One-game Playoff - World Hockey Association

World Hockey Association

Though the National Hockey League, the only major professional ice hockey league in North America, has never had one-game playoffs in its nearly century long existence, the World Hockey Association, which operated in the 1970s, did. Only one such game was played, a neutral site game played in Calgary after the WHA's first regular season between the Alberta Oilers (now Edmonton Oilers) and the Minnesota Fighting Saints. The WHA would later merge with the NHL, with four WHA franchises switching leagues: the Oilers, the Hartford Whalers (now Carolina Hurricanes), the Quebec Nordiques (now Colorado Avalanche), and the Winnipeg Jets (now Phoenix Coyotes).