"What a fabulous experience that I've never had before and a perfect way to celebrate my birthday," Friedman said.
However, Friedman did more than watch the game. The Capitals and the NHL granted her wish of riding the ice resurfacer during the first intermission of Washington's 3-1 victory.
"It was great fun sitting up on the ice resurfacer seat and seeing the thousands of people," Friedman said. "I'm very impressed with the skills and finesse and grace and speed of the players and their remarkable ability at playing the game. Thank you to the Caps and the NHL for creating this first-time, lifetime amazing experience."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Friedman has lived in Arlington, Va., since 1940. She attended Brooklyn College, became a schoolteacher and later was a docent at the National Gallery of Art and then the Hirshhorn Museum.
Her husband, Herbert Friedman, was a renowned astrophysicist who earned the National Medal of Science and worked for the majority of his career at the Naval Research Laboratory.