The 2022 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

game played in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) on January 1, 2022, at

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. It is named for Tar ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The 13th edition of the

Winter Classic The NHL Winter Classic () is an annual NHL outdoor games, outdoor ice hockey game played during the National Hockey League's (NHL) regular season on or around New Year's Day. It is generally held in a American football, football or baseball stad ...

, it matched the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

against the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confer ...

; the Blues won, 6–4. The game was originally scheduled for 2021 but was postponed a year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Background

The NHL announced on January 1, 2020, that the 2021 Winter Classic would be hosted by the

. The league then announced on February 23, 2020, that the St. Louis Blues would be the visiting team. The league had previously contemplated Target Field as a host for a Winter Classic game, touring the stadium both in 2018 and 2019, and observing how the area hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2019. It was to be the Wild's second outdoor game after hosting the 2016 NHL Stadium Series against the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

at TCF Bank Stadium. This was also to be the Blues' second outdoor game after hosting the 2017 NHL Winter Classic against the Blackhawks at

Busch Stadium Busch Stadium (also referred to informally as "New Busch Stadium" or "Busch Stadium III") is a baseball stadium located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the home of Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals. It has a seating capacity of 44,383, ...

. The NHL delayed the start of the 2020–21 season to January 2021, due to the

having forced the 2019–20 playoffs to conclude in late-September. If the Winter Classic were to be held, it would have likely served as the season opener for both teams. On October 22, 2020, the NHL announced that the 2021 Winter Classic, and the 2021 All-Star Game in

Sunrise, Florida Sunrise is a city in central-western Broward County, Florida, Broward County, Florida, United States, and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The population was 97,335 at the time of the 2020 census. History Early history In ...

, had been postponed due to "uncertainty as to when we will be able to welcome our fans back to our games," as fan participation and accompanying events are considered "integral to the rsuccess." The NHL stated that both events would not return until 2022 at the earliest, and that these events could be held in Minneapolis and Sunrise "in the near future" (but not yet naming them the 2022 hosts). On June 28, 2021, the league confirmed that the Winter Classic between the Blues and the Wild at Target Field would be scheduled for 2022. The league further announced on September 27, 2021, that it would be the first Winter Classic scheduled for primetime, avoiding a repeat of the sunlight and heat issues that occurred during the previous season's

NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe was a series of two outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) games, held on the weekend of February 20–21, 2021. Both games were played without fans at a rink on the 18th fairway of the Edgewood Tahoe R ...

. With various December 2021 games being postponed league-wide due to COVID-19 outbreaks among a large number of teams, the NHL remained adamant about holding the Winter Classic as scheduled. With the game time temperature at , this was the coldest NHL outdoor game in history.

Game summary

:''Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season''

Team rosters

: Ville Husso dressed as the back-up goaltender for St. Louis and did not enter the game.

Scratches

*St. Louis Blues: Robert Bortuzzo, Jake Walman *Minnesota Wild: Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek

Entertainment

VocalEssence Singers Of This Age
a group of

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi, Minnesota River, Minnesota, and St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota), ...

high school students, performed the national anthem arranged by their director
G. Phillip Shoultz, III
Minnesota sports stars were then introduced, including Rachel Banham of the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team won the WNBA ...

, former

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves (often referred to as the Wolves or T-wolves) are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Divisio ...

player Troy Hudson, and former

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

player John Randle. Former

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

players Justin Morneau,

Joe Mauer Joseph Patrick Mauer (born April 19, 1983) is an American former professional baseball catcher and first baseman who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Minnesota Twins. Regarded as one of the greatest contact h ...

Kent Hrbek Kent Alan Hrbek (; born May 21, 1960), nicknamed "Herbie", is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 14-year baseball career with the Minnesota Twins (1981–1994). Hrbek batted left-handed and threw right-ha ...

, and Tony Oliva participated in the ceremonial puck drop. Country music singer

Thomas Rhett Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. (born March 30, 1990) is an American country music, country singer-songwriter. He is the oldest son of singer Rhett Akins. Rhett has released seven studio albums for Big Machine Records' Valory Music imprint: ''It Goes ...

performed during the first intermission. The roster for the U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey team competing at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

was revealed during the second intermission.

Broadcasting

In April 2021,

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

acquired the rights to the U.S. television broadcast. The American radio rights will be held by Sports USA Radio Network, the first in a four-year agreement with Sports USA. With the game being scheduled for a Saturday night, it aired in Canada under the ''

Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

'' banner on

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

Television ratings

The 2022 NHL Winter Classic surpassed the 2017 game for the lowest ratings of any Winter Classic in the United States, with an average of less than 1.36 million American viewers watching the game. The 2024 game would surpass this game with less than 1.1 million viewers watching.

Notes

References

{{Hockey Night in Canada NHL Winter Classic

St. Louis Blues games Minnesota Wild games Ice hockey competitions in Minneapolis National Hockey League in Minneapolis–Saint Paul

NHL Winter Classic The NHL Winter Classic () is an annual outdoor ice hockey game played during the National Hockey League's (NHL) regular season on or around New Year's Day. It is generally held in a football or baseball stadium in the United States in an area w ...

2022 in sports in Minnesota 2020s in Minneapolis