Saturday sure was a great day — and night — for hockey.

An announced crowd of 55,031 fans packed Camp Randall Stadium and created an unforgettable atmosphere as Wisconsin and Michigan took the ice for outdoor hockey.

The players did their part as well, as junior defenseman Brendan Smith scored two late power play goals to seal a come-from-behind victory for the Badgers.

It was neither a conference game, nor a post-season game, but for Smith, the Culver’s Camp Randall Hockey Classic was just about as good as it gets.

“When you’re a young player skating on the ice, all you’re thinking about is winning the Stanley Cup and this was pretty damn close,” he said. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling.”

The energy the crowd brought to historic Camp Randall Stadium turned a regular season matchup into something so much more, and sophomore forward Jordy Murray could feel the chills coming the moment he stepped into the tunnel — and they weren’t caused by the chilly 21-degree weather.

“I figured it would be crazy, but I just had chills even standing in the tunnel,” Murray said. “That first step out there, hearing the crowd, seeing them hanging over the side, was something else; words can’t describe it.”

Once Murray and the rest of his teammates took the ice, they focused on a competitive hockey game with retribution for an early season loss to Michigan on their minds.

But even in such a tight game, head coach Mike Eaves admitted he was caught up in the electric environment.

He couldn’t help but admire the crowd that surrounded him.

“We were very cognizant of the surroundings,” Eaves said. “We were looking around and saying ‘look at these people, they’re jumping around, they’re not sitting.’ It was an awesome atmosphere.”

The game went back and forth without many scoring chances for either side in the second period, and it was the fans that provided the extra jolt of energy needed as the game moved into the third.

At the 14:59 mark in the third period, the UW stadium crew gave the Wisconsin hockey team a moment it will never forget — an experience the football team knows all too well — as they blasted “Jump Around” through the speakers.

It may have been a different sport on the FieldTurf at Camp Randall, but one thing remained the same — the stadium shook.

“When the fans did the ‘Jump Around’ and everything, I got the chills down the back of my neck,” tri-captain Blake Geoffrion said. “It was unbelievable.”

Even Eaves had the urge to jump around.

“I felt my knees start to buckle a little bit and getting into it,” he said.

In fact, the whole UW bench was caught up in the madness that ensued.

“When that ‘Jump Around’ came on all the boys got excited,” Smith added. “We all wanted to jump around.”

Behind the added energy of a classic UW ritual the Badgers responded with a thrilling comeback. And as they walked back into the tunnel they were greeted by yet another gridiron tradition.

“In Lambeau we had the Lambeau leap because that is what they do there and here it was running up the tunnel and giving all the students high fives who were hanging out,” Eaves said.

With the second-largest crowd to ever watch a collegiate hockey game braving the Madison cold, Eaves said he thinks the Camp Randall Hockey Classic could see a second edition in the future.

“I hope so. I’ll share this with you — Scooter, who was the older gentleman that was the ice doctor here… he actually feels that doing it at the college level makes a whole lot more sense than the pros,” Eaves said. “Because if you do it every four years, you have a whole new crop of students that haven’t experienced it.”

“After what happened tonight… I think we can get that upper part of the stadium full, based on what happened tonight.”

But while all these great moments with the crowd certainly played a role in the excitement that resulted from Saturday’s game, it was the way the game ended that turned two-plus periods of uneventful hockey into an instant classic.

Sure, the theatrics surrounding the play on the ice were memorable, but according to a physically drained Geoffrion it was Smith’s late game heroics that made the Camp Randall Classic that much more special.

“I lost a lot of energy there with everything and being so excited to get out here,” Geoffrion said. “But you know what, 3-2 victory and the way we did it; couldn’t be any better.”