The ice rink sits in the sun on this balmy day, but Hockey Fest is going on at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.
The man who supervised construction of the rink said he prepared for mild temperatures.
"It was winter, winter, winter when we built the thing," said Jim Hartnett, "and now it's spring, spring, spring when they're playing."
He said he has the best "ice man" in the country taking care of the ice.
Don "Scooter" Mosher smiled at that, but he admitted that the secret is the refrigeration unit.
"We had a rink at Caesar's Palace where it was 108 degrees," he said, recalling a job a few years ago in Las Vegas.
The challenge is the sun, they said, and they made sure the painted surfaces on the ice are covered.
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"When the sun hits, it can melt down to the level of the paint and you can actually see the paint bubble up," Hartnett said.
