Winter Classic 2014: Tyler Bozak wins snowy shootout at the Big House

The 2014 Classic was the second-most watched game in NHL history, behind only the 2011 NHL Winter Classic, which was aired in prime-time.

The TV ratings and viewership milestones were matched by the attendance on Wednesday. The 2014 Winter Classic was played in front of 105,491 fans, by far the highest-attended game in NHL history. That number will go down next year when Nationals Park will reportedly host the 2015 Winter Classic.

Team USA announced its Olympic roster at the Winter Classic, but got in touch with the players beforehand so they wouldn’t be caught off guard by the announcement.

When it came to Canucks forward Ryan Kesler, their attempt at reaching out caused some confusion.

The roster features just 13 players with Olympic experience, but that’s much more than the 2010 team, on which just three players entered the Games with Olympic experience.

“We went through a very thorough process to get to today and could not be happier with the team we’ve selected,” Team USA general manager David Poile said in a press release. “We’re fortunate to have probably the deepest talent pool we’ve ever had in our country and that made for some very difficult decisions. In the end, however, we’re confident we’ve selected a group of players that puts us in the best position to have success in Sochi.”

It’s the second time a Winter Classic has ended in a shootout. The 2008 game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres also came down to a shootout.

• Will my Winter Classic seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

The game started off slowly as the snowfall caused passes to stop short, pucks to stick when players were stickhandling and cause turnovers, and the cold weather being a factor, it took time for the players to adjust and pick the pace up.

The Red Wings dominated the third period in a similar fashion to the first, but they couldn’t solve Bernier a third time, his stellar goaltending forcing overtime, which solved nothing.

There’s a widespread perception that the league’s system of supplementary justice is inconsistent at best, and perhaps even outright biased towards protecting certain franchises or star players.

Personally, I think it’s a lot more consistent than people give it credit for. I watched the explanatory videos for all 22 suspensions so far this season, and think the process can be summed up in just a few rules:

For most of the first two periods it seemed as if the Winter Classic was destined to be scoreless until a shootout.

• Will my Winter Classic seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

Toronto’s pressure would pay off though, with James van Riemsdyk getting a second whack at a rebound off of a Phil Kessel shot that bounced up in the air, baseball swinging the puck through Howard.

The action didn’t stop until the final whistle, with Zetterberg setting up Alfredsson for a chance as the horn blew to end the period. We’ve got a game.

Since 1998, when women’s ice hockey was first added to the Winter Olympic program, the United States has medaled at every single Games -- bronze once, silver twice, gold once.

They enter the 2014 Winter Olympics as the top-ranked team in the world according to the IIHF, and they’re the favorite to take home the gold medal -- or, at the very least, to go head-to-head with arch rival Canada in the gold medal game.

After tormenting Maple Leafs fans for years as a member of the Ottawa Senators, Daniel Alfredsson is still burning them as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.

In the second period of the Winter Classic on Wednesday, Alfredsson used his skate to redirect a Henrik Zetterberg pass behind Jonathan Bernier for the game’s first goal.

When you’re spending hours outside in the snow watching a hockey game with little offense and nothing to cheer, sometimes you have to come up with your own reasons to move around and stay warm.

It is, after all, a great big party, and this lady might be the coolest person there. She’s certainly trying to be, anyway.

• Will my Winter Classic seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

• Photos from the Big House | Snow in the forecast!

There was a live microphone during the first intermission of the Winter Classic broadcast and nobody knew what was going on. And if somebody doesn’t get a camera up to the booth immediately Mike Milbury is not going to be pleased.

• Will my Winter Classic seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

As it is with every Winter Classic, the first period serves as a feeling out process for the players of each team, with few scoring chances and a lot of broken plays.

Toronto’s best chances, as usual, came off the counter attack off the rush, and there weren’t many opportunities. Detroit peppered Bernier in the final few minutes en route to a 13-5 shot advantage in all situations, 6-3 at even strength.

That’s not a good play.

Lupul was penalized two minutes for crosschecking and he might be getting a phone call from the league.

In 17 games this season with the Hurricanes, Gleason has one assist. He averages 15:52 in ice time and has a Corsi percentage of 48.9 percent in even-strength situations. Liles has played in 32 games with Toronto. He has two goals, nine assists, a Corsi percentage of just 37.5 percent and averages 16 and a half minutes per game.

• Will my Winter Classic seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

Forget the new uniforms the teams wear, one of the best parts about the Winter Classic is seeing the coaches dress like they just came out of the prohibition era. Perhaps no coach that’s participated in these games has better captured that style than Mike Babock of the Detroit Red Wings.

Here he is on Wednesday at Michigan Stadium.

It looks awesome, and it’s sure to be a blast for the 105,000 fans in attendance. The only problem is that snow is going to pile up on the ice and that is going to make it difficult to play hockey. But never fear, the NHL is prepared to stop the game if the snow piles up too much so ice guru Dan Craig and his arm of snow shovelers can get out there and clear the ice in roughly two minutes.

The first Winter Classic in Buffalo back in 2008 had similar conditions (though, not quite as much snow) and had some extended delays while they worked on the ice. After five years of practice the league seems to have a better idea as to what it’s doing for these games and seems to be prepared for just about any conditions mother nature can throw at them.

Ah yes, the Winter Classic. That one day during the hockey season when NHL players get to wear eye black.

In his defense, he probably just wants to be prepared for anything because the weather conditions are a little wild. It’s snowing. A lot.

If nothing else, the 2014 Winter Classic will feature two pretty evenly matched teams that have been heading in the same direction over the past few weeks.

They’re also both trying to bust out of recent slumps to hold off some of the recently surging teams in the playoff race.

“I found out before practice so obviously it’s great,” Bernier said on Tuesday, via Dan Rosen of NHL.com. It’s great that he gave me the nod and being part of this whole history, it’s pretty amazing.”

In 28 appearances this season Bernier has a .930 save percentage to go with a 12-11-4 record.

• Winter Classic : Will my seats suck? | What to do in Ann Arbor

• The Rink of Dreams: One Mich. family created an outdoor hockey paradise

The weather could be perfect for the 2014 Winter Classic.

A developing snow storm will pass through Southern Michigan on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and it could bring the perfect “snow globe effect” to Michigan Stadium, accenting the NHL’s annual outdoor showcase with a light dusting of snow.

Both games will be televised on NBCSN in the United States. The first game takes place at 1 p.m. ET, with the second game immediately after at 3:30 p.m.

In some ways, the alumni games are almost more heavily anticipated than the Winter Classic itself, as legends from the past are given another opportunity to don their team’s jersey. This was amplified for this installment, as the Maple Leafs and Red Wings will have the opportunity to honor their storied pasts with two full alumni teams.

The 2012-13 NHL lockout may have pushed back Wednesday’s Winter Classic an entire calendar year, but that just means the excitement level is even higher for what will, at least in terms of actual numbers, be the largest NHL game ever played.

After two days of collegiate action as part of the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament and an Ontario Hockey League double header on Sunday, the American Hockey League will take the field at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, on Monday, where the Grand Rapid Griffins will host the Toronto Marlies in a meeting of tomorrow’s NHL players.