November Ice in August

Don't you wish you had November ice in August? Ice that's hard. Ice that's fast. Ice that's slick.

(Ice that isn't slushy and soft. Or produces a lot of snow.)

It may be August, but they've got November ice in Slave Lake, AB. And it's not just the old timers who say it's that way, or the drop-in hockey players. Not even the fire department's beer league team (although those guys are saying so, too, but they may be biased because they helped put the white paint in).

It's Andy Meth who's saying so. He's one of the newest additions to the town two and a half hours north of Edmonton. He's been on the ice his whole life, either as a player or a coach, and he's embarking on a whole new chapter, in Slave Lake. He says it's "fantastic"! Take a look:

Icedogs' New Coach and GM Weighs In

Meth is the new Head Coach and General Manager of the Slave Lake Icedogs, a Junior "A" team playing in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League. Next week, he'll be joined by four-time Stanley Cup winner and Icedogs advisor Kevin McClelland (Edmonton Oilers), professional hockey trainer and goalie Jamond Cardinal, as well as Icedog players, at the Peak Performance Hockey School. Meth dropped in to the Multi Recreation Centre for some ice time earlier this week. That's when he discovered why the MRC's ice has been the talk of the town - ever since Lead Hand Wayne Bacon got it ready for summer ice on July 18th.

Back in 2019, three Alberta teams - the Icedogs, the High Prairie Red Wings and Enoch's Northern Alberta Tomahawks - joined this developmental?league. That first year, the Icedogs came out on fire and won the West Division. The next two years, the High Prairie team took the title. Despite no championship trophy for her team since 2019, Lauren Barr, the dynamic owner and president of the Icedogs (as well as the Peak Performance Hockey School), recently won some hardware of her own. In May, she was named the West Division's Team Executive of the Year.

That might give you an indication of how capable Barr is. But listen up. She spent most of the off-season at her parent's Internet-limited sheep ranch. Despite the communications challenges, she was still able to organize player's contracts and personnel changes. Which includes the roping (that's sheep terminology) of the man who was soon to become Slave Lake's newest inhabitant, Andy Meth.

Last week, Barr introduced Meth as the new head coach and GM during Theo Tutkaluk's On The Ice streaming video show.

Meth: McDavid's AAA U18 Coach for 6 years

"I really like his character and he's fit and in great shape," Barr explains. "He plays hockey, and played hockey. And he was actually the coach for (Edmonton Oiler's star Centre) Connor McDavid for six years, up until U18."

Barr says Meth is a great match for her club.

"He's always coached triple "A" elite midget, so the age group (of the Icedogs) is perfect, his experience is perfect, and who he is, is perfect, too!"

Best Ice Ever

Meth had been in town for a day when Theo Tutkaluk interview happened. He'd just started to get his bearings - had driven around enough to know where the rink was located, but he hadn't stepped inside.

A few days later, Wayne Bacon sent me a video of Andy Meth skating, with a text that read, "This guy is on my ice right now he just said the best ice ever he was on."

And then ice maker/video journalist Wayne Bacon sent me the interview.

"Most ice surfaces you go on at this time of year are a little slushy, a little slow, a little bit of condensation build-up" Meth explains. "This ice is like it's the middle of November or December. It's fast, it's slick, there's no snow build-up out there. I'm really, really impressed. It's a very fast ice surface here."

Feedback like that makes ice maker Wayne Bacon glow with pride.

So... How Do They Get November Ice in August?

At the end of 2021, the Town of Slave Lake purchased a REALice floodwater treatment system to replace their reliance on hot water floods. The purchase was assisted with a grant from the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre's Recreation Energy Conservation program, set up to encourage energy spend and greenhouse gas emission reductions in municipal facilities throughout Alberta.

But there were a couple of problems. The system for the MRC arrived in the middle of the hockey season. Slave Lake's main ice maker, Wayne Bacon, had retired the season before, during the COVID-19 pandemic. That left the remaining recreation running behind an often belligerent ice plant. The decision was made to wait until the start of the 2022-23 season to implement the new floodwater system. Then, with staffing challenges due to a post-pandemic oil-and-gas boom, the Town reached back out to Bacon and brought him out of retirement. He started just in time to get the summertime ice in shape. And he started using the REALice system.

Ice is typically maintained using 140°F/60°C water because untreated cold water is full of air. And that air creates fragile ice, ice that's easy to break through, creates deep scars and a whole lot of snow that slows down the puck or makes it change direction. With REALice, the floodwater temperature can be straight out of the cold water tap, saving on water heating costs (and the related equipment that was used to heat it up).

But that's only one part of the savings. Because the REALice-treated water freezes so much faster compared to its hot water cousin, the temperature of the ice needs to be raised. Over the past month, Bacon has been reading the ice, feeling the snow shavings, looking for indicators that it is still too cold. Each Wednesday he's been gradually moving the brine temperatures higher. Then he's waited another week before moving them higher once again. His brine temperatures started at 17°F (-8.3°C) and is now at 21°F (-6.1°C). Next Wednesday, they might be up to 22°F (-5.6°C).

Different Ice, Different Numbers

For most ice operators, moving the brine settings higher by a couple of degrees is on the edge of being okay, but moving them 3 or 4 degrees higher makes them squeamish. They're worried about losing their ice, and who can blame them? Losing the ice means lost revenue for the facility, as well as the cost of redoing the ice. Most have been working with temperature extremes all their careers: extremely hot water for flooding, and very cold ice temperatures to freeze that water and keep the ice frozen. For Bacon, the thought of moving the brine settings higher was no different.

"I would never, ever, ever, have put my ice at 21°F in my career," Bacon insists. "And now that I've done it, I don't know if I can sleep at night," he laughs. But Bacon is an ice maker on a quest for the best ice possible, and he wants to see how much higher he can go with his brine temperatures. He's also following the REALice best practices to a "T" - which means all operators are driving the ice resurfacing machine at a consistent speed, watching how much floodwater they're putting down on the ice and where they're putting it, and paying more attention to the ice itself and what it's asking for. He's seeing a big difference with the resulting ice, ice that's durable, fast, shiny, clear and barely scarring anymore.

And so are his users.

"The ice is a month old now and it looks like it did on July 16th when the first hockey camp began. It's so clear that I can see the center line clearly sitting here in my office - I've never seen that before. Some people see them and think there's not enough ice on top of the lines because they're not used to lines that are so clear. They say, 'Wayne, your lines are too close to the surface!' I've got to tell them, 'No, no, they're where they're supposed to be. It's just that the ice is better'."

Compliments

The skaters, trainers and coaches keep telling him how great this ice is.

"'Wow!'. 'Awesome'. 'Excellent'. 'Phenomenal'. 'The ice of all ice'. 'The best ice in the north'," Bacon recalls. "The compliments just keep on coming. We always had good ice in the past but this, this ice, it's excellent."

Clearer, brighter ice is just one aspect. It's scarring much less, too.

"One of the coaches was just talking to me," Bacon says. "He said that last night, he really bagged his Junior B team. He couldn't believe how well the ice held up. He put them through the paces, but there was no scarring," Wayne says.

The rinks numbers are more than the higher brine reset. It's the ice thickness, which Bacon is keeping at an inch and a quarter. And it's the plant, too. The run time on the compressors are way, way down, despite summertime heat waves.

"They had a council meeting on Wednesday night and they were talking about the ice there, too. They are pretty excited of how much less running time the compressors are doing now. They used to be running 16-20 hours a day. And now they're running around four hours a day. Everybody's thrilled."

Bacon says the MRC is fully booked because "everybody wants to try this new ice." In a week, he'll start making ice on the 2nd rink. That will be ready by the 1st of September, when the Icedogs' main camp begins.

"I'm on it," Bacon says. "It will be awesome!"

I'm sure it will be.