By Ian Browning

Northeastern alum Michael Ryan grew up playing hockey outdoors on a frozen pond in Quincy. On New Year’s Day, tradition came full circle when he played in a record-setting, internationally televised game outdoors in a football stadium.

Ryan, now in the NHL, suits up for the Buffalo Sabres. The team was selected by the NHL to host the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Dubbed the “Winter Classic,” the game was held in Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in western New York.

All 72,000 tickets for the game were sold within an hour, with tickets selling afterward for as much as $2,000 a seat on eBay. On New Year’s Day, the game was broadcast around the world. This was an unprecdented event, and the first time a regular-season game was held outside.

“Not a lot of people knew what to expect,” Ryan said. “Some of the people on the team had played outdoor games before, but nothing this big.”

Questions of what to wear underneath jerseys, how the weather would turn out and how the NHL was going to build an ice rink in the middle of a football field surrounded the event.

However, once the Sabres practiced on the outdoor rink, some of the pressures disappeared.

“We practiced on New Year’s Eve and it was the most fun we’ve had as a team in a long time,” Ryan said. “It was the kind of thing where the coach told us we had to get off the ice because we were still out playing after practice was over.”

Ryan was selected 32nd overall in the 1999 NHL entry draft by the Dallas Stars, but was traded to the Sabres before he graduated in 2003. He started his career with the Sabres by playing for the Rochester Americans, the Sabres’ minor league affiliate, for four years.

He racked up goals, assists and his fair share of penalty minutes with the Americans, and drew the attention of the Sabres coaching staff.

Last year Ryan was called up to the Sabres for 19 games, including one against Montreal where he netted two goals. He re-signed with the team during the summer just as rumors began to circulate through the hockey media that the outdoor game was happening.

“To come out to that crowd was unbelievable,” Ryan said. “It definitely lived up to the hype.”

With black paint smeared underneath his eyes to protect them from the glare off the ice, he played a gritty, physical game and saw a scoring chance during a scuffle in front of the net. Pittsburgh goaltender and former Hockey East player Ty Conklin stopped Ryan though, as the goalie did for all but one shot during the first three periods.

Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller let one goal in as well, and both goalies held the teams at one goal during overtime. The game was won in a shootout when Pittsburgh’s final shooter, 19-year-old prodigy Sidney Crosby, was able to move the puck past Miller.

“We were all disappointed that we lost the game,” Ryan said. “But we had a lot of fun out there. It was great to be a part of history.”