One thing is crystal clear when you look at Gardiner MacDougall’s coaching career: he’s a winner.
The former University of New Brunswick coach racked up more than 700 varsity wins and nine Canadian titles. He’s also a Memorial Cup winner and a gold medallist on the international stage.
In just the past 14 months, he’s guided UNB to a national title with a perfect 43-0 record and helped Canada’s under-18 team capture gold.
And in his first season behind Moncton’s bench, MacDougall led the Wildcats to a Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League championship.
Now he’s seeking another Memorial Cup triumph.
“There’s been a lot of positive things,” he said. “I just hope there’s something left in the back pocket for this series coming up.”
The Wildcats play their first game at the top Canadian junior hockey tournament Saturday against the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights in Rimouski, Que.
The tournament’s round-robin began Friday with the host Oceanic facing the Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat Tigers.
MacDougall arrived in Moncton one year ago after 24 sparkling seasons with the UNB Reds, where he recorded the most regular-season wins in Canadian men’s university hockey.
When the 65-year-old from Bedeque, P.E.I., took over at UNB in 2000, he said it felt like the big leagues.
“And for 24 years it was. It was just a dream come true for me,” he said. “And when I took the job in Moncton last spring, I said, ‘This is my new NHL.’ When you walk in the arena and our facilities in Moncton, it’s a mini-NHL, it’s spectacular.”
The Moncton job also gave him a chance to team up with his son, Taylor MacDougall, who joined the Wildcats as general manager.
Together, they hit the ground running in Moncton.
A well-rounded team headlined by NHL draft prospect Caleb Desnoyers, the Wildcats paced the QMJHL with a 53-9-2 regular-season record in their first season under the MacDougalls.
Then came a 16-3 run in the playoffs en route to the league title, Moncton’s first since 2010, marking a special moment for the father and son duo.
“It’s one of those exhilarating lifetime moments,” Gardiner MacDougall said.
He describes his team’s playing style as “fast and faster.”
“We want to be fast with the puck, either passing it or skating it,” he said. “When we don’t have it, we want to be faster to get it back.”
Off the ice, Taylor MacDougall said his father is a master of getting players to buy in.
“He’s just so passionate,” said Taylor MacDougall, who played five seasons at UNB. “He’s got so much enthusiasm that I think it’s contagious.”
Dyllan Gill, a New Brunswick-born defenceman who joined the Wildcats midway through this season, was well aware of Gardiner MacDougall’s legend in the province when he arrived in Moncton.
Growing up, Gill attended UNB hockey camps in Fredericton. His father once told MacDougall he wanted his son to play for the Reds — a moment the coach still remembered years later.
“That was one of the first things that he brought up to me,” Gill said. “He takes so much pride in remembering everything about little details from all these little kids and all these camps.
“That’s what makes him such a special person.”
MacDougall also has a reputation for his catchphrases. “Just getting started” — or “JGS” for short — is one common refrain.
When MacDougall led the host Saint John Sea Dogs to the Memorial Cup as a pinch-hitter coach in 2022, he often thanked a figurative force called “Lady Mo” — short for momentum.
“We all have special ladies in our lives, grandmothers, our mothers, our wives,” he said during that tournament’s round-robin. “But the key to success tonight was a lady called Lady Mo — Miss Lady Momentum.
“Sometimes she’s hard to find. You don’t know how long she’s going to stay with you. We’re lucky tonight that we found her and she stayed with us for a while.”
The question now is whether she can find her way from Saint John to Rimouski.
“Let’s hope she can travel, and hopefully she finds the right bench here,” he said.
MacDougall’s success has some saying he should coach Canada at the world juniors after the program’s back-to-back quarterfinal exits. There are also rumblings that NHL teams are taking notice.
Those opportunities may loom, but for now, MacDougall’s sights are set on just getting another win.
“Our goal is to be the best we can on the opening shift on Saturday night,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
