Ovechkin Leads Resilient Capitals to Dramatic
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SPORTS SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2015 Fans embrace ice hockey’s outdoor roots WASHINGTON: You need a good reason acoustics amplify the roar of the crowd, to brave near-freezing New Year’s Day Thursday’s Winter Classic was a bit of a temperatures, perhaps nursing a hang- culture-clash experience. Center ice was over, and trek all the way out to a base- located around where second base ball stadium. Like ice hockey, played out- would be on a baseball diamond, leaving doors. Nearly 43,000 fans did just that a wide chasm between fans and players - Thursday to watch the hometown a vacuum filled to a meager extent by Washington Capitals beat the Chicago the stadium audio system relaying the Blackhawks 3-2 at Nationals Park, home sounds of skates, sticks and pucks. to Major League Baseball’s Washington An American flag as big as the rink Nationals. That’s well over double the itself was unfurled for the playing of the maximum capacity of 18,500 at the US national anthem, as fireworks shot up Capital’s usual home ice, the downtown high into the sky and two US fighter jets Verizon Center, and symbolic of the pop- performed a screaming fly-by. Live enter- ularity of open-air professional hockey. tainment veered wildly from 1980s “We play hockey in baseball stadi- punk-pop star Billy Idol doing “Rebel ums because we can,” quipped Matthew Yell” before the game, to a US military Tucker, 23, sporting a red Capitals jersey choir belting out “The Army Goes Rolling as he hung out with friends - Blackhawk Along” at the second intermission. fans, actually - before the match. “If you WASHINGTON: Hockey fans stream into Nationals stadium on Thursday for the The players, in vintage uniforms, took get back to the roots of the game, you 2015 National Hockey League Winter Classic. — AFP to the ice via a scale-model replica of the played outside,” added Tucker, who US Capitol and a miniature, frozen grew up playing hockey on frozen ponds League Baseball season. The weather at brave the elements,” added his compan- Reflecting Pool. Concession stands in upstate New York. Most NHL games Thursday’s game was chilly, with bright ion Molly Dudas, 26, as they discreetly offered pretzels and cotton candy. The unfold in comfortable heated indoor are- blue skies and six degrees Celsius at the polished off a tiny pre-game flask of stadium’s branch of Washington’s iconic nas, with the gladiatorial action playing opening face-off, but not a deterrent for cheap whiskey. Ben’s Chili Bowl diner quickly sold out its itself out on pristine artificial ice. fans. For many Americans in northern signature dish. The rink itself was the climes, near-freezing temperatures are Hometown Fans Rule product of 20,000 gallons of water, kept Marquee Event par for the course for American football Capital fans vastly outnumbered their frozen by one of the world’s largest But the Winter Classic, played every in the run-up to the Super Bowl, which Blackhawks rivals, although they were mobile refrigeration systems. Tickets for New Year’s Day since 2008, has become falls on February 1 this year. The Winter united in the color of their respective Thursday’s game sold out long ago at the NHL’s marquee event. That’s special, Classic is “an event that real fans go to,” teams’ jerseys, turning Nationals Park $79 to $349 a pop - and remained almost given that the finals for NHL’s Stanley said Blackhawks fan James Felke, 30, into a sea of crimson in the afternoon impossible to score at the last minute Cup championship typically go into mid- who made the trip down from Chicago sun. For anyone used to indoor hockey, from illegal ticket sellers outside the June - two months into the Major for his third outdoor NHL experience. “To where seating begins at rink side and the main gate. — AFP Ovechkin leads resilient NHL results/standings Washington 3, Chicago 2; Los Angeles3, Capitals to dramatic win Vancouver 2. Western Conference WASHINGTON: The Winter Classic began Pacific Division with perhaps a bit too much sun. By the end, W L OTL GF GA PTS seat cushions were falling from the sky. The Anaheim 24 9 6 107 104 54 latest NHL outdoor game had a cliffhanger Los Angeles 19 12 8 106 96 46 ending Thursday, with Troy Brouwer scoring Vancouver 21 12 3 105 97 45 with 12.9 seconds remaining to give the San Jose 20 13 5 104 96 45 Calgary 21 15 3 114 103 45 Washington Capitals a 3-2 win over the Arizona 14 19 4 86 121 32 Chicago Blackhawks in the league’s annual Edmonton 8 22 8 82 131 24 showcase. Many of the 42,832 fans at Central Division Nationals Park celebrated by flinging their Chicago 25 11 2 119 81 52 commemorative red cushions high into the Nashville 24 9 3 106 78 51 air, an exclamation point to an event that St. Louis 22 12 3 108 93 47 helped validate the nation’s capital as an Winnipeg 19 12 7 96 92 45 established hockey town. Dallas 17 14 5 108 118 39 The seventh Winter Classic featured a Minnesota 17 14 4 100 98 38 replica of the Capitol in center field, through Colorado 14 15 8 96 112 36 which the players entered the ballpark. They Eastern Conference stood on a sheet of blue ice meant to repre- Atlantic Division sent the Reflecting Pool during the national Tampa Bay 24 11 4 127 100 52 anthem, then faced off under a gorgeous Montreal 24 11 2 100 86 50 blue sky - too gorgeous, if truth be told. The Detroit 20 9 9 108 95 49 sun’s glare on the white ice of the main rink Toronto 21 14 3 128 114 45 made it difficult to see the puck, and Boston 19 15 4 101 103 42 Florida 16 10 9 82 93 41 Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner made good Ottawa 15 14 7 97 99 37 on his plan to play the game wearing sun- Buffalo 14 21 3 76 128 31 glasses. Metropolitan Division The teams switched sides at the 10- WASHINGTON: Marcus Kruger #16 of the Chicago Blackhawks fights with Troy Brouwer Pittsburgh 23 9 5 111 87 51 minute mark of the first period to even #20 of the Washington Capitals during the second period of the 2015 NHL Winter NY Islanders 25 11 1 117 103 51 things out as the shadows from the stands Classic at Nationals Park on Thursday. — AFP Washington 19 11 7 108 96 45 began to cover the rink. It seemed totally skate. Eric Fehr and Alex Ovechkin also the game on a power-play goal with 2:07 NY Rangers 20 11 4 107 89 44 unfair when Patrick Sharp launched a sun- scored for the Capitals. Brandon Saad had left before Stoll scored the winner with 1:14 Columbus 16 16 3 89 110 35 to-shade slap shot that beat goalie Braden the other goal for Chicago. to go. Dwight King had the other goal for Philadelphia 14 16 7 103 113 35 Holtby on a power play for Chicago’s first Los Angeles, which got 14 saves from New Jersey 13 19 7 83 111 33 goal. The NHL considered delaying the start, Kings 3, Canucks 2 Jonathan Quick. Radim Vrbata had a goal Carolina 10 23 4 73 100 24 concerned that the sunny skies would com- Justin Williams and Jarret Stoll scored 53 and an assist, and Alexandre Burrows also Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one promise ice conditions and player safety, but seconds apart late in the third period to ral- scored for Vancouver. Ryan Miller stopped point in the standings and are not included in the go-ahead was given after the pregame ly Los Angeles past Vancouver. Williams tied 37 shots. — AP the loss column (L)..