Leader Post Article from Tuesday February 5

Historic milestone celebrated

Tim Switzer
The Leader-Post


Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Make it 1,000 wins and no ties for Weyburn Red Wings head coach Dwight McMillan.

McMillan, who won his 1,000th game with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team on Friday, was stripped of his neck tie following the win for it to head east to Toronto and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

McMillan's game notes, pen, the game puck and the game sheet were also snapped up by team president Ken Ferguson to head to the Hall of Fame to commemorate the historic victory.

McMillan is also to be celebrated on Friday at the Weyburn Colosseum during the first intermission of the Wings' game versus the Estevan Bruins.

"You hate to make too big a deal about it, but in this situation I don't think you can say or do enough -- it's really historic," said league president Laury Ryan.

That won't be the first such ceremony, however. After McMillan got win No. 1,000 on Friday, the host La Ronge Ice Wolves honoured the long time bench boss. The next night in Flin Flon, the Bombers made an on-ice presentation to McMillan and their players lined up to shake his hand.

McMillan has long said that he wants to think of it as just a win for the Red Wings, but he is about the only one willing to think that way.

"I don't think it will ever be matched," said Ryan. "How many people are going to have the passion to do it for 35-plus years?"

Looking back, Ryan is particularly impressed with the way McMillan has reached 1,000 wins and the way he has handled himself through more than three decades of junior A hockey.

"We've made some fairly significant changes over the past few years to secure our place within the hockey world," said Ryan. "A lot of times, when you ask people to change or move forward, you get a lot of resistance. The changes we have made have not been easy. We've had coaches or other people fighting change for one reason or another, but the one thing I've always found with Dwight is he has always embraced change. Who's the first one to step up and say, 'Hey, I want to be part of the World Junior A Challenge?' McMillan. Who's the first to say, 'Is there any way I can be a part of this Junior A Prospects Game?' Dwight McMillan. That's how he's maintained his passion so much. He wants to see the game get better."

McMillan has also done that without fanfare, much like he would prefer to handle the aftermath of his 1,000th win.

"He's pretty embarrassed by it all," said Ferguson. "He's a pretty humble man. He wishes the fanfare wasn't all there and that it was just another win. He's more worried about coming in first and having a good playoff run.

"We couldn't let it pass, though. It's something pretty special."

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Players-of-the-week: It has been a good week for Melfort Mustangs rookie defenceman Tommy Brown.

On Sunday, it was announced that Brown verbally committed to join the NCAA's Michigan Tech Huskies for the start of the 2009-10 season. On Monday, Brown was named the league's top blueliner for the week.

The Prince Albert product had a goal and three assists in three games last week to help Melfort to a 2-1 record. He is second among defencemen with 39 points on the season.

Regina native Taylor Nelson is the goaltender-of-the-week. Nelson went 2-0 for the Humboldt Broncos during the week, including a shutout of Melfort on Wednesday.

The Melville Millionaires' Daniel Hope is the forward-of-the-week. He had three goals and three assists in three games and has registered at least one point in his last seven games.

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Broncos on top of the heap: Humboldt is the new No. 1 team in the Canadian Junior A Hockey League rankings.

The Broncos won three road games during the week to move to 42-9-0-1 on the season and push past the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the No. 1 ranking.

Humboldt has been led this season by Nelson, who sports an incredible 1.82 goals-against average, and by Laurent Benjamin and Jordan Schindel, who each have 59 points.

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Stat-of-the-week: You can't say enough about this stat -- 1,000 wins.

McMillan reached 1,000 wins with a 4-1 win over the Wolves on Friday and joins Ottawa 67s great Brian Kilrea and NHL legend Scotty Bowman as the only coaches with 1,000 wins at one level of hockey.

With such a feat, hopefully more than McMillan's tie ends up in the Hall of Fame. The man who wore it should have his image adorned on the wall there, too.

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008