Stick It to Cancer hockey tournament goes pink

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last night, in the dark of the night, the Schwan Super Rink went pink.

Thanks to a generous sponsorship from Farmers Insurance, the Schwan Super Rink's maintenance crew applied pink paint to the six sheets of ice that will be used for this weekend's Stick It to Cancer hockey tournament. The Stick It tournament, which starts tonight, April 18 and runs through Sunday April 20, is a women's and girls' tournament. It benefits breast cancer research by donating proceeds to the University of Minnesota Cancer Research Center.

Last year's tournament donated $45,000 to the cause, and organizers Jackie Olson and Sanya Sandahl expect to break the record this year -- with a boost from the pink ice.

Headed up by SSR Ice Operations Manager Brandon Radeke and Arena Director Pete Carlson, our dedicated crew started at 11pm and worked straight through the night. They put the finishing touches on the final sheet at about 6am.

Here are some technical details about how they did it.

The paint spraying machine was borrowed from the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. You may not know this, but ice can be painted just like any surface. After mixing red and white paint to make a pink tint, Radeke drove the sprayer around the ice, and laid down a pink tint on top of the regular ice surface. The paint takes only a couple minutes to dry. Once the paint was dry, workers sprayed water on top of the pink paint to build up about 1/8-inch of ice to protect the paint from the Zamboni shaving.

What's produced is a striking visual. The pink ice surface is stunning; the tint reflects off the arena ceiling and the air seems to glow pink. Photos don't do it justice. And if you see it first hand you'll notice that the pink shade varies slightly from rink to rink, the result of the SSR crew applying some artistic license. Either that or lack of sleep!

There are 96 teams playing in the Stick It Tournament. Most of the players know about the pink ice, but we're guessing many spectators will be caught by surprise. We're expecting more than a few gasps.

And on Sunday night, after the last championship trophy is awarded, the Zambonis will take the ice, shave off that top 1/8-inch, and the Schwan Super Rink will fade back to white.