View of rink from Green Monster Seats

These teams have played twice this season so far and the Flyers hold the 2-0 game advantage, which is shocking because the Flyers have been a team in complete disarray this season, until they made a coaching change in early December, a change that has given the team a surprising spark. Both teams entered this game riding winning streaks, the home-team Bruins with five in a row and the visiting Flyers with four in a row.

Game time temperature was 39F with cloudy skies, and over 38,000 thousand people in Fenway for a hockey game. It was sell-out. (Wondering: does this count towards the streak of sell-outs at Fenway Park?) Snow was a possibility for later in the game, a prediction that held true. The previous three-game history of the Winter Classic has the visiting teams winning all three. Would the Bruins be the first home team to win this now-yearly event? Or would the Flyers extend the visitor’s winning to four games out of four? For the answer to these questions, read on.

The first period was fast-paced for both teams, with lots of hitting, and even a fight (Shawn Thornton, naturally). Each had scoring opportunities but both goalies - Tim Thomas for the Bruins and Michael Leighton for the Flyers - made the saves required to send the teams to the locker room scoreless after one period.

Outfield scoreboard with Northeast Standings in place of AL East, and Score being kept manually

In the second period, Tim Thomas would make the mistake of trying to push a player out of the front of the net and this lapse in focus would allow Flyers defenseman Danny Syvret to put one through Thomas’ five-hole (shocker) from near the blue line for his first NHL goal....ever. Thomas would recover and keep the Bruins in this game with many, many saves especially on a few breakaways that the Flyers had. The second period ended with the Broad Street Bullies up 1-0.

In the third period, Boston was dominant on offense, getting many scoring chances and taking good shots. But it wasn’t until veteran Mark Recci (and former Flyer) got a goal from right in front of the net to tie the game with 2:12 left in the game, giving thousands of Bruins fans their chance to cheer for a Bruins goal in Fenway. The game would end with the Bruins on another power play, but the score tied 1-1. It would take at least overtime to decide this one.

In the overtime period, Boston had the early one man advantage, but would not score and it would take a wicked shahp Thomas to make several saves to keep the Bruins in this game. With Boston storming down the ice after a flurry that Thomas turned away, Marco Sturm would tip the puck past Leighton to give the Bruins the win, making them the first home team to win the Winter Classic in four tries.

The win moves the Bruins record to 21-12-7. Read the recap here. The Bruins continue their winning streak (six in a row).

The eight retired Bruins numbers were added next to the Red Sox retired numbers

With this game behind them, the Bruins will next travel to New York’s Madison Square Garden to take on the Rangers on Monday night, January 4. This game will be live on Versus (Time Warner channel 63, or the better-looking HD-channel of 749) at 7pm.

Notes:

--Opening the festivities was Boston’s own Dropkick Murphy’s lip-sync'ing their “Shipping up to Boston” song (aka Papelbon’s entrance music). Don’t know why they had to lip-sync it.

--James Taylor performed the National Anthem (simple and elegant...it was great) and Daniel Powter sang the Canadian National Anthem.

--Bobby Orr (getting the loudest ovation of anybody at this event) was announced as honorary Captain of the Bruins, and Bobby Clark was announced as same for the Flyers.

--Tim Thomas’ Winter Classic helmet had the image of the late Fred Cusick on the right side.

--On the radio broadcast, Bobby Beers was saying that during the second period, Flyers fans had a “let’s go Flyers” chant going, which was soon countered with “let’s go Bruins” by the Bruins fans. One thing both groups of fans agreed upon? The combined “Yankees Suck!” chant that they did afterwards. Funny stuff.

--With eight minutes left in the game, Dennis Leary and Lenny Clark lead the crowd in the Fenway Favorite “Sweet Caroline”. buh-buh-buhhhhhhh

--Combined shots in today’s game: 51.

--Nice touch at end of game: youth hockey players lined up on the ice, and the Fenway announcer made the official roster announcement for the USA 2010 Olympic Team. As the announcer said a name, each kid would turn around to reveal that player’s name on the back of their jersey. See the complete list here. (Tim Thomas is the starting goalie for the USA!)

Happy New Year blog readers!

--joe