Syracuse, Utica break U.S. indoor attendance record

The Syracuse Crunch and Utica Comets played in front of 30,715 to set an attendance record for the largest indoor crowd in the United States to attend a professional hockey game Saturday in Syracuse, N.Y.

In the Toyota Frozen Dome Classic, the Crunch, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, defeated the Comets, a Vancouver Canucks affiliate, 2-1 at the Carrier Dome.

The game broke the record of 28,138 set April 23, 1996 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., a Stanley Cup Playoff game between the Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers.

Saturday was the second-largest crowd for an AHL game. In 2012, 45,653 attended when the Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Hershey Bears 4-3 in overtime at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

This was the first hockey game played inside the Carrier Dome, which opened in 1980 on the campus of Syracuse University.