Even with the first substantial snowstorm of the season bearing down on central New York, the forecast for the first Friday in January looked sunny in Onondaga County. That’s because in a matter of a few hours a second ice sheet would be one step closer to becoming a reality at the Three Rivers Athletic Complex in Baldwinsville.

It was a moment a long time coming, and many in the local hockey and skating community wondered if it would ever happen.

“There have been a lot of naysayers out there thinking that this would never happen, and this could never get to that finish line,” said Scott Hinman, the president of Lysander Youth Hockey and part of the team that brought this dream to fruition.

“So, part of this is to prove to a lot of people that we could do it.”

It was a testament to what Hinman called “the power of youth hockey,” a true team effort that involved a host of people from different backgrounds that came together with a common purpose.

In 2019, one of the two ice rinks at the facility had failed and repairing the rink at that time was not feasible. When the 2019-20 hockey season came to an end, the owner of Three Rivers Athletic Complex, then known as Lysander Ice Arena, decided to list the property for sale with warehouse users being the most viable users of the space. 

Seeing that they were about to lose their home, Lysander Youth Hockey put together a volunteer team that crafted a deal with the owner of the building and his lender that would provide for a long-term lease of the facility, with the lender kicking in extra funds to convert the failed rink into a turf field for the time being.    

Officially taking over operation of the facility in the midst of the COVID pandemic in the fall of 2020 proved difficult but surmountable, and the revenue from the turf was essential for Lysander Youth Hockey to be able to afford the rent at the facility. 

Due to increasing demand for ice, the one functioning ice rink at the facility would remain in service year-round to support community needs, which caused the group to have to defer necessary maintenance on that sheet. The plan to return the second ice sheet was originally considered to take between five and eight years, but there was growing concern that they couldn’t wait that long.  

Over the course of his 15 years with the program, Hinman has seen interest consistently grow, not only among hockey players but with the scores of figure skaters in the Syracuse Figure Skating Club. Many had to look elsewhere to get their ice fix. 

The first order of business was to find the necessary equipment to make it happen. Working with a Liverpool-based company called ICE Builders, they were able to score a used set of boards from the Columbus Blue Jackets practice facility. A week later a used ice vat was found in the Chicago area. Meshing all of these used parts with the existing ice plant fell on the shoulders of Quality Mechanical Services and its owner Adam Purtell, who was able to weave all the pieces together to create a workable ice plant.

“Everybody was a little nervous,” Hinman said. “We have a used back system coupled with a used chiller and a 50-year-old compressor system tacked together with a bunch of new parts, so we wondered if this is really going to work.”

Fortunately, the hockey gods were smiling on them. When the crew turned on the first sheet, it took two days for the plant to get down to the necessary temperature. The second sheet reached that mark in less than 12 hours.

While Hinman has provided more than his fair share of blood, sweat and tears to get the project to where it is today, he is quick to point out that he is not the only one. In addition to working with fellow volunteers Charla Roth and Jonathan Ream to navigate through the financial and legal issues, he cited the generosity of Ryan McMahon and Onondaga County for providing a $125,000 grant and rink manager Donny Kirnan, Jr., for logging countless hours to operate the existing sheet of ice while simultaneously helping get the new sheet up and running. He also thanked Quality Mechanical Services for donating a new scoreboard in addition to all the work it did to create a system that works.

“It really has been amazing, humbling, stressful and a lot of work,” said Hinman, who was counting the days until the second sheet would host a local high school game. 

“It really has been a huge collaborative effort. It’s not just one person making it all happen. It’s really been a multitude of people including the entire Lysander hockey and local communities chipping in any way they could.”