Clemens Files Suit Against Ex-Trainer

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DUFF WILSON

Roger Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against his former trainer saying Brian McNamee falsely accused him of using performance-enhancing drugs only after he was "threatened with criminal prosecution if he did not implicate Clemens" to federal investigators.
But an attorney for McNamee said Monday that his client was not pressured by federal investigators to name Clemens but that McNamee told Clemens’s people that he was pressured.
"He lied to them and tried to say, ’Well, they pressured me,’ because he wanted to continue to stay in the good graces of Roger," the attorney Earl Ward said in a telephone interview.
Ward was present during the day of questioning by federal investigators in June, which was described in a lawsuit Clemens filed Sunday. Ward said McNamee will also say, under oath, he was not pressured.
On Friday, Clemens and McNamee were invited to appear before a Congressional committee and testify under oath about the incidents detailed in former Senator George J. Mitchell’s report on performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.
Ward said the questioning by a federal investigator and assistant United States attorney was polite, nothing was thrown, and no threats were made. His account contradicted a statement McNamee had made to investigators for Clemens, which was quoted in the Clemens lawsuit.
"That’s far from what happened, far from what happened," Ward said in a phone interview. "It’s just Brian trying to stay in Roger’s good graces. He’s just blowing smoke."
Clemens’s defamation suit was filed Sunday in Harris County, Tex., the same day an interview with Clemens aired on the CBS program “60 Minutes” in which Clemens denied ever using steroids or human growth hormone. The suit alleges that McNamee was pressured by federal prosecutors to provide information to Mitchell’s investigators after he initially said Clemens had never used banned substances. The suit lists 15 statements McNamee made to Mitchell that the suit contends are “untrue and defamatory.”
"They injured Clemens’ reputation and exposed him to public hatred, contempt, ridicule and financial injury," the suit says of McNamee’s allegations. "McNamee made the allegations with actual malice, knowing they were false."
"The Mitchell Commission republished McNamee’s allegations," it says. "At the time he made the false accusations to the Mitchell Commission, McNamee did not recognize, and a reasonable person in McNamee’s position should have recognized, that they would be communicated to other persons."
Richard D. Emery, a lawyer working for McNamee who specializes in defamation cases, said the Clemens complaint "reads like a press release."
Emery also said Clemens’s suit shows Clemens was not truthful on "60 Minutes" because he had hired an attorney and his investigators had interviewed McNamee before the Mitchell report was released.
During the interview with Mike Wallace, Clemens said he did not know ahead of time what was going to be in the Mitchell report.
"Did Brian McNamee tell you what he was going to say to-", Wallace started.
"Didn’t tell me a word," Clemens interrupted.
In a phone interview Monday, Emery said he will move to bring the suit to federal court or a New York state court, instead of a Texas court.
It is the latest maneuver in the battle that has erupted between Clemens and McNamee’s lawyers since it was first revealed last month in the Mitchell report that McNamee injected Clemens on numerous occasions.
McNamee’s lawyers had threatened to sue Clemens if he and his lawyers continued to say that McNamee was lying about Clemens’s use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The suit says that McNamee initially told federal prosecutors that Clemens never used performance-enhancing drugs. But after he was pressured by I.R.S. special agent Jeff Novitzky and assistant United States attorney Matt Parrella, he said he had injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 1998, 2000 and 2001. The proffer agreement between McNamee and prosecutors said anything McNamee said in interviews with the agent would not be used against him in criminal proceedings.
McNamee’s lawyer said his client named Clemens as an illegal drug user in his first day of questioning by federal investigators.
"I wasn’t there the first day but Roger’s name came up," Ward said. "The second day, they had a discussion with him and they said, ’Look, we like what you said, but you’ve got to give us everything.’ There were no angry words. It was spoken in a perfectly normal manner.”
The suit alleges that after his interrogation, McNamee told others he was again approached by federal authorities and asked to talk to Mitchell’s investigators.
“McNamee has contended that when he initially refused to do so, he was told by the federal government that he would be moved from his ‘witness’ status back to ‘target status’ and fully prosecuted,” the suit says. “McNamee has stated that when faced again with the threat of federal prosecution, he agreed to speak with Mitchell.”
McNamee’s lawyer said:” They gave him a speech and said you’ve got to be honest.”
Ward also said the timing of the interview with McNamee by investigators for Clemens’s lawyer proved Clemens did not tell the truth on "60 Minutes" when he said he did not know what was going to be in the Mitchell report. "That’s an outright lie," Ward said.
He said the Clemens’s investigators talked to McNamee about two days before the release of the Mitchell report. The investigators worked for Rusty Hardin, Clemens’s attorney, who was also representing Andy Pettitte at that time.
Ward said the investigators told McNamee their conversation was not being taped, but the lawsuit shows it was taped. Ward said McNamee was consistent in everything else he said, other than being pressured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/sports/baseball/08clemens.html?em&ex=1199854800&en=1893280eac6fd721&ei=5087%0A

Jaguars relinquish 18-point lead but stun Steelers at end

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The past means nothing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Pittsburgh, and neither does a frantic Steelers fourth-quarter rally. The Jaguars overcame both obstacles there for the second time in three weeks, and next up might be another date with history.
Josh Scobee saved the game by kicking a 25-yard field goal with 37 seconds remaining and the Jaguars came back after squandering an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter to beat the Steelers 31-29 on Saturday night in an AFC wild-card game that was wild in every sense of the word.
Jacksonville, becoming the first opponent to win twice in Pittsburgh in the same season in the Steelers' 75-season history, appeared to be done after Najeh Davenport's second 1-yard TD run of the game gave the Steelers a 29-28 lead with about six minutes remaining. But quarterback David Garrard, not an exceptional runner, found a seam on a convert-or-else fourth-and-2 play and rambled 32 yards to the Steelers 11 with 1:56 left.
"Right before we went out, I pulled the guys together and said, 'Guys, you got to love it, this is what we're here for,' " coach Jack Del Rio said. "Now let's go out and make some plays and win it."
The Jaguars will play unbeaten New England in Foxborough on Saturday night, unless the Titans upset the Chargers in the other AFC wild-card game Sunday. If that happens, Jacksonville will play next Sunday at Indianapolis.
Garrard aided the Steelers' comeback by throwing two interceptions -- one less than he had all season -- only to come up with the play that may have saved the Jaguars' season.
"They kind of lost their gaps, they thought pass, I was able to get through there," Garrard said. "I just wanted to get a first down. I did enough to get into field-goal range and that was all I was thinking about."
Steelers linebacker Larry Foote argued emphatically that Jacksonville's offensive line held on Garrard's run.
"I don't want to get fined, but watch the long quarterback sneak," Foote said. "Watch the middle of the defensive line and you'll see. You'll see it. Watch what happens in the middle of the field. ... You see a big old hole open up and you'll see the reason why."
Ben Roethlisberger (29-of-42, 337 yards) put the Steelers into a deep hole himself by throwing three interceptions before halftime, then got rolling after he began lining up in a shotgun formation and threw touchdown passes to Santonio Holmes (37 yards) and Heath Miller (14 yards) in 4 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter to get Pittsburgh within 28-23.
"Ben is our leader, he's always going to be our leader. I'll ride or die with him any day," right tackle Willie Colon said in a subdued Steelers locker room, one filled with disappointment but no screaming or angry words. "He's tremendous and I love him to death and he led us back."
The Steelers rallied from 15 points down to tie Jacksonville late in the Jaguars' 29-22 win at Heinz Field on Dec. 16, but couldn't close the deal. They couldn't this time, either, even though Roethlisberger, shouldering the Steelers' offense virtually by himself with no running game, was 17-of-23 for 263 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. Hines Ward made 10 catches for 135 yards, but the Willie Parker-less Steelers ran for only 43 yards on 26 carries.
Pittsburgh also came up two points short by gambling, perhaps unwisely, for 2-point conversions after each of its final two touchdowns and getting neither. If the Steelers had kicked both times, Scobee's field goal would have only tied it.
"It's very disappointing, everyone's fired up," linebacker Clark Haggans said. "We fought hard. We came up short. It was a play here, a play there."
The Jaguars have beaten Pittsburgh four times in the last three seasons, including that Dec. 16 win, and they appeared ready to do easily by building a 28-10 lead behind backup running back Maurice Jones-Drew's playmaking and Rashean Mathis' two important interceptions.
Then, in less than only about eight minutes, they almost gave away their season.
"I was very proud of our guys for responding after watching that 18-point lead evaporate," Del Rio said. "Certainly, getting this experience will benefit our football team. We wanted to stay calm, stay poised and understand that that's what you need to do, make some plays. We needed every bit of them."
Jones-Drew, in a performance filled with big plays, scored on a 43-yard swing pass after one of Roethlisberger's interceptions and a 10-yard run that provided the 18-point lead. Jones-Drew's 96-yard kickoff return the first time Jacksonville touched the ball set up Fred Taylor's 1-yard touchdown run and immediately answered the Steelers' opening-possession 80-yard touchdown drive.
Taylor, who ran for 147 yards in Pittsburgh last month and had 381 yards in his last two games there, was held to 48 yards on 16 carries and, but it didn't matter.
"It was a tough way to get a win and we got one," Jones-Drew said.
The Jaguars came in off six wins in their last eight games, while the Steelers -- missing five starters, including star running back Parker -- limped into the postseason with three losses in four games and four in seven.
With no Parker, the NFL's leading rusher until he broke his right leg Dec. 20 against St. Louis, the Steelers needed to be creative offensively and Roethlisberger was exactly that on the opening possession. Using rollouts and swing passes to gain the yardage they normally get on Parker's running, the Steelers drove 80 yards for Davenport's 1-yard TD run and a 7-0 lead.
That efficient, creative Steelers offense disappeared the rest of the half, replaced by the familiar mistake-a-minute style so common when they ended five seasons with home playoff losses under former coach Bill Cower from 1992-2004. Cowher, coincidentally, resigned as coach after 15 seasons a year to the day Saturday.
Mathis, who decided Jacksonville's 23-17 overtime win at Heinz Field in 2005 with an interception return touchdown in overtime, jumped on a slant pattern by Holmes early in the second quarter for his 63-yard interception return. Two plays before, the Steelers appeared to get a big break when a tipped pass intended for Miller deflected to Ward for a 33-yard gain, a mini-Immaculate Reception 35 years and two weeks after the original.
Roethlisberger, perhaps attempting to prove he wasn't discouraged by that interception, went right back at Mathis on Pittsburgh's next possession -- and was intercepted by him again. The Jaguars promptly scored two plays later, on a 43-yard swing pass to Jones-Drew that made it 21-7.
With the Steelers driving late in the half, after Scobee's missed 46-yard field goal attempt, Roethlisberger was intercepted yet again by rookie backup lineman Derek Landri.
Despite the comeback, the Steelers ended their first season under new coach Mike Tomlin the same way they did their first under Cowher in 1992, with a first-game playoff loss on their home field.
"We fell short," Tomlin said. "Nothing really soothes the feeling we have right now."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=280105023&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Brady takes 49 of 50 votes in MVP voting

NEW YORK -- Add Most Valuable Player to all the other accolades Tom Brady has been collecting.
Tom Brady rewrote the NFL record book in 2007 and earned all but one MVP vote.
The New England Patriots' record-setting quarterback drew all but one vote Saturday in romping to The Associated Press 2007 NFL MVP award in the same manner his team romped through its schedule, going 16-0. On the way to the first unbeaten regular season since Miami went 14-0 in 1972, Brady put on a performance for the ages.
"I have always been a huge football fan and will always have great respect for the history of this game," Brady said. "I am grateful to all of the voters for any consideration I was given. It is a tremendous honor and I am sure it is one that my family will one day look back on with great pride."
The eight-year veteran who already has won three Super Bowls helped the Patriots tear through the record books by throwing for 50 touchdowns. He beat Peyton Manning's league mark by one, and also threw 23 of those TD passes to Randy Moss, which lifted the receiver past Jerry Rice's record of 22.
New England scored 589 points, another record, as was the Patriots' 75 touchdowns. Brady led the NFL with a 117.2 passer rating -- no, not another record, but close to Manning's 121.1 in 2004. Only one full-time AFC starter, Jacksonville's David Garrard, had fewer than Brady's eight interceptions. And Brady threw 253 more passes than Garrard.
Brady also was tops with a 68.9 completion percentage, and his 4,806 yards were 383 more than runner-up Drew Brees of New Orleans.
Brady joins a roster of AP MVPs that includes quarterbacks John Unitas, Bart Starr, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, John Elway and Steve Young -- all Hall of Famers.
"I am flattered to join such an esteemed list of players, many of whom I consider the greatest of all time," he said. "I hope that I can set as great of an example for kids around the world as the previous MVPs did for me."
There also was plenty of praise to go around from teammates, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick.
"To be honest, I'm surprised it took so long for him to get this recognition because he's sort of been our MVP since he stepped on the field in '01, in my mind, and the way he just took over," Kraft said. "He treats everyone in that locker room the same way he treats me or the coaches.
"And the thing that I've found most interesting is if you talk to role players or backups how he talks to them and motivates them. He treats them like they're going to the Pro Bowl, with that kind of respect."
Added Mike Vrabel, who has gone from a role player to a Pro Bowl linebacker over the years:
"He's our MVP. I think we've known that for quite some time. "I think his work ethic day in and day out (is most impressive). We get to practice against him so I think that makes us better. I think it makes us a better defense. He puts a lot of time into it. It's important to him. Going out there every week and then trying to play his absolute best is a priority for him."
Brady is the first Patriot selected NFL MVP. He drew 49 of the 50 votes from a nationwide panel of media members who regularly cover the NFL. Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, the only three-time MVP, got the other vote.
"He deserves it," Belichick said. "I have thought for a long time that there is no past or present quarterback I'd rather coach than Tom Brady, and I am more certain of that every year he plays."
Only in one game, a 20-10 win over the Jets, did Brady not throw for a touchdown. He had 12 games with at least three TD passes.
Those are great stats, but they hardly tell the entire story. Brady's leadership skills overshadow just about everything.
"Tom's one of those guys that goes out there and tries to perform and compete every week," center Dan Koppen said. "He gives maximum effort on every play and every game. What he did was outstanding, but I know he wants more than that. That's what you need in your quarterback."
The last two MVP awards went to running backs LaDainian Tomlinson (2006) and Shaun Alexander (2005). Before that, quarterbacks won four in a row: Peyton Manning in 2004 and in 2003, when he shared it with Steve McNair; Rich Gannon in 2002; and Kurt Warner in 2001.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3182557&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Odds, and history, don't bode well for Clemens' denials

Great expectations lie upon Mike Wallace, whose interview of Roger Clemens that airs Sunday night on "60 Minutes" could be another defining moment of the steroid era. Similar to Bud Selig's approach in selecting George Mitchell to lead his steroid investigation, the Clemens camp is hoping Wallace's career as an uncompromising newsman will provide a degree of legitimacy to the pitcher's predictable yet largely implausible denials that his longtime personal trainer injected him with performance-enhancing drugs.
On the other side, Wallace will be judged on his ability to do what Clemens hasn't done on his own: begin the dialogue that will explain why Brian McNamee might be telling the truth about everyone except his biggest client, the man without whom he wouldn't ever have entered the New York Yankees' clubhouse in the first place.
In his '60 Minutes' interview on Sunday, Roger Clemens likely will try to convince the public that he deserves the benefit of the doubt.Wallace, who turns 90 on May 9, is every bit the legend in his field that Clemens is on the pitching mound, but it isn't as if "60 Minutes" is throwing a particularly intimidating fastball these days. If the Clemens interview is anything resembling the program's recent soft-toss profiles of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, Clemens will be seated for just another celebrity, woe-is-me interview -- more Barcalounger than hot seat. Thomas was portrayed sympathetically, allowed to attack his enemies and tout his new book while his unimaginative and dogmatic record as a justice went unchallenged; Rodriguez denied using performance-enhancing drugs with a short "no" without even the most basic follow-up by Katie Couric, never the most dogged of inquisitors.
Clemens has two major issues on Sunday night: Wallace and history, and not necessarily in that order. History has shown during the early years of steroid fallout that no player who has famously resisted the allegations has ever come out clean on the other side. Jason Giambi denied and fell; five years ago, he was being discussed as a Hall of Fame-track player. Mark McGwire hit 583 home runs, 70 in a season, yet received just 23.5 percent of the vote in his first year as a Hall of Fame candidate and isn't likely to be elected in his second year when the votes are released Tuesday. Sammy Sosa, once the sport's greatest populist, is now the most uninspiring 600-home run hitter in history.
Rafael Palmeiro, Eddie Murray, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron are the only players in the history of the sport with at least 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, and Palmeiro has disappeared from the game, a pariah on a scale with McGwire. Barry Bonds is currently jobless, alone with his record, awaiting trial.
The only person claiming vindication is Jose Canseco, but it should be recalled that Canseco's original message from his best-selling book, "Juiced," was that steroids, if used properly, are good for the body. Though not as high-profile as Mark McGwire in his disgrace or Rafael Palmeiro in his empty defiance, Canseco employed an impressive backpedal during the seminal March 17, 2005, congressional hearings when he told the House Government Reform Committee that the enormity of the moment made him see steroids in a different light.
Mike Wallace's interview with Clemens will be judged in part on Wallace's ability to examine the accuracy of Brian McNamee's allegations about other players, too. The Mitchell report has belonged to the public for nearly a month now, and yet the conflict remains between its unequivocal allegations of player use and the ensuing public denials by players. For two years, Andy Pettitte said he never used growth hormone, only to admit after he was named in the report to using it as a recovery tool from injury. Brian Roberts said he never used steroids, only to admit the day after the report was released that, yes, he did, but for only one day. Fernando Vina said essentially the same, admitting after countless denials that he used growth hormone but not steroids.
In the fiercest of defenses, David Justice appeared on ESPN Radio to express his anger that he was named in the report. Justice claimed he never met steroid dealer Kirk Radomski and wasn't given the opportunity by Mitchell investigators to respond to allegations that he had purchased growth hormone from Radomski. Justice might not have ever used growth hormone, but in his animated public defense, he left out his verbal commitment to speak to Mitchell about the Radomski-McNamee allegations that appear on pages 181 and 182 in the report, along with the several phone calls Mitchell's investigators made to him to reschedule and the certified letter sent to his Poway, Calif., home. Justice signed for that letter; Mitchell's investigators provided ESPN.com with a copy of its receipt that contains Justice's signature.
Each of the denials has come with a commonsense counter that has not yet been answered by the players, their union or the Mitchell investigators: Why didn't Pettitte or Roberts or Vina or Justice or anyone else simply tell Mitchell what each has told the public since the report was released?
Now it is Clemens who wants America to believe that he, and only he, deserves, in his words "the benefit of the doubt." Just before Christmas, Clemens posted a video on his Web site that contains the following quote: "Let me be clear: The answer is no, I did not use steroids, human growth hormone, and I've never done so. I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body."
Now, according to a partial transcript of the "60 Minutes" interview, Clemens is playing word games with that last sentence. Instead of "any drugs" by McNamee, Clemens is now saying McNamee injected him with only lidocaine and vitamin B-12. Already, the denial has softened, perhaps giving Clemens plausible deniability, Bonds-style, that he didn't know what McNamee was injecting. It is a strategy already being discredited by McNamee's attorneys.
Brian McNamee and his legal team appear ready to counter any attacks from Clemens on the credibility of his allegations."Brian has a master's degree in sports medicine," McNamee attorney Earl Ward told ESPN The Magazine's Shaun Assael. "He knows the difference between lidocaine, B-12 and testosterone. What he injected into Roger Clemens wasn't lidocaine or B-12. It was testosterone."
Vitamin B-12 is an old, not particularly clever, defense. Clemens should remember that when Palmeiro was investigated for perjury by the House Government Reform Committee in 2005, he said the substance he took was vitamin B-12. The House committee report said that in Palmeiro's case, team doctors refused to administer B-12 shots on medical grounds.
Clemens should also know that -- outside of an experimental approach to combat chronic fatigue syndrome -- many doctors universally reject the efficacy of B-12 shots for healthy people who don't suffer from vitamin deficiencies.
When Miguel Tejada was stopped for possessing syringes during a routine airport security check as a member of the Oakland A's, he said the syringes were for, yes, vitamin B-12 injections. Tejada had shipments of B-12 sent to both the Oakland and Baltimore clubhouses. When the medical staffs for both teams refused to provide the shots to Tejada, he administered them himself.
And certainly, Clemens should know that insiders from the bodybuilding community believe vitamin B-12 is an effective masking agent for urine tests.
Clemens will make for interesting television on Sunday, but history and the strength of McNamee's claims are against him. In these tired days of forceful denials that have nothing behind them -- Clemens can still make his case under oath in front of Congress on Jan. 16 -- the odds that he'll be vindicated are about as good as a 42-year-old's posting a 1.87 ERA through clean living and exercise.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=bryant_howard&id=3181042

Crosby scores shootout winner as Penguins nip Sabres in Winter Classic

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) -- Sidney Crosby can expect chilly receptions every time he returns to Buffalo.
Some snow, a shootout and Sid the Kid's winning goal added up to a perfect hockey day outside that will forever be frozen in time.
The Penguins captain somehow saw space between Ryan Miller's pads as he shuffled through driving snow and gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres at the outdoor Winter Classic in front of an NHL-record 71,217 fans on Tuesday.
"Growing up, I played a lot outside," said Crosby, a Nova Scotia native. "When you see 70,000 people jammed into a stadium to watch hockey, it's a good sign. The atmosphere and environment, I don't think you can beat that."
In elements more suited for football than hockey, Crosby won the NHL's second outdoor game -- and first in the United States -- in the most dramatic fashion at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home to the Buffalo Bills.
Crosby skated down the middle, eluded a pokecheck by Miller and put a shot between the goalie's pads in the final round.
"I like facing Sidney. I really want to stop him, obviously," Miller said. "I thought I made a good play to stay with him. I didn't think he made quite the play he wanted, but it worked out for him."
It gave the Penguins a sweep of the home-and-home series with the Sabres that started with Pittsburgh's 2-0 win on Saturday. The Penguins have won four straight, while Buffalo fell to 0-2-2 in that span.
"I'd love to do it again. I thought it was awesome," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "It was good for the game. It may not be the best hockey game because of the situation, because of the weather, because of the snow, but the atmosphere was incredible.
"The hell with the cynics," he said.
Ty Conklin allowed Ales Kotalik's goal to open the tiebreaker before stopping Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinogenov.
Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins, pushing his shootout record to 4-for-4 with a shifty, multi-move rush through accumulating snow that finished with a high shot.
Colby Armstrong gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff, and Brian Campbell tied it 1:25 into the second.
Despite both teams dressed in retro-style jerseys, this game was decided by the most modern of methods. Surprisingly, Zambonis didn't clean the ice as they would for a regular NHL shootout even after they made appearances midway through all three regulation periods.
Given the choice of goals to defend, Miller and Conklin picked the west end to avoid the heavy snow that swirled and poured in toward the right.
Blowing winds and dropping temperatures worked against everyone inside the vast stadium that easily housed the hockey rink between the 16-yard lines. No one seemed to mind the typical January weather in western New York.
With the success of this event, the NHL is already eager to host more, perhaps even on an annual basis. New Year's Day traditionally belonged to college football, but there might be room now for the "Ice Bowl."
"Based on the response, on our ability to execute and the inquiries we're getting from other clubs for similar activities, this obviously is something we're going to look at again," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.
The record crowd, which topped the NHL's other outdoor game in Edmonton four years earlier, dotted the stadium with flashing cameras for each shootout attempt through lake-effect snow.
When Crosby saw the puck cross the goal line, he spun toward the jubilant Penguins bench and jumped with his hands raised.
Fans in the lower bowl stood throughout to get a better view as they looked out over the height of the rink's boards and the NBC and CBC television broadcast platforms behind the penalty boxes.
One enthusiastic patron held a poster that read: "Look Mom, no roof."
That was most clear in the final five minutes of regulation when snow fell at its heaviest clip and continued through the finish.
Miller and Conklin both had limited experience playing outside, but neither owned a victory. Miller earned a 3-3 tie for Michigan State against Michigan in the 2001 "Cold War" game in front of 74,554 fans.
Conklin took the loss in host Edmonton's 4-3 defeat to Montreal on Nov. 22, 2003, with 57,167 in attendance.
Miller donned a cap, fashioned out of a hockey sock, on top of his mask. Conklin went with an uncovered mask featuring snowflakes.
Sabres forward Thomas Vanek was the last to wear the full head sleeve that stretched over his mouth in warmups but was pulled down to his chin by the third period. Penguins defenseman Darryl Sydor shed his visor.
When the scheduled buzzer sounded to divide the third period in half, it didn't stop a rush. The Penguins peeled back and essentially took a knee where Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly did many times in the glory days of the Bills, letting the final seconds tick off before the teams switched sides at the 10-minute mark.
The final mid-period Zamboni run took longer than the others as the second cleaning machine was blocked in the tunnel by a chunk of ice. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped and the players skated and stretched to try to keep warm.
Momentum changed with the weather that featured snow through the first 10 minutes, benign cloud cover through the opening intermission and a wintery mix during the second. The stadium lights took effect as the sky darkened and provided a unique brightness.
As though they were trudging from home to the frozen pond, each team plodded down mats from the tunnel to the ice -- stopping first to peel off their skate guards. Moms weren't there to call these grown kids back inside, and Bettman didn't do it, either.
The only thing that got in their way was a buildup of snow that held up the movement of pucks and skates.
Armstrong provided lightning with his quick goal, with help from the snow. The puck came to a stop in the neutral zone near center ice, and Crosby carried it into the Sabres' end.
He got off a shot that Miller stopped, before the snow put another hold on the puck in front. It sat there for Armstrong to punch in his sixth goal and Pittsburgh's quickest of the season.
Three trouble spots cropped up along the wall in front of the players' benches, two in the zone Buffalo defended in the first period. Before the Penguins' third power play of the frame, with 7:43 remaining, the ice crew did patch work that caused a delay for several minutes.
Game notesArmstrong's goal was the quickest scored against Miller in his NHL career, topping Joe Nieuwendyk's tally 32 seconds into Buffalo's 2-1 loss to Florida on New Year's Day 2005. ... Campbell's goal was his second in four games and fourth overall. Armstrong has scored in three straight.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=280101002