ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -Sidney Crosby’s shootout goal will always be frozen in time.
The Penguins captain somehow saw space between Ryan Miller’s pads as he shifted through driving snow and gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at the outdoor Winter Classic in front of an NHL-record 71,217 fans on Tuesday.
In elements way more suited for football than hockey, Crosby won the NHL’s second outdoor game – and first in the United States – in the most dramatic of fashion at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home to the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Crosby skated down the middle, eluded a pokecheck by Miller and put a shot between the goalie’s pads on the final round of the shootout.
Ty Conklin allowed Ales Kotalik’s goal to open the tiebreaker before stopping Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinogenov.
Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins, pushing his shootout record to 4-for-4.
Colby Armstrong gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff, and Brian Campbell tied it 1:25 into the second.
Despite both teams dressed in retro-style jerseys, this games was decided by the most modern of methods – the shootout. Surprisingly, Zambonis didn’t clean the ice as they would for a regular NHL game.
Given the choice of which goal to defend, both Miller and Conklin picked the West end to avoid the heavy snow that swirled and poured in toward the right.
Blowing winds and dropping temperatures worked against everyone inside the vast stadium that easily housed the hockey rink between the 16-yard lines. By the time the shootout became necessary, no one seemed to mind the typical January weather in western New York.
With the success of this event, it seems likely the NHL would seek to host more, perhaps even on an annual basis.
“When you see 70,000 people packed into a stadium to watch hockey, that’s usually a good sign,” Crosby said.
The record crowd that topped the one in Edmonton four years earlier, cheered and took pictures as the conclusion approached. The camera flashes dotted the entire stadium as each of the six shooters came in on goal through lake-effect snow.
When Crosby saw the puck cross the goal line, he spun toward the jubilant Penguins bench and jumped up and down with his hands raised.
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