The Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Pittsburg Penguins at legendary Soldier Field in Chicago in what looked like a blizzard on television. Workers were constantly scrambling to clear the ice of excess snow as it continuously came down all during the match.
The feature NHL game was yet another in the very popular ‘Stadium Series’ being offered by the league which features good matchups played outside in an open air venue. No roof, let it snow and it did, a lot, it was great!
For the fans at home sitting in their warm living rooms or in some nice cozy bar, it was a cool spectacle to witness. Although the snow was heavy, the general mood was light and a sort of festival atmosphere prevailed as often does at these outdoor affairs.
There is a tradition in Chicago for Blackhawks fans to cheer all through the singing of the national anthem, and they did so at Soldier Field on Saturday night. Only there were about 40,000 more fans doing the cheering than the Blackhawks were used to for the outdoor match. It was impressive and you couldn’t help but notice the smiles on the Chicago players, even before the match got underway.
After the match Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville commented about the weather, “I think everyone went back to when they were kids. The stage couldn’t have been any better for anybody. How hard it was snowing right off the bat, it was crazy conditions, but it was like everyone felt like they were going out and playing in the snow.”
The snow fall reached near white out levels during the first period and the action on the ice had to be stopped several times so that workers could frantically try to clear the accumulated snow from the playing surface.
When Blackhawks shooter Patrick Sharp scored the first goal of the game at the 15:35 mark in the first period, many, including Sharp, thought that it was possible that his would be the only goal scored that evening owing to the bad weather. Sharp told reporters afterwards, “I honestly thought that was the game, 1-0, the way the conditions were.”
But then Jonathan Toews contributed two goals then Bickell and Versteeg each had one to add to Sharp’s first period score making the final score 5 to one Chicago. Corey Crawford was impressive protecting the net for the Blackhawks all evening. In fact the only goal credited to Pittsburg came off of a deflection from a Chicago player!
