When the birds are away, the Blues will play.

Busch Stadium, home to the St. Louis Cardinals MLB team, welcomed a different sport when the NHL decided the St. Louis Blues hockey team would host their biggest rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks.

The NHL’s annual Winter Classic is a regular season game that is played in open air, rather than the normal indoor arena.

This season the Blues took part in the Classic for the first time since it began nine years ago.  Contrary to the Blues, The Blackhawks have been in five outdoor games since the series start, according to Pat Iverson of sbnation.com.

The outdoor rink arrived on Dec. 15 and was built to withstand bad weather and temperatures above freezing.  The ice maintenance team of Scottrade pumped 20,000 gallons of water into trays to create a two-inch thick sheet of ice for the game.

They finished the rink in time for Busch to hold 45,000 hockey fans on Jan. 2.  Among them was EHS senior Carson Lewis.

“The atmosphere was awesome,” Lewis said. “Having 45,000 people and selling out a baseball stadium is outstanding.”

The game itself ignited early in the first period, when Chicago scored the first goal of the game.

The battle continued until Patrik Berglund of the Blues scored in the second period to make the score 1-1.  Junior Amanda Berdick, who goes to multiple games each season, stated this was her favorite part.

“The intensity of the game picked up,” Berdick said.  “The rivalry of the teams made it even better.”

With hope, the Blues held the game at a stalemate until Vladimir Tarasenko scored 10 minutes into the third period.  The stadium erupted.  Minutes later, he scored a second goal.  The aftermath of Tarasenko’s goals was freshman Mattie Norton’s most memorable moment from the game.

“The electricity that ran through the crowd after was insane,” she said.

The fans were up and chanting “Let’s go Blues” as the team scored a final empty net goal to seal the 4-1 win.

The home team, in their first outdoor game, beat their oldest rival and closest competition in what could be called a historic day for Blues hockey.