T���S TAKE IT
OUTSIDE
Outdoor hockey has become a novelty? Don���t tell that
to the Badgers, whose bitter rivalry with Minnesota
heads out into the elements for a vital conference clash
I
BY MIKE LUCAS ��� UWBADGERS.COM
t was during a Kenny Chesney concert
this past summer at Chicago���s Soldier
Field that Wisconsin���s Jefferson Dahl got
a chance to ���picture the ice out there������ and
visualize what the environment might be
like Sunday for the OfficeMax Hockey City Classic.
Maybe it was during Chesney���s rendition of
���Living in Fast Forward������ that Dahl began to think
about the Badgers facing arch-rival Minnesota
at the historic lakefront venue that rocked with
50,000-plus for Chesney and Tim McGraw and
their ���Brothers of the Sun������ stadium tour.
The concept of playing hockey outdoors is
certainly not new, or even novel, anymore. Dahl
got his first taste of the dynamic in 2006 when
he traveled to Green Bay and watched Wisconsin defeat Ohio State, 4-2, in the Frozen Tundra
Hockey Classic at Lambeau Field.
The temperature at the opening faceoff was 28
degrees and the Badgers didn���t waste any time
getting the jump on the Buckeyes as Adam Burish scored 23 seconds into the game. ���I remember sitting way up high, seeing everyone bundled
up and hearing the chants in the student sec-
tions,������ Dahl said.
Four years later, Wisconsin played Michigan
in Madison and attracted 55,000-plus to the Culver���s Camp Randall Hockey Classic. Dahl wasn���t
in attendance but he saw the video of Brendan
Smith scoring a pair of third-period goals, including the game-winner in a 3-2 decision over
the Wolverines.
Dahl has a pretty good feel for outdoor hockey
in that he had his own home ice advantage while
growing up in Eau Claire. There was a city rink
down the street, but it wasn���t kept up. So when
he was in the eighth grade, Dahl���s father took
down some trees in their backyard and excavated a field of dreams.
He built it, and they came ��� all of Dahl���s prep
teammates later came on a weekly basis.
���It started small,������ said Dahl, a former Mr.
Hockey in the state of Wisconsin. ���We flooded it
one year and it worked out and we were able to
skate. The next year, we enlarged it and it ended
up a pretty decent size. We got it up to almost 90feet by 60-something.
(An NHL rink is 200-by-85 feet.)
���We got netting around the rink because there
