BOSTON — Maroon and blue stood out strikingly in a sea of orange and gold, and the pint-sized players wearing those Colorado Avalanche-inspired jerseys bobbed through the crowd, brimming with pride.

“We’re here representing Maine,” chaperon and trip organizer Julie Ann Shaw said. “Everyone is just so excited.”

Fifteen players from Auburn Youth Hockey’s girls’ program and enough chaperons to go around made their way through the turmoil on Yawkey Way at Fenway Park on Friday. They gawked at the park’s legendary facade, they tapped their feet to the brass band bomping away on the sidewalk as breath visibly escaped out the sides of their mouths. And they made a beeline for the souvenirs.

Raucous fans wearing bright orange and black in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers and gold and black in support of the local Boston Bruins flooded the famous street. Eventually, the group of girls split into two, with adults accompanying each faction accordingly.

“How much is that?” one girl asked loudly enough to be heard over the din. “Wow, look at that.”

“Don’t forget, we have to eat lunch, too,” Shaw said.

Finding their seats was a challenge. The tight confines of Fenway Park combined with the sudden rush of eager fans flowing freely through the gates made it tough for the group to remain together as it hunted for its place among the masses. When the girls saw their seats, there were only smiles.

“Oh my God, we’re right in the front row,” said one player.

Perched behind home plate, the group was noticeable. Complete with hand-crafted, poster-board signs, they filed into the seats. Cameras clicked, eyes gleamed and hands pointed in different directions as they tried to take everything in.

Getting there

Getting to their seats was actually more of a challenge for the Auburn Youth Hockey girls than getting to the game itself.

Shaw and a tireless group of volunteers resurrected the program in Auburn last season, and they received a letter of congratulations from the Bruins’ offices. The team has a program to recognize New England youth hockey programs.

“This year, we actually have enough girls for two teams now,” Shaw said. “We pushed that angle in talking to the Bruins, talking about how we’re really growing girls’ hockey. I got an e-mail asking how far we were from Boston, and then I really started pouring the e-mails back.”

Shaw’s persistence paid off.

“A couple of days later I got an e-mail saying, ‘Congratulations, Jeremy Jacobs is rewarding girls’ hockey, and your team has been selected to represent Maine at the Winter Classic,'” Shaw said.

With two teams, the Auburn Youth program had to figure out how to pare the number of players attending the event down to just 15.

“We did it evenly. We picked five girls from the Under-12 team, five from the Under-16 team and then five from all of them combined, all randomly to make it fair,” Shaw said. “It was amazing how everyone, even the players who didn’t get picked, helped to get this thing going.”

Fundraising was key, and after a few rounds of it, the cost per player to attend the game, complete with a chauffeured ride on the Lewiston Maineiacs’ bus, was only $10.

“It’s such a great opportunity for them,” Shaw said.

And the players who didn’t get to go? The Bruins took care of them, too, sending a pair of former players to conduct a clinic with the program at Ingersoll Arena.

Those who did attend the game fought through the cold. Though they sat at field level, right behind home plate, the best view they had was on a pair of television monitors built into the wall in front of them, and on the big screen in left-center field.

“It was a little bit cold for some of them,” Shaw said, “but a few of them spent their energy trying to get on TV. That kept them warm for a while.”

Shon Collins, another chaperon, sat back in his chair in the second row, surrounded by some of the players, and smiled.

“The view wasn’t the best, and thank God for the monitors, but we were here, and I don’t think there are any complaints about that.”