 While it's opening day of hockey day Minnesota in Bemidji draws near, ice professionals from the NHL have arrived in Bemidji to make sure the ice is a pro skating surface. Crew members have been busy over the past few days flooding the rink. To help with the process, Brandon Radicke who is the director of ice operations for the NHL's Pittsburgh Pirates or Pittsburgh Penguins I should say, was brought in to add a professional touch. Currently the rink is in the early stages of flooding and crews are developing the base. With their attention to the fine details, that's still to come. Once we get to a certain level we'll start building it to a true sheet that we can work with. Where small layers are built and we do find mists and we work with temperatures a little differently and you know depending what the temperatures outside we might actually have to heat the surface by putting heat through the bicoid stuff. So we'll fine tune it once we get to that but it's just building a base right now. The base is expected to be finished tomorrow with logos and images expected to be placed on the ice beginning in the afternoon. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.