockey League]] (OPHL), competed for the Cup.{{sfn |Diamond |1992 |p=38}} One year later, the Montreal HC and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name to become a professional league.{{sfn|Diamond|Zweig|Duplacey|2003|p=19}} In 1910, the [[National Hockey Association]] (NHA) was formed. The NHA soon proved it was the best in Canada, as it kept the Cup for the next four years.{{sfn|Diamond|Zweig|Duplacey|2003|p=24}}

Prior to 1912, challenges could take place at any time or place, given the appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times during the year. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that it was to be defended only at the end of the champion team's regular season.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1911-12 | title=Stanley Cup Winners: Quebec Bulldogs 1911–12 | publisher=[[Hockey Hall of Fame]] | access-date=July 11, 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080610202322/http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SilverwareTrophyWinner.jsp?tro=STC&year=1911-12 |archive-date = June 10, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>