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New Westminster Bruins

Ice hockey team

Field	Value
team	New Westminster Bruins
logo	NWBruins.png
city	New Westminster, British Columbia
league	Western Hockey League
operated	–81 and 1983–88
championships	1977 & 1978 Memorial Cup Champions
arena	Queen's Park Arena
colours	Black, white & gold
name1	Calgary Buffaloes
dates1	1966–67
name2	Calgary Centennials
dates2	1967–77
name3	Billings Bighorns
dates3	1977–82
name4	Nanaimo Islanders
dates4	1982–83
name5	New Westminster Bruins
dates5	1983–88
name6	Tri-City Americans
dates6	1988-Present
altname1	Estevan Bruins
altdates1	1966–71
altname2	New Westminster Bruins
altdates2	1971–81
altname3	Kamloops Junior Oilers
altdates3	1981–84
altname4	Kamloops Blazers
altdates4	1984-Present

The New Westminster Bruins were a major junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League. There were two franchises that carried this name:

1971–1981 (formerly the Estevan Bruins, now the Kamloops Blazers)
1983–1988 (formerly the Nanaimo Islanders, now the Tri-City Americans) Both incarnations of the franchise played at Queen's Park Arena in the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster, British Columbia.

History

First Bruins

The franchise began in 1946 as the Humboldt Indians of the original version of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (1948–1966), moving to Estevan to become the Bruins in 1957. They were a founding member of the Western Canada-based Canadian Major Junior Hockey League (later renamed the Western Canada Hockey League) in 1966. The Estevan Bruins had been a successful franchise, including a loss in the 1968 Memorial Cup national championship, when team owner and coach Punch McLean moved the team to New Westminster for the 1971–72 WCHL season.

New Westminster Bruins logo used by the second incarnation of the franchise.

Once the team arrived in New Westminster, the success continued throughout much of the decade. The Bruins won the President's Cup four times in a row between 1975 and 1978. They made it to the Memorial Cup finals four years in a row as well, losing in 1975 and 1976 before winning it in 1977 and 1978. The WCHL was renamed the Western Hockey League for the 1978–79 WHL season. That season, after a brawl at the end of a game against Portland in March 1979 at Queens Park Arena, some local hockey fans started to look with disfavour upon the Bruins' rough tactics, and the team's popularity began to wane. The Bruins moved to Kamloops, British Columbia, for the 1981–82 WHL season, where they would become first the Kamloops Junior Oilers and, from the 1984–85 WHL season, the Kamloops Blazers.

Second Bruins

The second incarnation of the Bruins arrived in New Westminster in 1983 from Nanaimo, British Columbia, where they had previously been known as the Nanaimo Islanders. The team originated in Calgary in 1966–67 with a stop as the Billings Bighorns. The team only played one season in Nanaimo before moving. The new Bruins did not enjoy the same level of success, and lasted only five seasons in New Westminster before moving to Kennewick, Washington, to become the Tri-City Americans. This franchise has never won the WHL championship in any of its incarnations.

Season-by-season records

First Bruins (1971–81)

Note: GP = games played, W = wins, L = losses, T = ties Pts = points, GF = goals for, GA = goals against

1980–81	72	17	54	1	306	512	35	5th West	Out of playoffs

Second Bruins (1983–88)

1987–88	72	33	34	5	339	358	71	4th West	Lost West Division semi-final

NHL alumni

Totals include both incarnations of the Bruins

Mike Allison
Glenn Anderson
Stu Barnes
Barry Beck
Fred Berry
Ken Berry
Craig Berube
Jim Camazzola
Al Cameron
Steve Clippingdale
Ed Cooper
Scott Daniels
Larry DePalma
Jim Dobson
Todd Ewen
Link Gaetz
Ron Greschner
Glen Hanlon
Lorne Henning
Bob Hess
Brent Hughes
John-Paul Kelly
Darin Kimble
Dean Kolstad
Olaf Kolzig
Doug Kostynski
Kevin Krook
Gord Lane
Derek Laxdal
Gord Laxton
Jamie Leach
Mark Lofthouse
Larry Lozinski
Bernie Lukowich
Mike MacWilliam
Stewart Malgunas
Don Martineau
Brad Maxwell
Alan May
Larry Melnyk
Vic Mercredi
Jay More
Glenn Mulvenna
Brian Noonan
John Ogrodnick
Dave Orleski
Clayton Pachal
Harold Phillipoff
Bill Ranford
Mark Recchi
Pokey Reddick
Terry Richardson
Cliff Ronning
Kevin Schamehorn
Rick Shinske
Reid Simpson
Barry Smith
Vern Smith
Stan Smyl
Ed Staniowski
Daryl Stanley
Bob Stumpf
Brian Young
Miles Zaharko
Mike Zanier

References

2005–06 WHL Guide
hockeydb.com

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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