This is one of the reasons I was not excited about having the Frozen Four in an indoor football stadium in April. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out tonight. The Badgers played Michigan at Camp Randall on February 6th 2010. I read reports about the ice there as well so the Badgers might have the advantage this weekend.
DETROIT — Perhaps the biggest challenge in staging the NCAA Frozen Four inside a gigantic football stadium revealed itself in a 36-hour span earlier this week.
Dan Craig, the ice quality guru for the NHL, left Ford Field Monday night knowing the in-house temperature was 55 degrees and the humidity was at 40 percent. In other words, just about perfect.
When the four teams — the University of Wisconsin, Boston College, Miami (Ohio) and Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology — showed up to practice on the temporary ice sheet Wednesday morning, the temperature was pushing 60 and the humidity was 62 percent.
“Humidity is not a friend,” Craig said.
That was evident during the four, one-hour practices. The ice was gooey and pucks bounced. The players weren’t impressed.
“It’s not the best ice,” RIT defenseman Dan Ringwald said after the first practice.
“It wasn’t great,” Miami winger Tommy Wingels said after the last practice.
So what will happen today when 30,000-plus fans show up?
“We know there’s a cold front moving in,” Craig said, “so I’ve been saying my prayers at night hoping it gets here a little quicker.”
It's not an indoor stadium, is it? I think it is was a covered outdoor stadium...
ReplyDelete