Wayne Gretzky was the warmup act on a very cold day.
The NHL went outside for the first time in league history and the Montreal Canadiens braved the elements well enough to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Saturday night.
Jose Theodore, wearing a ski cap with a Canadiens logo on top of his mask, made 34 saves, and Yanic Perreault and Richard Zednik each scored two goals in the NHL's first outdoor game, played in temperatures hovering around zero.
"When I was 11 or 12 years old, I remember my mom always said, `Put a tuque on, you'll catch a cold," Theodore said of his cap. "I just wanted to make sure she's not going to say anything when I go back home, so I put a tuque on."
The regular-season game followed an old-timers contest that featured Gretzky and his fellow Oilers teammates that won several Stanley Cups, against a team of former Montreal Canadiens -- including Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur.
Perreault and Zednik each scored in the second and third periods for Montreal. Theodore was strong in the first two periods, when he stopped 27 of 28 Oilers shots, allowing only a rebound jammed in by Eric Brewer.
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