The Syracuse Crunch and Utica Comets played in front of 30,715 to set an attendance record for the largest indoor crowd in the United States to attend a professional hockey game Saturday in Syracuse, N.Y.

The AHL game Saturday night between the Syracuse

Crunch and Utica Comets set a new indoor attendance

record for a professional hockey game in the U.S. with

a crowd of 30,715 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse,

N.Y. Photo: Dave Kliment (Click to enlarge)

In the Toyota Frozen Dome Classic, the Crunch, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, defeated the Comets, a Vancouver Canucks affiliate, 2-1 at the Carrier Dome.

The game broke the record of 28,138 set April 23, 1996 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., a Stanley Cup Playoff game between the Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers.

Saturday was the second-largest crowd for an AHL game. In 2012, 45,653 attended when the Adirondack Phantoms defeated the Hershey Bears 4-3 in overtime at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

This was the first hockey game played inside the Carrier Dome, which opened in 1980 on the campus of Syracuse University.