EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- It must have been the toque.
Jose Theodore braved sub-zero temperatures and made 34 saves for the Montreal Canadiens, who got two goals apiece from Richard Zednik and Yanic Perreault and held on for a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the first outdoor game in NHL history.
With wind chills at Commonwealth Stadium dipping well below zero, Theodore wore a toque atop his helmet. The former Hart Trophy winner held Edmonton to a single goal until the final seven minutes, when rookie Jarret Stoll and defenseman Steve Staios made things interesting.
"I don't think I'll keep it, it was just for the cold weather," Theodore said of his ski cap. "My equipment was so frozen and cold that my pants and chest protector felt like I couldn't move in them. It was hard sliding across because there was so much snow."
The Heritage Classic, which featured a game between old-timers from both teams, drew an NHL-record crowd of 57,167 to the home of football's Edmonton Eskimos. The previous mark was 28,183 for a playoff game between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay on April 23, 1996.
"There was only one thing lacking in the whole evening from our perspective - we didn't deliver the win," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "That would have made the game very memorable for everybody."
"This games rates a 10, there's no doubt about that," Theodore said. "You look at the fans, we got the win and the two points, so it's hard to ask for a better result. Everything I was looking for from this experience was perfect."
Zednik opened the scoring 39 seconds into the second period and completed his second two-goal game of the week with 5:42 left in the third. It became the game-winner when Staios got the Oilers within 4-3 just 39 seconds later.
"I'll look back when I'm old and I can tell my kids, 'Look, I scored two goals in this game.' It's a great memory," Zednik said. "I don't usually like to be on the bench, but tonight I was happy to be coming back to the bench to stay warm a lot longer."
Whether it was the temperature of the unusual setting, the teams generated few scoring chances in the first period. But Zednik had an easy tap-in to put Montreal in front and Perreault beat goaltender Ty Conklin with a wraparound 10 1/2 minutes later for a power-play goal.
Oilers defenseman Eric Brewer was credited with a goal that appeared to go off Canadiens counterpart Sheldon Souray, but Perreault restored Montreal's two-goal lead 2:22 into the third period.
Stoll and Staios sandwiched their goals around Zednik's second of the game, but Edmonton had a four-game winning streak snapped.
"All-around, a great experience, something that we'll cherish forever, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this situation," Oilers left wing Ryan Smyth said. "Of course, I'm disappointed with the outcome, but the guys played really hard tonight."
Completing a 2-2-0-1 road trip helped ease the chill in the Canadiens' locker room.
"We were worried about this wind chill, but I didn't really notice it too much, especially with the stuff they gave us to wear," Perreault said. "It really wasn't a problem."
