Winter Classic ratings strong

The Detroit Red Wings' 6-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday at Wrigley Field topped last year's National Hockey League outdoor game by 12 percent in preliminary television ratings.

The game at the home of baseball's Chicago Cubs was the third annual outdoor contest and had an overnight rating of 2.9, according to Nielsen Media Research. That tops the 2.6 rating for last year's match in snowy Buffalo, New York, between the Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins, which had the biggest television audience for an NHL game since 1996.

Yesterday's game, which was broadcast on General Electric Co.'s NBC network, drew a sellout crowd of 40,818 to the 95- year-old ballpark on the Chicago's north side. While there was no snow this year, the game-time temperature was about 31 degrees Fahrenheit (-0.5 Celsius), leading many players to wear ski-mask style headwear under their helmets.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the game. They outshot the Blackhawks 43-37 and have won all four meetings between the teams this season.

Ratings points are the percentage of the estimated 111.3 million U.S. households with televisions that watched the broadcast. Preliminary local ratings were 11.8 in Chicago and 10.5 in Detroit, according to Nielsen data.

Overnight ratings measure the number of viewers in the biggest U.S. cities. Final ratings include numbers from smaller television markets.