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Uploaded By: David Richardson on September 30th, 2012

The Patrick Arena in Oak Bay, Victoria.

Built by Lester Patrick, on Thomas Hooper's design, it was a state-of-the-art facility with Canada's first artificial ice surface. It stood at the corner of Cadboro Bay Road and Epworth Street in Oak Bay. The seating capacity was four thousand.

The building burnt to the ground in 1929. (built 1911).
Present location of the Oak Bay Junior Secondary School.

The first professional Hockey game played at the Patrick Arena on January 2, 1912 was between the New Westminster Royals and the hometown Victoria Senators. This was likely the first professional game on artificial ice in Canada.

In 1913 the Victoria Senators were renamed as the Victoria Aristocrats.

In 1916 the Patrick Arena was commandeered by the Canadian military and the Hockey team was forced to move to Spokane, Washington to play as the Spokane Canaries. When the military left, a new team was formed in 1918 and again was dubbed the Aristocrats.

In 1923 they changed their name to the Victoria Cougars and when the Pacific Coast Hockey association / PCHA disbanded in 1924 they moved to the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL).

The 1925 Stanley Cup Finals saw the Western Canada Hockey League champion Victoria Cougars defeat the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1 in the best-of-five game series. Games one, three and four were played at the Patrick Arena. The next year the Western Canada Hockey League was renamed as the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Victoria Cougars winning the league championship again. In Victoria's second Stanley Cup Final the Montreal Maroons were too strong, out scoring Victoria 10 to 3 and handily beating them three games to one at the newly built Montreal Forum. The Western Hockey League folded following the 1925–26 season.

The next league of Hockey in Victoria was the Victoria Cubs who began play in the 1928-1929 season. They were scheduled to play in the 1929-1930 season but a fire destroyed the Patrick Arena on November 11, 1929 and the team played that season as a "road team".

Greater Victoria was without pro Hockey until 1949, when a new version of the Victoria Cougars joined a new version of the WHL in the new Memorial Arena in downtown Victoria.

Sourced from Oak Bay History. Credited to A Patrick Family member.

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