NEW GLASGOW – As the Weeks Jr. A Crushers skated during practice Wednesday night, the snow their skates scraped to the surface melted at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium.
Rink manager Mike Adam knew he and the other employees at the stadium were going to have their work cut out for them Thursday as they prepared for the Crushers first home game of the season.
The humidex reading for Thursday afternoon was 42 C.
"That's difficult conditions to make ice in – to make quality ice, anyway," Adam said. "It's not good enough for us just to make a sheet of ice. We want a quality sheet of ice ... especially for Jr. A when they're playing their games."
The way the refrigeration system works is it pumps calcium chloride (called brine) through pipes in the concrete floor under the ice. It is about 10 F (–12.2 C) and draws the heat out of the ice.
"The stadiums are kind of designed to keep as much heat in as possible because they usually operate in the winter," Adam said. "During the summer you just can't get the heat out quicker than it's coming in. All that heat eventually has to go through our ice, which puts a strain on our refrigeration system."
The ice plant and three dehumidifiers running flat-out to try to cool the ice and dry the building out as much as possible.
"The biggest problem is when you start opening doors and leaving them open. You get the heat and the humidity coming in, so it's kind of like a double impact on us," he said.
"Just people breathing brings humidity into the air."
And that moist air makes it harder to draw the heat out.
To keep the ice smooth but solid, Adam said Thursday that during the game they would have to scrape a little more off the top with the Zamboni than usual and not put as much water out when they flood the ice before the game and during intermissions.
He hopes that last night's game will be the last major heat the Stadium will have to deal with until next spring.
"It's quite a test for the system. There's no doubt about that," he said. "There's definitely a lot of skill involved."
