BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
NEW YORK — Corbin McGuire remembers the moment, but was too young to fully appreciate it.
He was 5 the first time he set foot in Madison Square Garden. He was accompanied by his dad. It was April 18, 1999 and the iconic place was abuzz.
Earlier that week, a banker friend called Dennis McGuire and asked him if he wanted two tickets to see the New York Rangers play their NHL regular-season finale versus Pittsburgh.
Dennis, a newly transplanted advertising specialist, agreed to take them knowing only that his oldest son, who was born in Minnesota and loved hockey, would be thrilled.
Neither had a clue the greatest hockey player ever was about to make an announcement that would make the tickets keepsakes and set off an unlikely series of events involving Corbin McGuire at The Garden.
"It was the last game of the season and the Rangers were not in the playoffs," Dennis McGuire recalled. "The next day, Gretzky announced his retirement and you couldn't get a ticket."
Wayne Gretzky, the all-time leading scorer in NHL history, played the final game of his 20-year career with New York that Sunday.
Gretzky was such an iconic performer that both National Anthem singers tweaked the lyrics to acknowledge him that day and his jersey No. 99 was immediately retired by the NHL.
Gretzky assisted on the lone goal against the Penguins, finished with 2,857 points in his career and was quickly inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame, waiving the usual waiting period.
About all Corbin remembers from that day is that the Rangers lost 2-1 in overtime, that future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr accounted for the winning goal and that fans stayed in their seats until after Gretzky made a heartfelt postgame speech.
"It was an amazing experience," Corbin said.
No one knew at the time that McGuire, a diminutive senior defenseman for the Wisconsin men's hockey team, would have two more appearances at the place regarded as the World's Most Famous Arena.
The latest came Saturday when the Badgers finished off a unique Big Ten Conference series with a 3-2 overtime decision over eighth-ranked Ohio State at The Garden.
The meeting came two nights after UW manufactured a 3-1 victory over the Buckeyes at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
The matchup occurred hours after the 15th-ranked Wisconsin men's basketball opened a Big Ten-organized double-header with a 61-54 overtime triumph over Rutgers at MSG.
This wasn't the first time McGuire skated a shift at Madison Square Garden, which opened in 1968 and is the oldest arena in the NHL, nor was it the first time he'd felt the joy of winning.
"I keep telling the guys that this is a great thing to be a part of," he said Friday, "but you're going to remember it a lot longer when you win."
That became reality for the Badgers when junior center Cameron Hughes banged a loose puck home with 2 minutes, 58 seconds left in the extra session.
The conversion put an exclamation mark on a landmark performance. Wisconsin (13-8-1 overall, 6-2 in the Big Ten) blew a two-goal lead in the final 1:40, but regrouped emotionally and found a way to prevail.
The outcome left McGuire in tears afterward.
"You have no idea how proud I am of you guys," he told a raucous visitor's dressing room.
Junior Ranger
Ten years ago, McGuire was a member of the New York Junior Rangers when they played the Junior Islanders in the midtown Manhattan facility. The Rangers came away with a 2-0 victory and McGuire apparently scored a goal.
He doesn't recall it, but his mother, Mindy, insists he did.
"I can't believe you don't remember," she told him this week.
What Corbin does remember about his first game at MSG is taking the train from his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut wearing his hockey gear for the 35-mile ride.
"I remember being so nervous," he said.
The Garden, McGuire said, "seemed huge, especially with no one in the stands."
Dennis McGuire, who has an office on 55th street, rode with his son and soaked in the experience. His favorite memory was all-encompassing.
"It was just the experience being there," he said.
There was no thought to what the future might hold.
"Ten years ago you really didn't think that far ahead," Dennis said. "You were more just focused on the moment.
"The fact that as a 12-year-old he was able to play at MSG representing the Rangers, you focused on the moment. You really didn't think that far ahead or where it would take the players."
The game was part of a series of meetings between pee wee teams associated with the local NHL clubs — the Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils — and featured some prominent coaches.
For the Rangers, it was Hall of Famer Mark Messier and Adam Graves, two fixtures on the Stanley Cup-winning outfit in 1994 whose numbers — 11 and 9, respectively — are retired and hanging from the MSG rafters.
McGuire posted decade-old photos of him posing with the two men on his Instagram account earlier this week.
"They were both great coaches," he said. "I can't say enough good things about those two guys.
"To have them mentor me throughout the process all my years leading up to college was really helpful."
It was an important time in McGuire's development. He wound up at Taft School and had stints in the U.S. Hockey League and Eastern Junior Hockey League before making his way to Madison in 2013-14.
"That kind of jump started my hockey career," McGuire said of his time with the Junior Rangers. "That was my first year playing at a higher level."
Known for his speed and tenacity, McGuire came to the Badgers as a winger, but made the full-time transition to defense last season. He currently leads all UW blue-liners with five goals.
"Who would have thought that 10 years later I'd be here in a Wisconsin jersey?" McGuire asked rhetorically.
The day after the Badgers arrived here, McGuire sported a Rangers cap walking around Time Square and was heartened by the response.
"I got three 'Let's go Rangers,'" he noted with a smile.
Giving Back
Upon returning from New York, Corbin and his teammates planned to gather Sunday for the Mad City Pond Hockey Championships at Esser's Pond in Middleton.
The event has 82 entries from all over the nation — including teams from Florida and New Jersey — and all the proceeds go to the UW Carbone Cancer Center.
McGuire said he has people close to him who are dealing with the disease, prompting him to volunteer his time through the Badgers Give Back program.
"It connects hockey and something close to my heart right now," he said of the pond hockey event. "It means a lot to me and it means a lot to our team."
For example, Hughes' younger brother, Ethan, recently had a kidney removed following a cancer diagnosis.
"Everyone has someone that's gone through this," McGuire said. "It's nice to be around people that are going through the same things you're going through.
"It's something I'm passionate about and I know all the guys in the room are passionate about as well because they see what a great event it is and how hard these people are working to contribute."
