Dean Clark found the ingredients on Wednesday to join a prestigious baker's dozen.
He's one of only 13 Western Hockey League head coaches to win 400 regular season games.
The 46-year-old Clark was behind the bench at CN Centre Wednesday when his Prince George Cougars beat Brandon 5-3. In 14 seasons with Calgary, Brandon, Kamloops and Prince George, he's compiled a record of 400-313-63, which gains him entry into that exclusive club.
"Lorne Johnston and Chuck Matson with Calgary got me into this league about 15 years ago -- they believed in me and you need people to believe in you in order to do the things that I've done," said Clark.
"I've got the same thing here with Dallas (Thompson) and Rick (Brodsky) believing in me too. You can't have success unless you have the support. My wife Darilyn sometimes gets left in the background a bit but she allows me to pursue my dream. She's the one who encouraged me to get back into the league and take this job so I love her a lot for letting me do the things I need to do."
Clark, a father of five, still has a ways to go to catch the all-time winningest coach, Ken Hodge, who won 742 games over 22 seasons with Edmonton and Portland.
"Everywhere I've been, whether it was Calgary, Brandon or Kamloops, I've had good players to work with and it's no different here," Clark said. "People couldn't see it last year but we did a lot of things last year to build it and we stuck to our plan and you can see the results now."
The Cougars (6-4-1-0) are two points out of first place in the B.C. Division, a far cry from last year, when they went 12-56-1-0 and finished last over in the 60-team CHL. With one year of junior A coaching experience with the St. Albert Saints, Clark took over the Hitmen from Graham James when the sex scandal broke in 1996. The first season he won just 15 games, but in the next three won 40, 51 and 58 times, taking the Hitmen to a WHL championship and the Memorial Cup final, which Calgary lost in overtime to Ottawa. He also tasted success in Brandon, taking the Wheat Kings to the conference final in 2003. He sees that same kind of steamroller gathering momentum with the Cougars.
"It reminds me a lot of my first year in Calgary when we won 15 games, and last year we won 12," Clark said. "This year we're starting to figure it out, and when you get the confidence we have at the moment it's amazing what you can do, and our guys believe. Dallas has done a great job getting some players, our back end is almost rebuilt with (Sena) Acoltase, (Cody) Carlson and (Martin) Marincin and all those guys.
"It allows us to play a style of play that's very entertaining for our fans and right now it seems to be giving us some success."
The native of St. Albert, Alta., was good enough in his playing days to get drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in eighth round in 1982. Clark started out as left winger with the St. Albert Saints, spent a half-season at Ferris State, then played three seasons in the WHL with Kamloops.
He has a tall order on his plate this weekend trying to pick up career wins 401 and 402 when the Cougars play host to the Tri-City Americans tonight and Saturday (both 7 p.m. starts) at CN Centre. Sporting an 8-3-1-0 record, the Americans are just two points behind Portland for first-overall in the WHL, four points ahead of the Cougars, who have a game in hand.
"Tri is a good team, well over .500, and it will be a good measuring stick for us to see how we compare," said Cougars captain Brett Connolly. "The guys are excited to play them and we're looking forward to it. That's Spencer's (Cougars forward Auchak's) old team and he'll be flying out there now that he's cleared to play (after missing two games with a concussion). It's exciting to for him to be playing as well as he is and hopefully he'll be able to bring that into the games this weekend."
