HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — The AHL made sure fans could still enjoy an outdoor hockey game this season.
The American Hockey League held its annual midseason game outside Sunday when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins met the Hershey Bears on an ice sheet built inside a football stadium on the grounds of an amusement park.
The puck dropped around sunset, while bright lights flashed on the idle wooden roller-coaster tracks behind the stadium.
The NHL returned this weekend from a months-long lockout.
But its popular Winter Classic, which was supposed to pit the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 1 in Ann Arbor, Mich., was cancelled and wasn’t rescheduled.
The game went on for the AHL. League president David Andrews said attendance was up about 7 percent across the AHL.
