Test game at Olympic hockey arena stopped due to hole in ice

An Italian Cup game was played on Friday at the Santagiulia Arena in Milan, one of the two venues set to host the hockey competitions at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics next month.

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston was in attendance and called the venue “very much a work in progress” in a piece for The Athletic.

The game had to be stopped at one point during the first period when a hole emerged in front of one of the nets, though that is not abnormal with new ice, and construction dust floated over the playing surface. Johnston noted there were visible holes in the exterior of the building with spartan concourses inside along with unfinished drywall. Work on some of the dressing rooms in the facility has yet to be completed.

“There’s some good and bad there. Walking into the arena for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by some of what I saw. They had a couple of thousand fans in for what was the first-ever test event played here on Friday night. That was pretty good,” Johnston said.

“The not so good is that there’s still a construction site. There’s a lot of work left to be done on this arena. The biggest issue with this rink is that the test event is being held four weeks before the Olympics start. Typically, you’d want this to be sooner.

“I’d say there’s a lot of good there, but there are a lot of concerns about how much time there is left to finish this rink off.”

Following the pause of play in the test game, Johnston expanded on how the ice surface would affect the NHL players who are expected to play in under a month.

“It’s something that the teams are going to have to deal with. I think there’s going to be some adjustments here. Especially when we’re talking about NHL players, the facilities they deal with are pretty high-end.

“That being said...I don’t get any real sense on the ground that there’s a threat to the Olympics. I do believe they’re going to find a way to play through this.”

Still, Hockey Canada vice-president Scott Salmond told Johnston that he remained confident in the success of the tournament.

“The games are going to be great,” Salmond said. “Like every Olympics, there’s challenges with what happens outside of the game, but we’re Canadian. People grew up in small towns and small rinks, outdoor rinks. We can adapt to all of those things. The most important thing is that we can play in a rink, the families can come and watch it and people around the world are going to be able to watch it.”

The first game scheduled at the venue is set for Feb. 5 between the hosts and France in women’s action. Canada’s women also open their tournament on Feb. 5, but don’t play at the Santagiulia Arena until Feb. 10 against the United States.

The Canadian men will play all three of their round-robin games at the Santgiulia beginning on Feb. 12 against Czechia. The arena will also host the medal round and fial set for Feb. 22.