For one weekend only, a historic ballpark will transform into an outdoor college ice hockey rink.<\/p>\n
Owen Lindmark is a center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison men\u2019s hockey team. He grew up in Naperville, Illinois \u2014 a suburb of Chicago.<\/p>\n
As a kid, he\u2019d often go to Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs play baseball.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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On Jan. 4, he\u2019ll have the unique opportunity to play hockey in front of his family and friends at the stadium as part of \u201cThe Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the opportunity to play a hockey game there, it\u2019s going to be a really fun experience,\u201d Lindmark told WPR.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the UW-Madison men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams will play at Wrigley as part of the series.\u00a0It\u2019ll be the first time the ballpark has hosted a college hockey game in its 110-year-old history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very, very cool environment \u2026 and special place to play,\u201d Lindmark said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Ice hockey has been played outside for decades. The UW-Madison men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams have both played outside before. But this will be the first time the programs have played outside at a baseball stadium, according to a statement from the university.<\/p>\n Kelly Gorbatenko, a forward for the women\u2019s hockey team, estimated more than 50 people from her hometown of Barrington, Illinois will make the trip to the stadium for the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt being outdoor, that\u2019s the kind of hockey I grew up playing, playing on the outdoor rink, and that\u2019s when I\u2019ve always had the most fun,\u201d Gorbatenko said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it just really brings you back to when you\u2019re a kid, and you\u2019re playing just for the fun of it. And it\u2019s a different atmosphere,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n The women\u2019s team will take on Ohio State in a rematch of the NCAA Championship Games in 2023 and 2024. The women\u2019s team beat Ohio State in 2023, marking the program\u2019s seventh national title.<\/p>\n The men\u2019s team will face off against Michigan State. <\/p>\n The games will be played just days after the Chicago Blackhawks play against the St. Louis Blues in the\u00a0NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n Commissioner of Big Ten Ice Hockey, Adam Augustine, said outdoor games are special because they bring the game back to its roots.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a lot of us, this is how we grew up playing the game and learning the game,\u201d said Augustine, who is also a UW-Madison graduate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just something different about the way the game sounds, the way the skates sound on the ice, the puck and everything,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wrigley Field was built in 1914. It recently received a National Historic Landmark designation by the National Park Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s the second oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, behind only Fenway Park in Boston. The historic stadium also hosted the 2009 NHL Winter Classic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe opportunity to be first to do something in a place that\u2019s been around as long as Wrigley Field \u2026 it\u2019s a combination of factors that just makes it such a unique experience for those involved,\u201d Augustine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The UW-Madison men\u2019s hockey team plays games at the Kohl Center, which has a capacity of around 15,000. The women\u2019s team plays at the LaBahn Arena, with a capacity of under 3,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Augustine said over 20,000 hockey fans should be at the games in Chicago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a great city, with a lot of interest in the sport of hockey, so certainly expecting great crowds,\u201d Augustine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s too early to know what the temperature will be in Chicago when the puck drops, but the weather will likely be a factor for players. It was -10 degrees in Minnesota for the 2022 NHL Winter Classic.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally the weather is a controllable inside, but when you get outside, you never know exactly what it\u2019s going to do,\u201d Lindmark said. \u201cSo you got to be ready to change your game plan up a bit if the ice isn\u2019t too good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If it snows, Lindmark said that could make for an interesting game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s actually snowing \u2026 it\u2019s going to be a fun game, because the puck is going to be having to slide through all that snow, it\u2019s gonna be bouncing around on the ice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Todd Milewski, who covers hockey for the Wisconsin State Journal, said players could be skating slower if it snows. Rain can also negatively impact the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cSo they have to kind of prepare as a team \u2026 their equipment people have to prepare for all sorts of possibilities ahead of time to know what they might need in terms of hand warmers or extra layers underneath the jersey,\u201d Milewski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ice will be maintained after the NHL Winter Classic game on Dec. 31 until the college games on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4.\u00a0Penn State will take on Notre Dame, and Ohio State will play against Michigan on Jan. 3.<\/p>\n During a press conference announcing the games, Chris Chelios, who attended the UW-Madison and played for the Chicago Blackhawks, said it\u2019s an exciting opportunity for the college athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c(I\u2019m) Looking forward to a big weekend, watching Wisconsin win the whole thing, both men\u2019s and women\u2019s,\u201d Chelios said. \u201cGo Badgers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n You can learn more about how to watch the games here.<\/p>\n Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2025, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For one weekend only, a historic ballpark will transform into an outdoor college ice hockey rink. Owen Lindmark is a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[770],"tags":[2412,2410,912,2408,2406,911,2409,2405,2407,2411],"class_list":["post-13468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-sports-gear","tag-field","tag-games","tag-gear","tag-hockey","tag-mens","tag-outdoor","tag-teams","tag-uwmadison","tag-womens","tag-wrigley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallstores.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_1872-scaled.jpg\")
![\"Hockey](\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/230320_badgerhockey04-scaled.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_1708-scaled.jpg\")
Weather could <\/strong>be a factor<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_1693-scaled.jpg\")