Mac MacLean was seething. It was game three of the 1973 Centennial Cup national championship series in Brandon, Manitoba and his Pembroke Lumber Kings had just had the last six minutes of their game with the Portage La Prairie Terriers wiped out by referee Bill Chapple. MacLean had felt his team had been getting the proverbial short end of the stick ever since the series had opened, but this was unbelievable. Ending a Centennial Cup game early had infuriated MacLean, who was quick to tell reporters his team would be protesting the decision.
Chapple had pulled the plug on the game after a lengthy argument with MacLean, who he said refused to organize his players to resume play after the referee had penalized the Kings for delay of game. Pembroke was losing 3-1 when defenceman Murray Thrasher was penalized and his teammate Marty Gannon was thrown out of the game for arguing the call. Frustrated by the constant stream of Lumber Kings being sent to the penalty box, MacLean made his point to the official by sending several of his players onto the ice. Chapple didn’t like it and gave the Kings a penalty for delay of game. Then, he stopped the game, declaring it over.
“The referee choked,” declared MacLean, adding, “We had eight men on the ice and they had seven. We were both making changes at the time. He (Chapple) lost control of the game and we’re protesting.” The Kings did protest, but the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association sided with the official and the result stood, making that game the only Centennial Cup match in history to be called before a full 60 minutes had been played.
Many years later, MacLean had vivid memories of the episode and was still upset with the way the series had played out, feeling his Lumber Kings were the better team, but just couldn’t get a break. Not winning the national title remained one of his greatest disappointments in a junior hockey coaching career that spanned decades.
Mac Maclean died recently, having lived to almost 91 years of age. His coaching career in the Central Junior Hockey included stops in Pembroke, Smiths Falls, Hawkesbury and Brockville, but that 1972-73 season with the Lumber Kings was special. It was his second year behind the bench of the Kings and his team was loaded with talent.
Great players like Tim Young, Rod Schutt, Steve Croucher, Randy Mohns and Pat Hahn lit up the scoresheet as the club rolled to a record smashing season that included a 33 game undefeated streak. It was also a tough team. Players like Terry Conroy, Murray Thrasher and Derek Emerson spent a lot of time in the penalty box and were masters at playing an intimidating brand of hockey that pleased MacLean. The Kings were so good that the Smiths Falls Bears and Brockville Braves intentionally tried to throw their late season game against each other to avoid playing them in the first round of the playoffs. Both teams were expelled from the post-season, leaving the Kings to play a best of nine final which they swept against the Ottawa M & W Rangers.
From there they knocked out the Saint Paul Vulcans, Chatham Maroons and the St. Jerome Alouettes to claim the Eastern Canadian Championship banner, but as fate would have it, the national championship series would be played entirely in Western Canada, a huge disadvantage for a team that was undefeated on home ice during the regular season. A flu bug, injuries, bad breaks, a hot Terriers goaltender and perhaps a bit of overconfidence cost the Kings.
The Terriers were known as a tough team, but MacLean told reporters before leaving for Manitoba that he wasn’t intimidated by the Western Canadian champions. He suggested they were a “one-line team,” a remark that gave the opposition the chip on the shoulder they needed to prepare for the series, but early in game one it looked like MacLean was right. The Kings built a 4-1 second period lead, and then the roof caved in. The Terriers stormed back and won the game 7-5 in a ten minute overtime period. The Kings never recovered from that loss.
It stung and when Pembroke dropped the second game 4-2, they were in trouble. Then came the infamous third game, called with several minutes still on the clock, and suddenly the Kings were facing elimination. Pembroke pulled up its socks and won game four in front of a record breaking Centennial Cup crowd of almost 9,000 fans at the Winnipeg Arena, but the Terriers finished off the Kings in game five. The team was returning home without a national championship, but still as heroes in the eyes of the city’s rabid fan base.
Born in 1933, MacLean grew up in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, joining the Canadian Armed Forces at 19 years of age. In 1958 he was posted to Camp Petawawa, and in addition to playing on military hockey teams he also spent three seasons with the Pembroke Senior Lumber Kings and suited up for Petawawa’s men’s baseball team. It was in the military where he got his start at coaching hockey, but his first shot at coaching junior hockey came out of the blue. Prior to the start of the 1971-72 season, MacLean was running a small sports store and dropped by to see Lumber Kings General Manager Art Bogart to try and sell him some hockey sticks for his team. That chance meeting changed his life.
Bogart had been affiliated with both the senior and junior Lumber Kings for decades and was familiar with MacLean from his time playing with the senior squad in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. He liked his competitive spirit and was aware of his coaching time within the military. He also knew MacLean was well connected and a good scout of talent. He hired him on the spot and together they built a team that remains one of the best to ever play in the Central Junior Hockey League.
The success of the Lumber Kings that season put Pembroke into a hockey frenzy and as the head coach of the team, MacLean was as popular as a small town celebrity can be. The Mac MacLean show on CHOV TV aired weekly during the season and MacLean was frequently quoted in the Pembroke Observer and interviewed on local radio. The big city newspapers in Ottawa also paid attention to MacLean and his Lumber Kings as they destroyed league records, losing only four games in the regular season before breezing through the playoffs and advancing to the Centennial Cup final.
An easy decision for the league executive to make, MacLean was named the league’s coach of the year. After receiving his trophy, he boldly predicted, “There is no doubt that we will be back next year. I am confident that we can repeat this year’s performance and then take the cup.”
That’s not how things played out. Maclean had caught the attention of the major junior leagues. He accepted an offer to coach the Sudbury Wolves, taking talented 16-year old forward Rod Schutt with him to the Nickel City, a move that helped Schutt eventually make it to the National Hockey League after he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens.
MacLean’s departure coincided with the loss of several graduating players who moved on to college hockey and younger talented players like Schutt and Tim Young who advanced to major junior. The team was only a shell of what it was when new coach Bryan Murray stepped in to replace MacLean. The Kings made the playoffs, but were knocked out early. Meanwhile in Sudbury, MacLean’s Wolves were struggling too. After only one season in Northern Ontario, MacLean was back in Pembroke for the 1974-75 season, but again the phone rang as he was courted by the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey Association.
He took the job with the Rangers but things didn’t work out for MacLean coaching at the major junior level. After Kitchener, he never coached in the OHA again. Instead, he settled into coaching jobs at the Junior A level, becoming a pillar of the Central Junior Hockey League where he was both a builder and protector of the league.
In the mid-1980’s he brought the Smiths Falls Bears back into the league after a nine year absence when he purchased the defunct franchise and then he joined with other veteran league coaches, Jeff MacLean and Jim Farelli, to come up with a plan to protect the league from folding. Rising operational costs, including paying older players, had left the league with only five teams. The league leaders opted to lower the number of 20 year old players who could be on a team’s roster and return to the league’s original focus of being a developmental league for younger players.
It worked, and gradually the league added teams as clubs became more financially sustainable and attractive to would be junior hockey team owners. It set the league on a course for success as teams were added across Eastern Ontario and former teams were brought back into the fold. Today, the renamed Central Canada Hockey League has 12 teams.
During his time behind a bench, Jim Farelli would be among MacLean’s greatest rivals. They were teammates with the former Senior Lumber Kings and both had coached both Junior A and Major Junior A teams by the time Farelli revived a struggling Pembroke franchise in the 1980’s. Farelli would lead the Lumber Kings to six championships in eight years, frequently meeting MacLean’s Brockville Braves in the playoffs. In most years, Farelli’s Lumber Kings came out on top, but not in 1986 when MacLean finally bested Farelli as his Braves claimed the Art Bogart championship trophy by beating the Kings in the final.
While the two men competed hard when their teams met, they were friendly off the ice. In the spring of 1988, after the Kings had again eliminated MacLean’s Braves in the semi-finals, Farelli told his old friend he had colon cancer and needed to have surgery. Without hesitation MacLean agreed to Farelli’s request that he coach the Lumber Kings until Farelli was healthy enough to return.
With Farelli hospitalized and listening to Kings playoff games on the radio, MacLean stepped in and steered the Kings to another league championship and a first round Centennial Cup playdowns victory over the Quebec league champions. He had the Kings in the driver seat when they faced the Northern Ontario champions from Thunder Bay, allowing Farelli to return to finish off the series and then play host to the Centennial Cup tournament at the Pembroke Memorial Centre.
At the end of the 1988-89 season, with another championship under his belt, Farelli left Canada to take a coaching job with a senior team in Italy. It only lasted a year. He returned and took on an administrative role with the Central Junior Hockey League. MacLean was still coaching and in April of 1997 his Braves were hosting the Fred Page Cup, the newly created Eastern Canadian championship tournament.
Representing the league, Farelli travelled to Brockville to check in with MacLean, joining him for lunch at a restaurant. As they left the eatery Farelli dropped his keys several times in the parking lot. MacLean quipped, asking his friend, “What the Hell is wrong with you Jimmy?” Something was seriously wrong. Farelli was having a stroke, one that would leave him in a coma for several weeks before he passed away with his family by his side.
Jim Farelli was 65 when he died. His death was a tough blow for MacLean who was about the same age as his friend. MacLean had been thinking about retiring as a coach. He had been a fixture behind the Brockville bench for many years, but Pembroke always held a special place in his heart and so he accepted an offer from Kings owner Terry Olsheski in the spring of 1999 to return to the Lumber Kings.
MacLean told a news conference, “I started my junior hockey career here and I’m going to end it here obviously.”
His coaching pedigree and the fondness in which Lumber Kings fans viewed MacLean after his success in the 1970’s led to a strong endorsement from the Observer who headlined his hiring as “MacLean Brings Credibility to Lumber Kings.” But MacLean couldn’t bring his previous winning ways back to the city. The highlight in his last coaching run in Pembroke was winning his 700th career game, setting a league record that still stands. A banner hangs in the Pembroke Memorial Centre acknowledging that game, a 3-2 Lumber Kings win over his former Brockville team, and MacLean’s incredible coaching success.
When he retired from coaching, MacLean stepped into a leadership role with the league becoming its President and later Commissioner. At one point he explored starting up a senior league in the Ottawa Valley to give former junior players a place to play. He stayed active in hockey circles for a few more years and then quietly retired living in Athens, Kingston and Brockville where he is a member of the Brockville Sports Hall of Fame.
As he aged and his health failed, MacLean entered long term care in the spring of 2023. Later that Fall, players from his 1972-73 Lumber Kings team gathered at the Pembroke Memorial Centre to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their magical season. The group included Randy Mohns, Pat Hahn, Gord Barratt, Brian Shields, Rod Schutt and many more players who had remained in the Pembroke area after their hockey careers had ended. MacLean’s family tried to get him to the reunion but had to cancel their travel plans, feeling it would have been too much for him to make the trip from Brockville to Pembroke.
A picture of MacLean’s 1972-73 Lumber Kings hangs on the Lumber Kings Wall of Honour at the Pembroke Memorial Centre. His passing will rekindle memories of that team and how much excitement that incredible season brought to the city. Mac MacLean left his mark in Pembroke’s rich hockey history.
