Published: September 18, 2007 12:23 am      

SPORTS: Sabres to host Penguins in outdoor game in Buffalo

Sidney Crosby will show off his passing skills at the same place Jim Kelly did for years — in front of shivering fans at Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium.

It’ll be pucks instead of footballs and the home team will be the Sabres and not the Bills.

Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins will face Buffalo on New Year’s Day in the first outdoor NHL game in the United States. It will be the second time the league staged such an event in the regular season, coming more than four years after the Montreal Canadiens faced the Oilers outside on a frigid November day in Edmonton.

The official announcement was made Monday at the 74,000-seat stadium, where the league attendance record is expected to be broken.

“I’m excited,” said Crosby, the 20-year-old reigning MVP. “I think it’s going to be a great experience for everyone. We all watched the Edmonton-Montreal game. We’ve all prepared for this at some point in our careers, playing outside, so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for us and for the fans.”

Preparations for the historic game are expected to begin Christmas Eve, the day after the Bills play the New York Giants in Buffalo’s final regular-season home game. A refrigeration system will be installed to make the ice and the process will be supervised by Dan Craig, the NHL’s ice expert.

“There is something very special about taking hockey out into the elements, back to its roots, back to the place where so many boys and girls first learned to love the game,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said on the stadium’s bright green turf, which will be transformed into an ice rink.

Buffalo was chosen for its dependably cold winters and proximity to Pittsburgh, from where fans are expected to make the 225-mile trip in droves. The NHL already is making plans to organize bus excursions and hold hotel rooms.

“The average temperature in the beginning of January, end of December is 25 degrees,” Bettman said. “That’s exactly what we’re hoping for. A little overcast ... We prefer that there be no lake-effect snow or any other precipitation.”

A normal Jan. 1 snowfall in Buffalo is less than an inch, according to National Weather Service records. Temperatures have varied from 0 degrees in 1970 to 63 in 1985.

Tickets, ranging from $29 to $225, were scheduled to go on sale Tuesday morning. The game will be televised by NBC against college football bowls.

“I never thought it was going to happen again, to be honest,” Crosby said of playing outside. “But to be part of it, we really feel fortunate.”

Sabres goalie Ryan Miller was in net for Michigan State for its 2001 outdoor “Cold War” with Michigan, when shadows and wind were unique challenges.

“I got off the ice after that game and I was red in the face, windburned and my toes were frozen,” Miller said. “I’m hoping I learned a little bit and can make some adjustments and figure out how to stay warm.”

The Sabres have reached the Eastern Conference finals each of the past two seasons. The Penguins, built around young stars Crosby and rookie of the year Evgeni Malkin, are hoping to get to that level soon.

“We have a young team so it’s not that long ago that our young players were actually playing on ponds,” Penguins president David Morehouse said. “Whether it be Sidney Crosby in Canada, Evgeni Malkin in Russia or Ryan Whitney in the United States ... they’re very excited and enthusiastic.”

Bettman said the NHL will pay for the event, expected to cost “well into the seven figures.” A contingency plan is in the works in case the weather doesn’t cooperate.

The league’s only previous outdoor non-exhibition game drew 57,167 fans to Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in November 2003.

“We were overdue for another one but we needed the right place, the right teams and the right time and we found them all,” Bettman said. “Plain and simple, we are doing this to have some fun.”