Hockey icon Ernie 'Punch' McLean killed in northern B.C. crash

Tributes are pouring in for a towering figure in British Columbia's hockey community.

Ernie "Punch" McLean, 93, died in a single-vehicle crash near Dease Lake — about 230 kilometres south of the Yukon border — on Friday, CBC News has confirmed.

McLean led the Western Hockey League (WHL) New Westminster Bruins to four consecutive Memorial Cup finals and two championships between 1975-1978.

Patrick Singh, who founded the Ernie Punch McLean Legacy Foundation, met McLean several years when he was writing a song about the coach, and the pair quickly became friends.

He told CBC News that McLean's record-setting run with the Bruins will always be remembered, it was his "small-town boy" human side that stood out.

Hockey icon Ernie 'Punch' McLean killed in northern B.C. crash

“He was able to communicate on a one-to-one level. If you talked to Ernie, you felt like he was talking to you personally," he said.

“Anyone who walked up and asked questions or asked to get their picture taken with Ernie, Ernie would always make time for them.”

McLean was born in Estevan, Sask., where he served as head coach and co-owner of the Estevan Bruins in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League, which later became the WHL.

In 1971 he moved the club to New Westminster where the team captured the national junior hockey championship Memorial Cup in 1977 and 1978 — and earned a reputation for their rough style of play.

Singh said while McLean faced criticism for that tough style, the coach was actually preparing his squad for the type of hockey played in the NHL of the era.

More than 100 of his players would go on to skate in the NHL.

He holds the record for second-most WHL games coached with 1,067 and was Coach of the Year in 1975 and recipient of