New Westminster hockey legend Ernie “Punch” McLean has died.
McLean, who coached the old New Westminster Bruins junior hockey team to four straight Memorial Cup appearances in the 1970s, winning two of them, was killed in a single-vehicle accident Friday, confirmed his friend Patrick Singh.
Wednesday, Singh hosted McLean and other local dignitaries at a news conference at Queen’s Park Arena to launch a campaign to erect a statue in front of the venerable rink honouring the 93-year-old coach.
“I lost a true close friend today,” said Singh, the director of the Ernie Punch McLean Legacy Foundation. “I’ll cherish the closeness we shared.”
McLean’s death was first reported on social media late Friday evening by TSN broadcaster Farhan Lalji, who emceed Wednesday’s event.
Singh said he often ran into McLean, who lived in Coquitlam, at the gym at Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. They became friends when he started working on a song about the colourful coach, known for some of his antics like plucking the toupée off of the head of a referee during an argument and tossing a garbage can on the ice at Queen’s Park Arena when he thought another official missed a tripping penalty.
SUBMITTED PHOTO Former New Westminster Bruins’ coach Ernie “Punch” McLean (centre) re-enacts his famous garbage can toss at Queen’s Park Arena with the help of Craig Hodge, who captured the moment on film when he was a photographer at the old Columbian newspaper, during a recent gathering at the John B Pub in Coquitlam.
McLean, who grew up in Estevan, Sask., was an accomplished player in his youth and earned an invitation to the New York Rangers’ training camp when he was 17 years old.
When McLean didn’t make the team, he joined the Humboldt Indians of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and eventually became its assistant coach.
McLean was the head coach and co-owner of the Western Canadian Hockey League’s Estevan Bruins when he decided in 1971 to move the team to New West, to become the league’s first west coast franchise. He guided the Bruins for 14 seasons, winning the Memorial Cup national junior hockey championship in 1977 and 1978.
Singh, who confessed he used to sneak into Queen’s Park Arena as a youth to catch Bruins’ games, said the atmosphere was often electric as nobody knew what might happen during the team’s rough-and-tumble era when brawls involving every player on the ice frequently occurred.
“It was a gong show,” said Singh. “It was just waiting to explode.”
Despite the antics, McLean built a reputation for success. More than 100 players he coached went on to play in the NHL and the 1,067 games he was behind the bench still stands as the second most all-time in the Western Hockey League.
One of McLean’s players, defenceman Barry Beck, said his junior hockey coach was the reason he made it to the NHL.
“His key to success was how he managed to get the utmost from every player,” said Beck, who was part of three Bruins’ Memorial Cup teams before going on to play 10 seasons in the NHL with the Colorado Rockies, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. “Every Bruin would have died for Ernie. That’s how much he was loved.”
Beck’s former Bruins’ teammate, Mark Lofthouse, added McLean “had a blueprint to winning and each player felt they all had a significant role. He lived his life to the fullest.”
That included McLean’s time away from the hockey rink which he often spent prospecting for gold in British Columbia’s wilderness.
In 2009, when McLean was 77 years old, he went missing in the bush for four days and five nights without food or supplies after he tumbled into a ravine and got disoriented while climbing out.
McLean was rescued when a helicopter pilot spotted him from the air as he walked along a trail.
Longtime hockey commentator Jeff Marek said on X Saturday morning, “The stories of Punch will live forever, as will his memory in hockey.”
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Top photo: COLUMBIAN COMPANY FONDS/NEW WESTMINSTER ARCHIVE Ernie “Punch” McLean coached the old New Westminster Bruins hockey team for 14 years, leading it to four Memorial Cup finals and two championships.
