It All Started In Manitoba

You can make a case that Manitoba might be one of the places on the planet where coaches take their games to the next level. We've seen the likes of Andy Murray, Barry Trotz, Fred Shero, and Wayne Fleming do some amazing things at a number of levels, but one name that should join those illustrious coaches is Gardiner MacDougall. Granted, MacDougall isn't from Manitoba originally like the four aforementioned men, but he has roots in the Keystone Province in the same way that Paul Maurice, Bob Lowes, and Venla Hovi have rich ties to the province. In knowing that MacDougall likely has built himself a Hockey Hall of Fame career thanks to his incredible body of work out in the Maritimes, I thought it might a good time to shine a little light on a guy whose name is synonymous with winning at every level where he has coached.

We need to jump back to northern Manitoba in the 1980s to see where MacDougall's story started, and that takes us to a place called Cranberry Portage which sits north of The Pas and southeast of Flin Flon. MacDougall had been hired to coach the Frontier College Institute's high school hockey team as well as jumping in with the midget Winter Hawks program in the region. MacDougall must have done well in helping these programs find success because he'd get his first big break in 1990 when he was hired as an assistant coach by the nearby SJHL team in the Flin Flon Bombers! And while he was just an assistant coach at the time, his two seasons with the Bombers got him ready for his next opportunity in northern Manitoba.

"I realized there is a lot to coaching," MacDougall told Saltwire's Jason Simmonds about his first year with Frontier College Institute. "I remember coming back that summer from working in Manitoba and working at Doug MacLean's hockey school (in Summerside). I tried to immerse myself and find out everything about the game I could."

After spending a few seasons in Saskatchewan coaching the Lebret Eagles in the SJHL between 1993-96, MacDougall was hired as the first head coach in the history of the MJHL's OCN Blizzard in 1996. His work with the Blizzard would see them build towards a Turnbull Cup Championship in their third season of existence with the likes of Jordin and Terence Tootoo leading the way. The Blizzard posted a 33-18-5 record in 1996-97, a 42-18-1 record in 1997-98, and a 53-7-2 record in 1998-99 en route to the championship! In three seasons, MacDougall had built a powerhouse at the MJHL level, and a familiar team came calling once again after his successes in The Pas.

In 1999, the Flin Flon Bombers hired MacDougall as their director of hockey operations where the squad went 29-27-4. What the Bombers likely didn't know at that time is that MacDougall has his sights set on a higher level of hockey as his want to return to the Maritimes where he grew up grew larger with every passing season. He would finally get his break to return home when he was hired as the head coach of the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds men's hockey head coach on his third time applying for the position!

Since arriving in Fredericton, the Reds have won eight U SPORTS championships under MacDougall's guidance and 11 AUS championships. Twice he's been named U SPORTS Coach of the Year - 2015 and 2010 - while also being named AUS Coach of the Year on five occasions. In his sixth season behind the bench of the Reds, he became the winningest coach in program history, and has since set records that puts him in a class of his own in U SPORTS.

November 22, 2019 saw MacDougall record his 400th regular season coaching win, he added his 600th regular season and playoff win as UNB's head coach on January 20, and he won his 489th U SPORTS regular season game on February 6 to become the winningest coach in U SPORTS history. In terms of individual seasons, he coached the 2007-08 team to a 31-1-1 as the most successful season to date in AUS play, and that team holds the record for the most wins in a single season (43) in Canadian university hockey. And he may add another historical note to his already-impressive list of accomplishments this season - more on this in a second.

Besides being one of U SPORTS' best coaches of all-time, his work elsewhere has been impeccable as well. In January 2023, MacDougall coached Team Canada to the gold medal at the FISU World Winter University Games in Lake Placid, adding a third gold medal to his resumé after coaching Canada to the World University Games gold medal in Trentino, Italy in 2013 and as an assistant coach at the 2007 Games in Torino, Italy. Add in five weeks as the head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2022 where he helped the QMJHL squad win the 2022 Memorial Cup after downing the Hamilton Bulldogs in the final, and it's pretty clear that MacDougall gets results no matter who he coaches. It seems all he does is win.

That last line is important because the current iteration of the Varsity Reds is trying to do something not seen since the 197-2-73 season in U SPORTS play. Tomorrow night, the UNB Varisty Reds will host the UPEI Panthers in their final AUS regular season game of the season, and it's a big one as the Reds currently sit at 29-0-0 on the season, meaning a win tomorrow will give them a perfect season for the first time in U SPORTS play in 50 years. For a coach who seemingly has done everything, this record should, in this writer's view, give him enough credibility to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after being inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.

While we can't claim the Bedeque, PEI native as our own, it's pretty awesome that the best coach of all-time in U SPORTS history cut his coaching teeth in Manitoba. MacDougall will always be a part of MJHL lore thanks to his work with the OCN Blizzard, and that championship was the start of a long list of achievements and championships for which Gardiner MacDougall has designed the blueprints.

Here's hoping the Reds win game #30 tomorrow night for yet another achievement he can claim, and it's time we start talking about Gardiner MacDougall's induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a coach because I'm not sure we'll see another bench boss in this lifetime, or perhaps ever, like him.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!