The Tupper Lake Central School District, which owns and operates the rink, is putting final touches on the ice this week, according to the district’s Superintendent Jaycee Welsh.

“The Jet Ice went on Monday, lines are being painted as we speak and it looks like we’ll be opening our doors on Friday,” she said.

Welsh said there will be public skating from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday and 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. Sunday ahead of the Skate Club’s Christmas Skate Show, which will take place from 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Additional public skate times are scheduled for next week.

Tupper Lake’s varsity hockey team — which has endured reduced ice time and been forced to travel for their practices as a result of the broken chilling unit — is scheduled to begin their home ice practices on Monday.

The team’s first home game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve against Thousand Islands, following a pair of road contests — on Friday at Salmon River, and on Dec. 27 at Norwood-Norfolk.

The Lumberjacks will then host its non-league rival, Saranac Lake Placid, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2 in a rematch from this past weekend’s outing at the Saranac Lake Civic Center, which resulted in a 8-1 loss.

“It will be an absolutely packed house,” Welsh said. District officials were working to set up a ceremonial puck drop with their donors who made the repairs possible, according to Welsh.

The ninth annual Phil Edwards Memorial Hockey Tournament is scheduled to run from Jan. 3 to 5. The adult tournament, which draws teams from across the North Country, pays homage to Edwards — who was instrumental in the civic center’s original construction — and benefits the Tupper Lake hockey community. All proceeds from the event go to the Tupper Lake Youth Hockey Association and the Phil Edwards Scholarship.

 “That tournament is huge here,” Welsh said. “We’re going to start out the season with a bang.”

      

Finishing touches

Last week, Welsh said that Peru, New York-based J. Hogan Refrigeration and Mechanical was back in the Civic Center to make a few minor repairs after Bufalo-based Mollenbergh-Betz had completed the retubing process.

“We were thankful to have Hogan back in there,” she said. “They know our system very well and have been with it for such a long time.”

Hogan’s repairs included a couple of brine ammonia cooling solution tweaks, cleaning out some of the compressors and replacing a couple of valves, according to Welsh.

“Knock on wood, things have been smooth sailing since then,” she said.

Welsh visited the civic center on Monday to watch the Jet Ice get applied.

“Watching it was incredible,” she said. “I had read about it, I had heard about it, but being able to actually watch the Jet Ice get put on yesterday was awesome.”

Jet Ice is delivered in boxes as a white powder. It is then mixed with water to give the finished surface a clean white appearance, which helps to provide adequate contrast with the painted lines needed for hockey.

After it is mixed, the solution is applied to the rink using a metal tubing system meant to ensure an even and consistent coating. At that point, Welsh said the surface wasn’t yet slippery and personnel could paint the lines and logo. After the paint is applied and set, the surface is flooded and frozen.

Welsh said that district staff plan to do final measurements on Thursday to make sure the ice is of proper quality for skating and in compliance with the standards needed to play hockey games.

A full schedule of upcoming events and programming at the Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center can be found at tinyurl.com/453z7y55.