SCOTTIES BEHIND THE SCENES
Preparations well underway as 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts set to begin Friday
When the final horn blew to signify the end of the Western Hockey League contest between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon Blades on the night of Saturday, Feb. 8, a small army of volunteers waited in the bowels of the arena to get to work.
Because in 36 hours – yes, only a day and a half – Mosaic Place was set to become the largest curling arena in Saskatchewan.
Preparations for the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women’s curling championship began shortly after the ice resurfacing machines finished their job around 10 p.m. on Saturday, with legendary Curling Canada icemaker Dave Merklinger overseeing the proceedings. “It’s quite the process, the biggest problem was getting the compressors to work like we want them to work,” Merklinger said early Sunday afternoon while waiting for a fresh coat of sealant to dry. “They work fine, but we just need to have it a little colder to do this. So we got that handled, we flooded it last night and now we have the paint down, by the end of the night the circles will be on and it’ll start looking like a curling rink.”
The Mosaic Place transformation began earlier in the weekend when flooring was laid down in the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre, which will act as the home of the HeartStop Lounge throughout the week of festivities.
Work on the arena proper started with removing the glass and raising the endboard nets, followed by the ice being shaved down to about 3/4s of an inch in order to create as smooth a surface as possible. That was followed by a heavy leveling flood around 1 a.m. on Sunday, after which workers returned in the morning to begin painting the ice white and properly sealing the surface. Once that had dried, the rings were cut into the ice and painted, along with the first set of Scotties logos and other major work. The fine details started on later that evening, followed by laying down the foam bumpers and wood surrounding the perimeter and other basic preparation work.
“By Monday night, you won’t even recognize this as a hockey rink,” Merklinger said with a chuckle.
A veteran of “40 or 50” domestic and international curling championships through his career, Merklinger has plenty of experience putting ice into hockey arenas. He says the key to success and timely completion is a solid team around him, something he has little worry about this time around.
“There’s always a good crew of guys here, there are some experienced icemakers who will be helping us out, and that’s a bonus when you have guys who know what they’re doing,” Merklinger said. “There’s been lots of events in Saskatchewan, so the guys have been around.” The basic installation was completed in time for Tuesday, when the TSN television crew arrived to begin their set-up. Once the ice was in, Merklinger and his crew switch to maintenance mode, ready to deal with anything that comes up that could affect the quality of play. “Then it’s just preparing and manicuring each sheet,” he said. “We do the scraping and shaping of the ice, pebbling, nipping, all these things were usually do to help make the girls look good.”
Curl Moose Jaw members were able to play a test game on the ice Wednesday evening, and further games took place Thursday, including a practice contest between the University of Regina Cougars men’s and women’s teams, along with Saskatchewan Tankard champion Matt Dunstone making use of the arena ice to prepare for the Brier in three weeks time. The first practices for the 17 rinks began Friday morning, followed by the Wild Card game between Jennifer Jones and 2019-20 CTRS points leader Tracy Fleury that evening. The opening draws of the tournament took place Saturday afternoon and action will run through until the championship final on Sunday, Feb, 23.