Rink

Why Shrink the Rink? This is a trend happening at college ice arenas across the country. When Mariucci Arena was built, hockey gravitated toward Olympic action after the 1980 Miracle on Ice. In fact, many of the of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) member schools had embraced the Olympic ice dimensions. In 2013, before the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin joined the newly formed Big Ten Hockey Conference, six of the 12 member schools competed on Olympic-sized ice sheets. At that time, it was not necessarily an advantage or disadvantage in the highly competitive WCHA. Today, in all of college athletics, there are only a few Olympic sheets left. As coaches and schools look at the overall hockey landscape, they have determined that the ultimate goal for any hockey player is to compete for a youth hockey championship, a high school championship, a college conference championship, an NCAA championship and/or a Stanley Cup championship. All of these events take place on an ice surface that is typically the North American-sized ice sheet, which is as close to the NHL standard of 85' wide x 200' long, with a specific 28' radius corner. Go Big or Go Home If you are going to do A, then it's the right time to do B, C, and D with available funding. So as we decided to move forward with the Shrink the Rink project, we incorporated a few other things from our to-do list. 1. Replace the aging refrigeration system. 2. Shrink the rink to get closer to the NHL size. 3. Purchase an updated dasher board system with acrylic shielding for better player safety, which is NHL standard. 4. Update the arena lighting to LED sports lighting. k Grade beams framed up, underground piping fused together, and concrete poured for the new seating rows. 40 / MAY.JUNE.2023 USICERINKS.COM PHOTOS BY: CRAIG FLOR Project in Pictures

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