Ed Salamon stood behind the counter of Canyon Pizza earlier this week wearing a navy blue Winter Classic hooded sweatshirt that he bought when the Pittsburgh Penguins played the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium on New Year's Day.

He watched from the upper bowl of the stadium -- normally home of the NFL's Buffalo Bills - when the Penguins' young star, Sidney Crosby, skated through snowflakes and ended the first professional outdoor game in the United States with a shootout goal.

The day was cold and Salamon wore five layers of clothes in an attempt to keep warm, but the atmosphere combining the natural elements with an NHL-record crowd and a win by his favorite team amounted to what Salamon called, at times, a magical experience.

"It was the single best sporting event I've ever been at," he said.

For a game like that to happen at Penn State, he says, would be awesome.

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren has thought about the possibility. Last month, Holmgren floated the idea of a game between the Flyers and Penguins - at Beaver Stadium - to Philadelphia-area news outlets, and some Flyers players expressed a desire for the idea to become a reality.

If it were played, a sellout crowd at Penn State's mammoth home football venue would break the world-record for attendance at a hockey game. The current number is 77,554, set in 2001 when Michigan and Michigan State played to a 3-3 tie in the "Cold War" outdoors at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.

The mere suggestion of a similar record-breaking event at Beaver Stadium has quickly generated speculation among Penn State students and local hockey enthusiasts eager for it to happen.But, as of now, the idea is only that - an idea.

"It's an interesting idea, but we haven't been contacted," Penn State athletic director Tim Curley said. "I know Michigan State hosted one and had a positive experience, so certainly it might be a nice event, but I just don't know enough of the details. We would have to cross that bridge when we get there."

In the afterglow of the NHL's highly successful outdoor game in Buffalo, several pro teams have expressed interest in participating in a future outdoor event. One recent report quoted New York Rangers general manager Glen Sather as saying he wanted to play a game in Yankee Stadium.

The Jan. 1 event between the Penguins and Sabres set an NHL attendance record (71,217), created enormous buzz for the league and generated its highest television ratings for a regular season game since 1996, according to Neilsen Media.

Hours after Crosby's game-winning goal on New Year's, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement that suggested future outdoor events.

"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 doing again. This is the type of event we certainly will be looking at doing in the future," Bettman said in the statement.

However, to date, the league is still in "debrief mode," from the Winter Classic and has not made any decision "if and/or when we'd organize another outdoor game," NHL spokesperson Jamey Horan said.

Until that is decided, officials from the Flyers and Penguins both deferred comment to the NHL about a possible game in Beaver Stadium.

"We greatly enjoyed our experience in that outdoor game," Penguins spokesperson Tom McMillan said. "There's been a lot of interest in outdoor games since the success of that game, but no one from the league has approached us about it."

The idea of an outdoor contest has been enough to spark grassroots support in State College, certainly among hockey fans. Also from those who play at Penn State already, at the on-campus Greenberg Ice Pavilion, which holds considerably less than the 108,917 who pack Beaver Stadium.

"To have that many people in there for a hockey game would be absolutely amazing," said Luke DeLorenzo, a forward for the Penn State Icers. "Whether you're a Pens fan or a Flyers fan, or even indifferent, it would be great to have. It would be great for hockey and great for hockey in the United States."

On Facebook, Penn State students Corey Stanko (sophomore-mechanical engineering) and Jordan Salandro (sophomore-mechanical engineering) co-founded the group "Bring Pens vs. Flyers to Beaver Stadium," after reading about the possibility. About a month after the group's creation, more than 2,600 members have joined and daily debate rages on the group's message board, weighing the positives and negatives of the Penguins, Flyers and their respective cities.

"The general consensus of what people are writing is we like to argue about which city is better but that this would be a good idea and they'd all really like to see it happen," said Stanko, a Penguins fan.

Debate has also been generated among the group about which team would be the "home" team, a very practical problem when it comes to NHL scheduling. The game at Penn State would be in a non-NHL city, thus taking away a true home date from either the Penguins or Flyers.

Another important factor is a possible game date, which at the earliest would be next year. Curley alluded that he would like to take the students' presence into consideration.

"I know when the Sabres game was played, our students aren't in town that day. There's a lot of background information that I'd need to get before we can make any evaluation on whether we would be interested or not," Curley said. "The particulars, the financial arrangement, the date, the requirements needed, the television arrangements, all those things when you host a large event. We would need to learn more of the details about how those might be set up."

Weather patterns indicate January, the month with the coldest average temperatures in State College, is an ideal time for an artificial refrigeration system to be built above the Nittany Lions' football field. A migration of people to State College around that time could potentially draw a number of visitors similar to that of a fall football weekend, only in winter.

Joe Battista, executive director of the Nittany Lion Club and former longtime head coach of the Icers, said, "the economic impact for the area would be phenomenal."

"You would have Pens' and Flyers' season ticket holders, Penn State alums and fans who would want to be a part of the event, and hockey fans from across the state," said Battista, a former Penguins employee. "And just hockey fans wanting to be a part of something special."

Collegian staff writer Pete Dombrosky contributed to this article.