Officials '100% confident' in Olympic rink after hole in ice disrupts testing

MILAN (AP) — Olympic organizers are “100%” confident the NHL won’t pull out of the Milan Cortina Games with the new ice hockey arena finally ready. Or almost.

Construction delays and other concerns about the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena have drawn headlines for weeks ahead of the NHL returning to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 and the women’s tournament opening on Feb. 5.

The NHL has expressed concern about the construction and quality of the ice surface. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said last month in Winnipeg that the league would not send its players if there were any safety concerns.

When Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for Milan Cortina, was asked on Friday how confident he was that NHL players would participate, he said, “100%, 100%.”

IOC sports director Pierre Ducrey echoed his sentiments.

“I’m very confident they will be here and it’s going to be extremely exciting,” Ducrey said. “We’re very excited they’re coming back; 12 years, there was a lot of work from a lot people to make sure this happens.

“So, yeah, you will have NHL players here in February and it is going to be amazing.”

The NHL is expected to release a statement at the end of its visit to the new arena, with a delegation at a long-awaited test event over the next three days.

The first match of the test event — the final league and cup games of the domestic season — was briefly delayed to fix what organizers said was a small hole in the ice.

A spokesperson from the Milan Cortina organizing committee told The Associated Press the ice master — Don Moffatt, who works for the Colorado Avalanche — was happy with the ice and reassured them that this was a completely normal occurrence that can happen the first time the ice is skated on.

Florian Wieser, who played in the game, posted to social media: “It was a small hole that was fixed in 5 minutes. Ice was really good, I was surprised how good it was and it will only get better.”

The original test event scheduled in December didn’t happen because of the construction delays. The one scheduled this weekend is less than a month out from the women’s competition.

On Friday, the arena was obviously far from complete — in a cosmetic sense at least.

Seats were missing and there was an abundance of plastic sheeting. But organizers said those were just “the finishing touches.”

“The next two days will be really very important because they will allow us, having three matches a day, to test exactly the days as they will be in the Olympics,” Francisi said.

On Monday, International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif said parts of the arena might not be fully finished on time.

Ducrey thinks there is “no chance at all” it won’t be ready for competition.

“(Tardif) will spend the three days here, he’s going to have an opportunity to see the plans, to see the hockey going on ... but from our perspective it’s clear,” Ducrey said. “We knew exactly where the venue would be at at this stage, and we are pleased with the progress.

“A lot more progress will be done so that we are absolutely ready for Games time.”

The men’s Olympic hockey tournament is scheduled from Feb. 11-22, the women’s from Feb. 5-19.