It's A Tough Job
"Hockey has been a huge part of this community and all of Northern Michigan. There's rinks all over the north now," said Otsego County Sportsplex Executive Director Bill Michaels.
Before the puck can even be dropped, an incredible amount of work has to be done to make the perfect sheet of ice at a rink like the Otsego County Sportsplex.
"Not on purpose, but it's fast ice, sometimes I get accused of keeping it too cold in the rink, but it's an ice rink and the colder it is to us -- the better the ice is. We do like hard ice, it makes for fast ice."
The idea of indoor arenas is to take the variables of weather out of the equation. No matter the temperature outside -- inside, the ice stays a cool 14 degrees.
"We've got four compressors that chill the ice," explained Michaels. There's a system of piping underneath the ice and cement that runs a coolant through there and keeps the ice frozen. That's an expensive endeavor."
And the man in charge of keeping the expensive endeavor up and running is Dave Boughner. He makes the ice each season and keeps it in tip-top shape all year long with his Zamboni.
"I've been driving now for about 10 years and at the beginning it was fun, it's still fun. It's nice to be out on the ice," said Boughner.
There's a lot that goes into running a sportsplex like the one here in Otsego County, but when that buzzer hits -- that's when Dave gets to shine, he gets to go out there, and after about ten years, it's become more of a job than a delight to him, but its definitely a delight to the fans.
"They wave at ya and they want to get your attention so you wave back."
At four and a half miles an hour, Dave circles and conditions the ice surface. The kids watching in excitement.
"The size of it, the way it operates, a lot of them are real interested in how it operates."
That's the most interesting part, the science behind the most recognizable vehicle in sports.
"The conditioner has a blade under it which peels the ice, takes off less than the thickness of a piece of paper. Then you got the horizontal augers that take the ice and bring it towards the center, and the the vertical auger, that's got slinging blades on it, that brings it to the vertical auger which brings it up and dumps it into the box.
"Then you have your wash water that sprays down on the ice and that gets down into the skate marks and gets all the lint and stuff up," Boughner continued. "And then you have the wash water pump that sucks all that water up and then behind that you have a pipe that has your ice making water on and that splashes down and then you have a towel that smooths it all out."
All that happens in just one pass. With the quality of play resting solely on the quality of the playing surface, Dave's name is held to his work.
"There's a lot of things that go into a good sheet of ice and the importance of that is the ability to get up and down the ice, smoothly," said Michaels. "If the ice is soft, your skates are digging in, you're gonna wear out a little bit quicker, more tiresome on the legs, the puck's gonna move a little bit slower."
Dave says the Zamboni handles like a car only with bigger blind-spots. Those tend to be crucial when the whole point is to not miss the smallest detail.
"That takes a little getting used to because it all depends how slippery your corners are, when you can go into a corner and she'll slide just a little bit and you come out perfect, and then all of a sudden you go into a corner and the next pass and those front tires will grab and she'll swing around and you'll miss a spot."
Tonight, Dave's perfect. Four games played and not a single spot missed. And for most of the night, he is able to sit and enjoy those enjoying his work.
"It's fun watching kids have fun."
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