Red Wings fall to the Maple Leafs in a shootout at the 2014 NHL Winter Classic


Jimmy Howard fights through a snow spray to freeze the puck at Michigan Stadium during the 2014 NHL Winter Classic. (Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey)

By Stefan Kubus –

ANN ARBOR – With 105,491 on-hand to unofficially set the outdoor hockey attendance record and the snowfall majestically dusting The Big House, Wednesday’s 2014 NHL Winter Classic had all the right elements to produce the most spectacular hockey event Michigan has seen.

Detroit fell to division rival Toronto in the shootout, 3-2. Daniel Alfredsson and Justin Abdelkader scored for the Red Wings, while James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak lit the lamp for Toronto. Bozak also had the shootout winner.

“I’ve been to football Saturdays here so I know what it’s all about,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought it was a spectacular venue, great, great crowds for both teams, really good hockey game.

“Conditions made it so that some of the skill of the game was eliminated, but I still thought that the players skated hard, and for myself, as the coach that lost the shootout, I thought our team played real well. We had the puck tons today, it was a good game for our team. All in all, it was a good day.”

Undoubtably, this will be one historic day that the players will forever remember and relish, despite failing to record that second point in the standings.

“Warm-up was pretty cool, walking out, too,” Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “There was a lot of people here already and even the bus ride in, going through here seeing all the guys tailgating everywhere…overall, it was cool. It was a great experience for our group.”

It was only fitting that both teams were tied in the standings for the wild card positions, with 45 points each. With the win, Toronto now holds a one-point lead.

In the tilt, Detroit failed to convert on a pair of first-period power play opportunities, including one that saw Toronto’s Joffrey Lupul cross-check Detroit’s Patrick Eaves in the head. Eaves made the trek off to the locker room shortly after taking the blow.

The Red Wings celebrate Justin Abdelkader's goal during the 2014 NHL Winter Classic. (Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey)

In the early minutes of the second period, Jimmy Howard made a remarkable toe save on Nazem Kadri right in front of the goal to keep things scoreless.

Against a team he’s been booed by his entire career, Daniel Alfredsson opened the scoring, as a Zetterberg 2-on-1 pass banked off his skate and past Bernier with 6:46 to play in the 2nd. Smith with other assist.

“Henrik made a great pass, I just had my skates together and it hit my skate and went in,” Alfredsson said. “It’s a great feeling. You don’t hear it at loud as I think you do up in the stands, but it was pretty cool.”

Toronto responded with just 37 seconds left, as James van Riemsdyk found a rebound on the side of the Detroit goal and batted it in out of mid-air in what was an impressive display of hand-eye coordination.

Just 4:41 into the third period, Toronto captain Dion Phaneuf threw a puck on net that Bozak tipped in front and, after being reviewed, it was determined the puck was not batted in by a high stick.

In Michigan Stadium, a former Michigan State Spartan scored the goal that forced overtime.

Abdelkader took a pass right in front of the net from defenseman Brendan Smith who dished the puck from along the half-wall. The Muskegon native kept his stick on the ice and buried a backhand goal to knot things up at two aside.

An extra five minutes in overtime solved nothing, so it took a shootout, where Pavel Datsyuk scored for Detroit, and Lupul and Bozak converting for the Maple Leafs.

“It comes down to a skills competition,” Abdelkader said of the shootout. “It’s unfortunate, we’ve lost our fair share of shootouts this year, and it is an extra point, but I think with this game, with the elements, the snow, it was kind of fitting for it to end in a shootout.”