the first game. He returned for the succeeding games, helping Ottawa to win the remaining games, 4–2 and 5–4, and retain the Cup. Though the Thistles lost the challenge, they were praised, newspapers noting the players' speed in particular. The Montreal Star claimed the Thistles were not only the fastest team from the west to challenge for the Cup, but the fastest "ever... seen anywhere on ice". Before heading home after the series, the team played exhibition matches in Montreal and Toronto attracting thousands of spectators. Stanley Cup champions League play, 1905–1907 The 1905–06 season saw Kenora (as the town had been renamed) easily win the championship, setting up another challenge for the Cup, scheduled for January 1907. Due to fears that teams were covertly paying their players, the Winnipeg Rowing Club, which had been expected to play in the MHA, withdrew. As ardent followers of amateurism (Canadian sporting rules made anyone who played against a professional a professional as well) the club could not take part and had been replaced by the Winnipeg Hockey Club. The other league teams denied paying players, the Thistles calling the accusations "ridiculous". Despite these denials, it is quite likely there were paid players in the league. Sports historian R.S. Lappage has noted that by this point "it was generally recognized that most eastern teams were paying their players, and it would be reasonable to expect that teams of the M.H.L.... had to pay their star players to retain their services". As early as 1903 financial offers had been made to players from the International Hockey League based in Michigan—the first openly professional ice hockey league in the world. Before the start of the 1906–07 season the issue of professionalism came up again for the Manitoba league. While most of the league's teams felt it should turn professional, the two Winnipeg teams (the Victorias and Winnipeg Hockey Club) were against this move and left the league. Though the league was now openly professional, the Thistles continued to remain a homegrown team, despite rumours before the season there would be a major overhaul of the roster. To accommodate the Thistles' challenge against the Wanderers in January, which saw the team gone for nearly a month, modifications to the regular season schedule had to be made. As the Thistles were a popular team and likely to draw large crowds, the other teams wanted a double round-robin