Edmonton, Nov 24: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in the NHL's first outdoor game. A record NHL crowd at the league's first outdoor game saw the Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Saturday (November 22). The 57,167 spectators at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, including fans from Europe, braved temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celsius and strong winds. But while they battled the elements, the players experienced fewer discomforts, having heated benches, special underwear -- and in Montreal goalie Jose Theodore's case, a woolen hat over his helmet. Yanic Perreault and Richard Zednik both scored two goals each for the Canadiens. Zednik opened the scoring and Perreault made it 2-0 10:53 into the second period. Eric Brewer then pulled one back for the Oilers at 13:45. After 2:22 of the third period, Perreault stretched the Canadiens' lead to 3-1. Play went backwards and forwards for another 10 minutes before Edmonton's Jarret Stoll hit the net at 13:06.

But little more than a minute later Zednik got his second and what proved to be the winner on 14:18. Edmonton's Steve Staios came back 39 seconds later for a consolation goal and final score of 4-3.



While the game attracted a record NHL crowd, it was not the largest ever to attend an ice hockey game; the Michigan State Spartans hosted the University of Michigan Wolverines at Spartan Stadium in 2001 attracting a crowd of 74,554.


Standings after National Hockey League games played on Saturday (tabulate under won, lost, tied, overtime loss, goals for, goals against, points):


EASTERN CONFERENCE ATLANTIC DIVISION W L T OTL GF GA PTS PHILADELPHIA 12 2 4 1 60 36 29 NEW JERSEY 11 3 4 0 46 30 26 NY ISLANDERS 9 8 2 0 58 46 20 NY RANGERS 6 7 4 2 47 50 18 PITTSBURGH 5 10 3 1 36 67 14


NORTHEAST DIVISION BOSTON 11 3 3 3 56 44 28 TORONTO 8 6 5 2 52 59 23 BUFFALO 9 9 2 1 46 54 21 MONTREAL 9 10 1 1 44 49 20 OTTAWA 8 6 2 2 57 40 20


SOUTHEAST DIVISION TAMPA BAY 11 2 2 1 47 29 25 ATLANTA 10 7 3 1 64 59 24 FLORIDA 8 12 2 0 48 61 18 CAROLINA 5 9 6 0 41 53 16 WASHINGTON 5 13 1 1 48 60 12


WESTERN CONFERENCE CENTRAL DIVISION ST LOUIS 12 5 0 1 48 40 25 DETROIT 11 8 2 0 65 52 24 CHICAGO 6 9 4 3 41 61 19 NASHVILLE 8 10 1 0 47 53 17 COLUMBUS 7 10 2 1 41 52 17


NORTHWEST DIVISION VANCOUVER 12 5 2 2 68 48 28 COLORADO 12 6 1 1 62 49 26 EDMONTON 10 8 2 0 61 59 22 CALGARY 9 8 0 2 39 44 20 MINNESOTA 8 10 3 0 49 51 19


PACIFIC DIVISION LOS ANGELES 10 7 1 1 50 41 22 ANAHEIM 7 7 2 5 45 55 21 SAN JOSE 5 6 8 2 53 55 20 DALLAS 8 10 3 0 47 56 19 PHOENIX 6 7 5 1 47 60 18


Note - overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)


Bureau Report