BOSTON – For Tony Tenneson, the night and the game was about the nostalgia of seeing hockey played outdoors.

For Lisa Chasse, it was about the University of Maine beating New Hampshire in a Hockey East game. That it might happen in Saturday’s Sunlife Frozen Fenway 2012 would add more bite to the bragging rights. For some, it doesn’t matter where these two rivals meet or the circumstances.

Winning is the bottom line, sights and sounds be damned. And there was plenty of that.

Tens of thousands of college hockey fans found their way to this baseball cathedral. The transformation wasn’t that jarring, although you couldn’t close your eyes and pretend you were in the Alfond on Maine’s campus or the Whittemore Center at New Hampshire. The hothouse intensity of indoor arenas simply can’t be re-created.

So what? Fenway Park was alive in the dead of winter, even if some things felt a little strange. Take the weather. Air temperature was 58 degrees at 4 p.m. You’ve sat through much worse on Red Sox opening day.

Take the absence of scalpers. No gauntlet of buyers or sellers.

Early-arriving Maine fans headed to the House of Blues on Landsdowne Street in such large numbers, dozens had to wait in a line on the sidewalk. Steve Abbott, Maine’s athletic director, was at the end of the line with his wife and friends. So was Steve Trimper, Maine’s baseball coach, and Skip Chappelle, Maine’s former men’s basketball coach.

Pull rank and slip through the door? No, they’d wait their turn. Members of the Maine pep band led the waiters in cheers and song, turning a few heads.

Jack Cosgrove was already inside. Maine’s football coach had something to say to energize the crowd. Saturday wasn’t just Maine hockey. Saturday, one team represented the school.

“We’re making history tonight,” said Todd Saucier, who was a senior at Orono when Maine won the national championship in 1993. Now he’s active in the alumni association. He expected nearly 500 Maine fans to come to the House of Blues.

Not an extraordinary number, but a number that told Saucier people were coming back to Maine hockey. Or drawn by the novelty of a college hockey game inside Fenway Park.

“I’d love to see Maine win but I’m here to be here, to enjoy myself,” said Tenneson, of South Portland. “I’ve never been to a big-time hockey game played outdoors.”

A nephew, Rob Gagne of Scarborough, was with him. Gagne grew up in Lewiston, playing hockey outdoors for the Holy Family youth team.

“That’s how some of us started,” said Gagne, talking about a time maybe 20 or 30 years ago. “This is bringing back memories of how much fun we had.”

Chasse, with her husband, Patrick, came to Boston from Hampden. They weren’t so ambivalent. Beating New Hampshire in big games means more, whether it’s for the national title in Anaheim, Calif., in 1999 or in Fenway Park in 2012.

Then there was Kristine and Chad Madore from Milford, near Bangor. They wore matching Maine hockey sweaters while they waited calmly at the end of a long line in front of a Fenway ATM.

A younger couple and true blue Maine hockey fans. Watch Maine hockey at the Alfond as often as they can. On a hunch, I asked them if they get to many Red Sox games.

“No,” said Kristine Madore. “We’ve never been to Fenway.” I looked at Chad Madore. “First time,” he said. “We’ve watched on television, though.”

Both tried not to look too excited.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com

Twitter: SteveSolloway