Behind the Scenes: Flooding The Rink In Anticipation Of First Puck Drop [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- This week in our "Behind the Scenes" series on WJON, we see what work goes into preparing the ice at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

With the drop of the puck about two weeks away, crews are hard at work getting the ice ready for the upcoming season.

HBNHC Director of Operations Joe Meirhofer says the rink had to be revamped after being used for the Granite Games.

"We had to put the ice back in after the Granite Games, which took us about three days to take it out and if we are quick we can put it back in about two days," says Meirhofer.

Tim Loesch is the General Maintenance worker at the Brooks Center. He says there is a lot of prep before the ice can be formed.

"We have to put all the logo's back down, the stripes, dots, everything," says Loesch.

While the process is faster then set up for graduation, small bumps in the road can delay the work.

"We had to do some repairs on the floor because when we take the ice out we always scrap it a little bit so we have to touch up the paint a little bit," says Meirhofer.

Once the lines, logo's and advertisement's are painted crews bring out the water hose to flood the rink, which can be done up to ten times.

"Then you have to mist it, make it stick and start over again and we need to be careful that when we flood we don't pull anything off the floor again," says Loesch.

Meirhofer says the entire process can take anywhere from 3 days to a week to complete.