On page 71 of Inside NHL'94 Official Guide (my official review coming soon), it says:
"If the current game is at a level that breaks the record for the arena, both teams speed up play by about 10 percent"
-- Corey Sandler, '94 guru
I have no idea if that is true, or what exactly "speed up play" means, but it does suggest that crowd meter will have an effect.
Also, this post from Clockwise shows that crowd level is mostly affected by goalie save attempts. He got to a decibel level of 259, which is incredible since the loudest sound possible is 194 db.