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Winter Classic highlights Jan. 1: All the best action from the Red Wings' win over the Blackhawks at Wrigley Field.

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The game Thursday was halted momentarily in the first period for minor ice repair that took less than a minute to complete. But there appeared to be no major problems with the surface, part of a two-week long project to turn a baseball park into a hockey venue.

“The weather conditions were ideal and ice was really good,” commissioner Gary Bettman said, adding he doesn’t have a location finalized for next year’s Winter Classic.

If a player happened to step out the back of the penalty box, he would nearly land on the far side of the pitcher’s mound. The goals ran from the first base line to the third base line.

The ancient scoreboard at Wrigley Field — which is still hand operated for many of the baseball operations — featured the day’s matchup of NHL games. There was also a temporary scoreboard below the big one, set up just for hockey.

Several Red Wings, including Conklin, entertained fans in the concourse about 90 minutes before the game by kicking and heading a soccer ball to each other.

Dan Cleary, whose hard check in Tuesday night’s game at Detroit caused a leg injury to Blackhawks star Patrick Kane, was driven into the Chicago bench early in the game on a hit from Brent Seabrook.

Kris Versteeg scored on a power play rebound to give the Hawks an early 1-0 lead.

Detroit evened it as a power play was winding down when Henrik Zetterberg went behind the net and fed Mikael Samuelsson. But minutes later, on yet another power play, Versteeg made a nice backhanded pass to Havlat, who shot it past Conklin for a 2-1 lead.

Chicago’s third goal of the opening period came from Ben Eager with 42 seconds to go. He went behind the goal, withstood a hit from Detroit’s Andreas Lilja and then reversed his direction before beating Conklin to make it 3-1.

Less than two minutes into the second period, Hudler got a rebound goal, and the Red Wings tied it when Hudler scored again on a rebound one second after a power play for Detroit ended.

Notes: Involved in pre-game ceremonies were former Cubs Ferguson Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg and Billy Williams, along with ex-Blackhawks Bobby Hull, Denis Savard, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito and former Red Wings’ star Ted Lindsay.

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