Hugh's Highland View: It was a team to be remembered

They were that good.

Coached by Fraser MacLean, assisted by Lawrence MacKinnon, and using all local talent, they accumulated impressive statistics throughout regular season and playoff action.

Consider their unwavering performances in the numbers department.

In the 40-game regular season, they posted a 31-6-3 record, outscoring their opponents, 271-118, while never losing in 20 home games at New Glasgow Stadium.

In five rounds of playoffs, they added a 20-5 mark, firing 144 pucks into enemy nets while allowing only 62 in return.

That left them with an overall 65-game season of 51 victories, 11 losses and three ties. The scoreboards showed 415 goals, with just 180 against.

It all showed up as well in the individual scoring race, the Bombers placing their top scorers in first, second, third, fifth and eighth positions. And look at those figures: scoring champion Lawrence (Boo) Borden (39-35-74), Brad Rutledge (38-29-67), Cecil Duff (35-32-67), Rocky MacNeil (28-37-65) and Billy MacMillan (22-40-62). Goaltender Harry Aikens was in on the super stats, too, winning the best goals-against average and topping the circuit in shutouts.

Usually. I try to avoid having too much arithmetic in a column, but it would have been pretty tough leaving out marks like those.

There had been other numbers, too, such as the attendance figures that simply grew and grew as series after series was won. By the finish line, New Glasgow Stadium’s seats were packed.

Yes, New Glasgow fans did their part as well. No seats were left empty.

As a former Pictonian, I was thrilled with that club, since its huge season happened in the first six months I was sports editor at The Chronicle Herald. I admit I burned a lot of rubber between metro and the county that winter.

As well, it was a thrill to see a Fraser MacLean-coached team on such a wonderful ride. He and I had been classmates at New Glasgow High School (NGHS).

And speaking of Fraser, it would be hard not to mention what a fine high school career he had as a defenceman at NGHS. Unfortunately, his university career ended after just two games with St. Francis Xavier X-Men due to a serious eye injury.

So it was an added thrill to see him enjoy such a great campaign behind the Bombers bench.

There was another year on the Bombers’ calendar: 1996. That’s when, at Branch 34 of the Royal Canadian Legion in New Glasgow, those great ‘72-73 Bombers were inducted into the Pictou County Sports Heritage Hall of Fame.

Now it’s 50 years, and I must point out the run of strong teams the Bombers knocked to the sidelines along the playoff road – the East Hants Penguins, Truro Bearcats and Halifax Blazers – to win the Metro Valley league; the Antigonish Bulldogs to add Nova Scotia honours, and the Colonel Gray Colonels of Charlottetown to reign as Maritime champs.

Then there’s the awards and commentaries behind the success.

Brad Rutledge, a valuable team captain, was presented the trophy for the Maritime title, quickly passing it around to his happy mates.

Thirty years later, in 2003, Brad and I chatted about the winning year.

“Oh, it was unreal,” he told me. “It was just like nobody could stop us. I wish we could have kept going, but time runs out, I guess. Right there, that was the highlight of my whole hockey career. After that, I wasn’t too interested in going on to play hockey.”

Players have emotion, even after 30 years.

“I’m so proud,” he summed it up. “As you see, I’m choking up now talking to you because I was so proud of that hockey team. Some of us were together all our hockey careers.

“When you called me the other night, I thought, oh my God, it’s 30 years. It’s hard to believe, 30 years later, we’re still talking about it. You still meet old fans in town and that’s all they talk about, which is good. They enjoyed it; we definitely enjoyed it.”

And Fraser MacLean? The usual quiet bench boss wasn’t his normal silent self when we looked back.

“This was tremendous, just tremendous,” he observed when all championships were rounded up. “We had all local players here, no imports, just all county guys. Our fans were very loyal. They got so caught up, and they travelled with us wherever we went. It was just tremendous. The county was almost hockey crazy then.”

The MacLean excitement lasted for a long time.

More than 30 years had passed and, as we talked like two happy kids, the old high school classmates recalled the story from start to finish.

That day, Fraser’s biggest smiles came when he viewed the team’s photo on his office wall and began identifying the young fellows who made it all possible.

I’m sure, if he had closed his eyes at that moment, he still could have named each player in their order in the picture.

He didn’t miss one: “Harry Aikens, Allan Cameron, Kevin Campbell, Keith Murdock, Bobby Mitchell, Ronnie Paris, Bart Bourguignon, Kyle Patterson, Billy MacMillan, Boo Borden, Phil Reid, Rocky MacNeil, Cecil Duff, Joey Breen, John MacLeod and, after winning the Metro Valley title, additions Syd Moore, Mike Backman and Albert Gamble.”

Fraser turned to me and, with a few tears almost appearing in his eyes, summed it up as only he could: “Winning with those guys was by far the highlight of my career. It couldn’t be any better than that. We won everything.”

I think, if we got together for a repeat conversation at this 50-year milestone, the MacLean emotions would be showing again.

The march through the Maritimes that winter meant that much.