GREEN BAY, Wis. — Talk about an odd sight: There's a Zamboni parked about 150 feet from Brett Favre's locker.

This is Lambeau Field, but the focus will be on college hockey Saturday night when Wisconsin plays Ohio State in front of up to 41,000 fans — not the 70,000 that commonly watch the Green Bay Packers play here.

It's a first for the home of the Packers, and it will be something different for the players as well, when they take the ice without the comfort of an indoor arena.

Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves and Ohio State counterpart John Markell are both familiar with outdoor hockey's quirks.

It's just a little difficult to explain.

"Playing outside has a uniqueness about it that is hard to relay," Eaves said. "The sound the skate makes when it cuts the ice. The sound that the puck makes on your stick when you catch a pass and you slap a pass. It's a very unique game on its own."

Eaves started playing little league hockey outside in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — only missing an occasional game.

"It was pretty competitive," he said. "We used to be able to play outside until it was minus-15, then they wouldn't let us play anymore."

Markell, who played professionally for more than nine years in Germany in outdoor and partially covered venues, said the players' bodies will react differently.

"These kids don't understand, when you're skating on the outside in cold weather, you can skate forever," Markell said. "But the problem is you've got to come back to the bench and the kids are freezing because they've been sitting there for two or three minutes."

Forward Andrew Joudrey said the Badgers will take extra precautions with equipment and stretching before faceoff, with temperatures expected to be in the mid 20s with a chance of flurries.

"It is definitely different than a regular college game, but at the same time once the puck drops to start the game, then you forget about distractions and just play," he said in an Internet chat hosted by the Wisconsin athletics department.

The game is the third outdoors in recent memory, after Michigan and Michigan State played in 2001 in front of more than 74,000 fans, and the NHL's Heritage Classic in 2003 in Edmonton, when temperatures hovered around zero as 57,000 watched Montreal beat the Oilers.

But it's the venue that makes this game unique.

"I think part of what people are responding to with Lambeau Field is that it's a solid culture," Packers vice president John Jones said. "There's so much committed to what hockey means and that's how we feel about football. It's just a great connection between the culture of football and the culture of hockey."

First, Lambeau needed a truly frozen conversion.

Ice Rinks Events was called in to build the rink. While Wisconsin has had an unseasonably warm winter, the Texas-based company has installed rinks in San Diego and elsewhere using a unique cooling system.

"In the last 10 years, it's gotten to be a lot more economically feasible," said company spokesman Mike Clayton, who had a crew of about 15 workers putting up the glass and placing the lines on the rink Wednesday. "Because of the short install and the lack of labor costs, it can get done quickly."

The Packers have declined to disclose how much the rink setup cost, but Clayton said a reasonable estimate is $600,000 — about what Michigan State spent in 2001 on its outdoor game.

The rink's key component is the refrigeration unit — which includes more than 32 miles of tubing that circulates more than 2,200 gallons of a nontoxic antifreeze solution at 5 to 10 degrees to create a "freezing zone" for the water above the ice.

The two layers of ice placed down are a total of about 21/2 inches thick and the rink needs about 17,000 gallons of water to take shape.

From there, hosing leads out to a refrigeration system that cranks at about 120 times what the average home would use in the summer.

Meanwhile, the Packers are turning the hockey game into a neighborhood event. There's youth hockey, a community skate, tailgating and even an opportunity to take pictures beside the Stanley Cup and Green Bay's three Lombardi Trophies.

All the hype makes it difficult for the in-state team to ignore, and the Badgers have had a higher profile all year after ascending to No. 1 in the country after a 14-game unbeaten streak and only one loss in its first 21 games.

But Wisconsin has dropped five out of its last six after goalie Brian Elliott went down with a knee injury, dimming hopes that the Badgers might complete their state tour with a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four in Milwaukee in April.

Ohio State has had injuries as well but no Lambeau Field distractions yet. The Buckeyes have struggled without Domenic Maiani and Mathieu Beaudoin, their second- and third-leading scorers

Having fun should keep both teams focused, regardless of the game's novelty, Eaves said.

"It takes you back to when the last time you played as a child," he said. "That's what will be fun for a lot of the kids that have skated outside, to revisit that time in your life."