2008 NHL Winter Classic
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| Date | January 1, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Arena | Ralph Wilson Stadium | |||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Orchard Park, New York | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 71,217 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2008 NHL Winter Classic (known via corporate sponsorship as the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic) an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game played on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium (now known as New Era Field) in Orchard Park, New York. The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 2–1, in a shootout, on a goal by captain Sidney Crosby. It was the first outdoor regular-season professional ice hockey game to be played in the United States, and was sponsored by AMP Energy. It was the successor to the 2003 Heritage Classic, the NHL's first regular-season outdoor game, played in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The game was televised in the United States on NBC and in Canada on CBC and RDS. Due to the snowy conditions, the game was at the time colloquially referred to as the "Ice Bowl" by residents of the area and Sabres fans.
The game, which was played at a temporary ice rink built on the football field, set an NHL attendance record of 71,217. The Sabres held a Winter Classic "house party" at HSBC Arena (now KeyBank Center) during the game where another 11,000 fans saw the game shown live on the arena's video scoreboard with synched-up audio from the team's radio coverage. The Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team played a pre-game at the HSBC Arena as part of the house party festivities. Buffalo Sabres anthem singer Doug Allen sang the Canadian national anthem, as is customary at Sabres home games. Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performed "God Bless America" before the game at the stadium.
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