In true pond-hockey style, the last goal won the game.
It worked out perfectly for the NHL — as that last goal was scored by its brightest young star in front of its biggest crowd ever and an international television audience.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby lugged the puck through the gathering snow on the ice, deked and tucked the puck between the legs of Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller to give the Penguins a 2-1 shootout win as darkness fell yesterday afternoon.
The delirious 71,217 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium, almost all of whom stayed in their seats until Crosby's last shot, made it official — the NHL's second outdoor game, dubbed the Winter Classic, was a roaring success.
"It's a great feeling and a great experience all in all," Crosby said. "For me growing up, I played a lot outside and a lot of the other guys did, too. When you see 70,000 people jammed into a stadium to watch hockey, it's a good sign.
"It's something to look back on and say we had a lot of great memories being part of it."
Everything you could want in an outdoor game was there yesterday. The only thing missing was mom ringing the dinner bell so someone would say, "Okay, last goal wins."
There was snow, which ranged from light to heavy, but it was never heavy enough to present a serious problem although stickhandling was tricky at times and passes had to have lots of zip on them. There were winds, but not as strong as the weather forecasters predicted. And the temperatures stayed around freezing, making conditions as close to perfect as possible for an outdoor game.
To cope with the snow buildup, Zambonis were brought out midway through each period to clean things up. Oddly enough, the machine was not brought out for the shootout, as it is for indoor games, although the entire shootout was conducted at the same end of the ice.
There were also numerous delays for repairs to holes in the ice. But aside from some of the players getting chilly because of the inactivity, the delays were relatively minor.
"Pucks were coming out of little snowbanks," Miller said of the conditions. "As you moved on, you kind of got used to it. [The ice repairs] made it a long night, but the fans stuck with it and made it a really great experience."
There was more hitting than in the first outdoor NHL game, the Heritage Classic, which was played in bitterly cold -19 C conditions in Edmonton in November of 2003. There was also some fancy hockey and lots of pond-hockey rushes.
"When you see that not one fan left [sitting in] his seat, that's pretty remarkable," Sabres defenceman Brian Campbell said.
Even way up in the farthest seats from the ice, the last row of section 339 in the corner of the upper deck at Ralph Wilson, where the puck was a tiny speck, you could not find a discouraging word.
Kyle Kokanovich of Buffalo was clearly enjoying himself.
"If they had another row back, I'd be in that row," he said while quaffing a beer. "It's no worse than a regular hockey game. Honestly. If they had every hockey game like this, it would be perfect."
Adam Bailey and his girlfriend, from the town of Le Roy, N.Y., landed two seats in that last row. They were bundled up in several layers of clothing topped with their retro 1970s Sabres sweaters, just like their heroes wore down on the ice. Bailey said he had no reason to complain.
"No way, it's the best seat in the house," he said after the first period, with the Sabres down 1-0. "Any seat in the house is the best seat in the house."
The Sabres dominated the second period, outshooting the Penguins 18-2, but all they could get was a goal by Campbell to tie the score 1-1. Colby Armstrong scored in the first period for the Penguins.
The question now for the NHL is where does it go from here? Commissioner Gary Bettman has a long line of teams clamouring to hold their own Winter Classic next season, from the Montreal Canadiens to the Ottawa Senators to the New York Rangers to the Philadelphia Flyers to the Detroit Red Wings. And why not, since the 71,217 fans paid between $10 and $90 (U.S.) for tickets and the game was given wide exposure by the CBC and NBC?
The attendance was an NHL single-game record, more than 16,000 more than the Edmonton game at Commonwealth Stadium.
