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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Shane Connelly has made two important debuts with the Wisconsin men's hockey team and it's telling which one made him more nervous.
The first came in January 2006. Connelly was a freshman goaltender for UW, pressed into extended duty by a knee injury to All-American starter Brian Elliott. The Badgers were ranked No. 1 in the nation and were preparing to face Western Collegiate Hockey Association rival and defending NCAA champion Denver at the Kohl Center.
A sellout crowd of 15,237 was on hand to see how Wisconsin and the 19-year-old rookie from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, would hold up in the face of intense pressure.
The second debut came last month. Connelly was just three weeks into his new gig as director of hockey operations for first-year UW coach Tony Granato.
The Badgers were scheduled to take part in a highly unusual Big Ten Conference series with Ohio State, one that started on Jan. 26 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and finished two nights later at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The match at MSG was part of a unique doubleheader that also included the UW men's basketball team facing Rutgers in a Big Ten game.
A lot of eyes were on Connelly as the newbie juggled weather reports, flight and bus schedules, practice and meeting itineraries, hotel rooming lists and ground transportation for a party that fluctuated between 50 and 100 persons for the four-day, two-stop tour.
Of course, one of those locations, New York City, has some of the most daunting travel issues in the world.
Connelly said coordinating the detail-laden trip was more of a challenge than his high-pressure college debut with the Badgers.
Why?
"I didn't want to mess anything up," he said.
Things didn't run perfectly, but unlike Connelly's first official start for UW — he made 22 saves, but lost a 1-0 decision — he felt his first trip as director of hockey operations was a success.
For one thing, the Badgers recorded a monumental sweep, winning 3-1 and 3-2 in overtime to move into a share of first place in the Big Ten and into the national rankings for the first time since 2014.
For another, outside of a pre-trip snowstorm that delayed the initial departure of the charter jet and a few minor timing issues with team get-togethers, the excursion went off without incident.
The UW men's basketball team did its part to make the Big Apple twin bill a success by taking down Rutgers 61-54 in overtime.
Connelly never looked or acted like he was frazzled on the trip, but there was a noticeable calm to his voice when it was over.
"I was more excited to play my first game," he said. "This was exciting, but there was a little more nervousness because if there was anything that was messed up, it would influence the guys on the ice.
"I was a little more stressed out for that trip just with all the moving parts."
Connelly's second debut at UW was one of the many storylines woven into this uncommon hockey trip, which showcased a new coaching staff, a new product and a new energy.
Granato and his staff — associate head coaches Don Granato and Mark Osiecki — opened up their operation to cameras, videographers, a social media specialist and a writer.
Access was granted to otherwise private areas — coaches' quarters, dressing rooms, team meetings, meals and study sessions — with the idea of providing a glimpse into how the Badgers travel, prepare and co-exist on the road.
Connelly is a pretty good starting point.
"Tony told me Tuesday before we left, 'I don't want you to stress out at all,'" he said. "I said, 'I'll try not to, but that's just not my personality.'
"Being a goaltender, you want everything detailed. You want everything to go a certain way when you're preparing."
Connelly said working with the first-year staff has been a treat because, like him, they're UW alums who understand the culture of the program. The three coaches also have lived the NHL life as either a player, head coach or assistant.
"They've seen everything, so if I bring them something on one end they've probably seen it 10 times," Connelly said.
"It's been really nice. We're all trying to figure out what works best, so there's a lot of ideas thrown out there. There's no one way that's the right way. Everyone has an opinion and we try to make the best decision possible."
One objective drives the process.
"They put the players in the program first," Connelly said. "The standard for Badger hockey is always going to be at the highest."
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SO IT BEGINS
The charter flight from Madison to Columbus, Ohio, left about 40 minutes late in part due to snowy conditions.
The coaches and support staff drove their cars to Wisconsin Aviation and walked a slushy path to a draft hangar where IDs and carry-on luggage were checked. The group included Linda Granato, Tony's wife; Osiecki's wife, Robin; and Jason King, the UW senior associate athletic director who oversees men's and women's hockey, and his wife, Tricia.
The three coaches sat near the front in a cluster of seats, Apple laptops in hand, and quietly studied video of Ohio State, looking for tendencies and other insights. Flight attendants made multiple trips dispensing snacks and beverages to the passengers.
Roughly an hour after being de-iced and taking off from Dane County Regional Airport, the jet landed in snow-less Columbus.
Veteran Badger Bus driver Randy Hollis was there to provide ground transportation. He made the seven-hour drive the day before — accompanied by equipment manager Nate LaPoint — to bring unwieldy items like equipment trunks and stick bags, as well as some personal belongings for the travel party.
LaPoint tends to all the coaches' and players' equipment needs — neatly setting up the dressing room for practices and games — with help from Luke Regner.
Athletic trainer Andy Hrodey is the point person for all sports medicine needs, while strength and conditioning coach Jim Snider helps coordinate team meals in addition to monitoring fitness levels.
Paul Capobianco not only handles media relations — coordinating postgame interviews with Tony Granato and the players — he serves as color commentator for radio broadcasts on the road alongside play-by-play man Brian Posick.
Hollis typically stays with the Badgers for an entire series, but because of the split sites, he headed home the next day, but not before taking the team to practice and dinner on Wednesday and the morning skate and the game on Thursday night. He also squired the team to the airport for its late-night flight to Newark, New Jersey, where a local bus company waited.
Snapshot: Upon arriving at the campus hotel, The Blackwell, Tony Granato quickly got off the bus and was the first to start pulling bags from the storage compartments underneath the bus. Unusual behavior for a head coach, but not surprising if you know how unassuming Granato is. He did it the whole trip.
Soon he was joined by the rest of his team. They adjourned to the lobby where room keys in red envelopes were handed out. Players and support staffers share rooms, while coaches and administrators have their own.
UW held its initial practice at the Ohio State Ice Arena, an antiquated facility right across the street from the hotel, because Value City Arena was staging a Big Ten men's basketball game between the Buckeyes and Minnesota that night.
However, the Badgers had to dress into their gear at the Value City Arena, located two blocks away, then bus back to the practice site. The clumsy trip was made again after practice.
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GAME DAY, PART I
At breakfast, the mood is light, but businesslike. Don Granato is immersed in his omnipresent laptop breaking down video before disappearing to take a lengthy phone call. His older brother is caught up in the pending release of the top 100 players in NHL history.
Tony Granato played 13 seasons in the NHL — including five with all-time leading scorer Wayne Gretzky in Los Angeles — and spent 13 more as a head coach and an assistant. He and Osiecki go back and forth on players they think are on it, wondering aloud if any former Badgers players outside of Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Chelios will be on it. Curtis Joseph and Mike Richter are mentioned, but it's ultimately agreed that the two goaltenders are on the outside looking in.
It's later learned that Granato has some quality sources among the voters, so his insights began to carry more weight.
Snapshot: The bus ride to the morning skate was brief. When the vehicle pulled into the lower level of the building, all the players could be heard thanking the bus driver as they disembark, especially the freshmen, who got off last.
Hollis, a friendly, easy-going sort, later notes that he got a telephone call out of the blue last summer. It was Tony Granato calling to introduce himself and say hello.
"Couldn't believe it," Hollis said.
While the players adjourned to their dressing area and got ready for practice, the three coaches are joined by Connelly in a nearby dressing room, well-appointed with leather furniture and a big screen projection system.
In short order, Tony Granato had his laptop synched up with the projector and is showing his power play unit — the players are all dressed for practice, sharing sofas, ottomans and an overstuffed chair — Ohio State's penalty-killing scheme.
A large horizontal vanity mirror stretched across one of the walls. On it the lineup for the series opener — four line combinations and three defensive pairs — was scrawled in red ink.
After lunch, a handful of players, mostly freshmen, adjourned to a round table with book bags and laptops. Tracey Maloney, a UW Athletic Department learning specialist who works with the two basketball and two hockey teams, is overseeing the session.
"I get to interact with the kids in a way that hopefully makes learning fun," she said. "I also try to connect what happens on the ice or the court with life and school."
Maloney is on the trip in part because a new semester has begun and the student-athletes will be missing three days of school.
"My travel schedule is dependent on student need in regards to assignments that are possibly due on the road or in upcoming days," she said. "It's also exam driven."
Maloney moved around a table asking questions, making suggestions and getting feedback from the student-athletes.
Two similar get-togethers took place when the Badgers arrived in New York.
One of the attendees was freshman center Trent Frederic, who said he had a paper due and an online quiz to complete by Friday.
"She got all over me — all over a couple guys — to get their work done," Frederic said of Maloney.
He smiled.
"I'd like to say I didn't wait until the last minute on this trip (to take care of school work), so that was good," Frederic said. "I got ahead of it at Ohio State and was able to walk around New York."
Maloney said her goal on trips like this are to make sure the student-athletes returned to campus further along academically than when they left.
"Sometimes when you're winning, you think you can get rid of school, but you can't," Frederic said, smiling again. "It definitely feels better when you walk into class and you're done."
An unusual piece to Maloney's current academic model is that Tony Granato is in the process of finishing up his degree work. He's on pace to graduate in May.
"I think it helps me and I think it helps the students," she said, noting that Granato and some of his players are taking the same online course.
"Tony is so diligent," Maloney said. "Nothing less than an 'A' is acceptable."
The bus ride to Value City Arena was quiet. Shortly upon arrival, the three coaches were on their laptops preparing video clips to show the players.
Again, players gathered in the coaches' room. Tony Granato showed four clips of the Buckeyes breaking out of their zone. He noted how their goaltender, Christian Frey, is quite active playing the puck.
"They attack below the goal line really well," Granato said.
Osiecki took the floor and went over even-strength responsibilities. He pointed out how Ohio State tries to shrink the defensive zone. He said the Buckeyes have one of the best power plays in the nation.
"Which means what?" he asked the players.
"No penalties," came a small chorus of replies.
The Badgers got first-period goals from sophomore winger and captain Luke Kunin and sophomore winger Matthew Freytag and build a 2-0 lead.
"We have another level in us," Granato tells the players between the first and second periods. "We can be better."
But there would be no pulling away from the eighth-ranked Buckeyes, who cut the deficit to one early in the second and tested UW freshman goaltender Jack Berry on numerous occasions.
"Be ready to work and battle," Granato says during the second intermission.
"Let's finish this," Kunin said.
An empty-net goal by junior winger Ryan Wagner sealed the victory for Wisconsin, its second straight over a top-10 opponent.
The dressing room was happy, but somewhat reserved. Tony Granato livened things up by giving Berry a game puck for his 26-save performance, a move that brought whoops and yells.
Also getting a game puck was Osiecki, a former Ohio State head coach whose trip to Columbus was his first since being let go by the school in 2013.
His replacement, Steve Rohlik, is a former UW teammate. Rohlik's top assistant, Mark Strobel, is another former Badgers player. The circumstances made for a noteworthy postgame handshake.
Granato didn't think his team played all that well, but a win is a win.
"We will be better," he said, already thinking about the rematch in New York City.
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A BITE OUT OF THE APPLE
The UW entourage landed in Newark around 12:30 a.m. local time and bussed into the heart of the Big Apple. The team hotel, the Marriott Marquis, is located right off the neon, bustle and zaniness of Time Square.
Breakfast gave way to a mid-morning bus ride to Chelsea Piers, a facility that houses a collection of indoor rinks and overlooks the Hudson River.
The view prompted senior winger Aidan Cavallini to climb the bleachers before practice and take pictures.
The practice rink featured a series of banners hanging from the wall and rafters. Most were for New York University and youth teams from the Long Island Hockey League.
Watching the Badgers practice you couldn't help but notice diagrams of drills and plays drawn on the inside portion of the Plexiglass. Made you wonder how long they'd been there and who was the artist.
Snapshot: On hand for practice were Brian and Pauline Hughes, whose son Cameron is a junior center for UW. They wound up meeting Tony Granato face-to-face for the first time.
No one in the Wisconsin entourage was giddier than redshirt junior defenseman Corbin McGuire. He grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut — a 35-minute train ride north of the city — and proudly sported his New York Rangers hat.
After practice, McGuire led a squadron of teammates to his father Dennis' advertising office, which was located a reasonable walk from the hotel.
The free afternoon evolved into a variety of activities for those in the UW entourage.
Some journeyed to see the 9/11 Memorial.
Some checked out Central Park.
Some went to Radio City Music Hall.
Some just tapped into the electricity of Times Square.
Frederic, from St. Louis, Missouri, said he'd been to New York City once before when he was 12 or 13.
The highlight this time was simple.
"Just walking around with the guys and seeing all the crazy stuff that New York has to offer," he said.
The Granatos and the Osieckis attended a Broadway presentation of "The Lion King."
Tony Granato has prominent roots to New York City. He was taken by the Rangers in the sixth round of the NHL draft in 1982 and enjoyed a memorable rookie season with them. He scored 36 goals — still a franchise record for a first-year player — and finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting in 1989.
Going back to Madison Square Garden, where Granato scored his first NHL goal and recorded his first hat trick in '89, put him in the role of tour guide.
At one point, a hot cup of green tea in his hand, Granato began walking the fifth floor of the famed building known as the "World's Most Famous Arena." He stopped in a hallway that defined the incredible history of The Garden.
There were large color photos of Muhammad Ali fighting Joe Frazier in one of their epic heavyweight boxing matches. Next to it was a glorious black-and-white shot of a young Elvis Presley.
At one point, Granato was asked how many of the NHL Top 100 he played with. He counted 17, a total he later changed to 22.
True to Granato's pledge, the Badgers played much better in the series finale against Ohio State, but that didn't mean things went according to plan.
Thanks to goals from Cavallini in the first period and Freytag in the third, the Badgers had a 2-0 lead, but it disappeared in the final 100 seconds of regulation.
Rohlik pulled Frey for an extra attacker and generated two goals, tying the game with 16 seconds left in the third.
But instead of taking an emotional step back, Wisconsin asserted itself in overtime. Hughes drove the net, found a loose puck in the crease and banged the winner home with 2:02 left.
The postgame dressing room was joyous. Granato gave a game puck to Hughes. The coach also acknowledged UW Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez, who gave Granato a hug and made a short presentation to the players.
"Can't tell you how proud I am of you and your coaches," said Alvarez, who hired Granato and his staff after Wisconsin won only 12 of 70 games between 2014 and '16. "The important thing is to keep it going."
Following the series sweep, the Badgers found themselves ranked 18th in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll, marking their first appearance there in four seasons.
"We're just getting started," Granato said.
Frederic was a first-round NHL draft pick of Boston in 2016. He was asked if he thought about someday returning to MSG to skate as a member of the Bruins.
"I really didn't think about that, but I guess now thinking about it, it would be pretty sweet to play there again," he said.
"But I'll always have that memory of Hughes putting it in the net and us winning in overtime if I never go back there."
The men's basketball and men's hockey teams swapped planes and some human cargo for the return ride to Madison. Members of the UW Band and spirit squads came to New York with the basketball team and returned on a bigger aircraft with the hockey team.
The two-hour return leg was smooth and Connelly went home happy.
"I always want to make it first class for the players because that was my experience when I played here," he said.
"It was stressful to start, but once the first plane showed up, I knew it wouldn't be too bad."
Connelly was hardly a one-man band, though.
"A lot of different layers to this," he said. "The support from everyone made it really easy."
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Complete Photo Gallery - Men's Hockey Road Trip
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