A couple of weeks ago, while Michael Garteig was making saves for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats in the hockey mecca that is Madison Square Garden in New York City, sitting in the crowd of 12,000 spectators was his brother Ryan.
This was the same brother who showed no mercy firing hard rubber pucks at Garteig when they were kids playing in the unfinished concrete basement of their home in Prince George.
That often-painful baptism of fire set him on a path to greatness as a hockey goaltender. In his final season of U.S. college hockey, he's raised his game to the point where he's turned the Bobcats into the top dogs in the NCAA.
"He's a pretty awesome guy and he came down to watch me play in New York City, probably one of the favourite moments of my career, and having him in the stands there meant the world to me," said the 24-year-old Garteig. "He's my big brother, but my role model too.
"He's three years older than me and he played hockey and if I ever wanted to play with my brother's friends I got stuck playing goal. It was miserable playing in the basement with him, he literally never showed any mercy on me. I think it's funny now."
Billed as the Rivalry On Ice, the game at MSG Jan. 9 against the Harvard Crimson had a number of twists and turns.
The Bobcats blew a 4-0 lead and ended up winning 5-4 in overtime.
"It was an absolute track meet and it was a statement win for us because Harvard is a top-five team in the country," said Garteig. "It was really entertaining. Harvard was technically the home team but I bet you we had 10,000 Quinnipiac fans and 2,000 Harvard fans. We have loud passionate fans and we sell out every game."
Prince George minor hockey product Seb Lloyd is a freshman forward for Harvard and met with Garteig the night before the game.
Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold knows what Garteig has meant to the Bobcats fortunes this season as the team's candidate for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's most outstanding player.
With Garteig in net every game, the Bobcats are unbeaten in the East Coast Athletic Conference at 10-0-3 and with a 19-1-5 overall record they topped the most recent USCHO.com and USA Today Division 1 polls.
"We're the Number 1 team in the nation right now and he's our best player," said Pecknold, from the Quinnipiac campus in Hamden, Conn.
"He's had a nice progression in his four years at Quinnipiac. His first year he kind of had to wait because we had the best goalie in the country then (2013 Hobey Baker runner-up Eric Hartzell) and he only got one start that year.
"But he worked really hard to improve his game and was our go-to guy as a sophomore and took another jump his junior year (when the Bobcats won the ECAC), and this year he's taken an even bigger jump.
"He's tracking the puck well, he's just a little bit ahead of the play all the time. He's just locked in and he's having a great season. He's taken it to another level, he's one of the best goalies in college hockey and one of the best players."
Pro teams are definitely taking an interest. Pecknold says several NHL scouts are following the Bobcats to every game and asking about Garteig. As a free agent Garteig can sign with any team.
"If he keeps on this pace, which I think he will, he'll have a lot of opportunities come March or April," Pecknold said. "It's better for him that he's a free agent and not a draft pick because it gives him a bit more leverage to sign with any team."
Ryan Miller of the Vancouver Canucks was the last goalie to win the Hobey Baker Award in 2001 when he played for Michigan State.
"When Ryan Miller won it, his numbers were around what Garteig's are right now," he said. "I remember Ryan Miller and Jimmy Howard and those guys were just so far ahead of the play, it just was so easy for them, and that's kind of what Michael's doing now."
Through 25 games this season, Garteig has a 19-1-5 record with a 1.49 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and a whopping seven shutouts.
Garteig's junior hockey initiation came in the B.C. Hockey League with the Prince George Spruce Kings and Quesnel Millionaires. The Kings traded his rights to Powell River in 2009-10 and he played 16 games as the backup goalie for the other Kings of the BCHL.
The following year, he took Powell River to the league final, compiling a 36-8-3 record, 1.69 GAA, .934 save percentage (a BCHL single-season record) and put up seven shutouts, tying the league record previously set by former Prince George Spruce King Brad Thiessen.
It got even better for Garteig the following season when he was sent as a 20-year-old to the Penticton Vees.
With Garteig carrying the bulk of the load, the Vees won 42 straight games and captured the Royal Bank Cup national junior A championship in 2012.
He wasn't always the star in goal.
Garteig got cut from several Prince George minor hockey rep teams and that only fueled his desire to prove those coaches wrong.
"It's not like I got cut for no reason, maybe I wasn't good enough,." he said. "Jason Garneau (now a Spruce Kings assistant coach) cut me my first year of midget and that was probably the toughest year of hockey of my life. He'd been my coach for pretty well every year up until that point, but there's no hard feelings.
"I look at it now and maybe if I didn't get cut all those years, maybe I wouldn't be where I am today. I used it as motivation. Some kids get released and quit, but I never quit, I just pushed through the adversity."
The younger son of Paal and Leslie Garteig was a backup his first year with the Bobcats and has been the starter even since. In each of the previous three seasons, Quinnipiac has made the final-16 NCAA playoff tournament.
In a four-year career the five-time ECAC goalie of the month has 65 wins, a 1.86 goals-against average and 18 shutouts.
Now he has the Bobcats taking aim at their second Frozen Four appearance in four years and Garteig can think of nothing better to cap his college career than an NCAA championship.
"I'm definitely having a lot of fun, the team's been doing great and I've been lucky to play for four really good teams here," said Garteig, a masters business student.
"Just from being here for my first to fourth year, the amount I've matured over that span of time is crazy, not just on the ice but off the ice. I've been stopping the puck and obviously it's helping the team win and that's the most important part of it all.
"I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've had here."
