Monday at Bright Hockey Center, Minnesota beat Harvard 3-2 in a contest delayed one day by equipment difficulties of an unusual sort.
Sunday’s women’s game between the No. 2 Gophers and the No. 5 Crimson was postponed after two different Zamboni ice resurfacing machines stopped working at the arena.
Attempts were made to find a temporary replacement at nearby rinks, but those efforts came up empty, leading to the 24-hour delay.
Approximately 90 minutes before game time, the first Zamboni was resurfacing the ice when it caught fire. The fire was extinguished, but the Zamboni was ruined.
After dragging the first Zamboni off the ice, the second one came out, but after just a couple of laps, that one began to belch smoke. It then ground to a halt and leaked antifreeze onto the ice.
In need of a third machine, Bright Center officials first went down the road to Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, a local prep school near Harvard, but no one was in the rink. They then began trying to contact other rinks in the area — including those at Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern — but to no avail.
Already past the scheduled start time, the game was postponed at that point.
Thanks to Lee Urton for contributing to this report.
