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“I have to be there at least an hour before the puck drops,” he said. “I just let one of the Leafs guys know I’m there, and I head up, grab something to eat, and watch the game.” The Canes were now selling a T-shirt with Ayres’s name on the back, donating all proceeds to a local kidney foundation. Since his win, Ayres’s day job has been abbreviated to “Zamboni driver,”...these days, his co-workers handle most of the driving....needed. “I pride myself on doing a really good flood,” Ayres said, offering a bit of Zamboni-speak. “I don’t like to miss...

FARGO – A former Zamboni driver for the Fargo Park District has been sentenced to serve 9 days in jail by a municipal court judge for driving a Zamboni while drunk during a high school hockey game on January 30th. Steven James Anderson's attorney argued at trial his client wasn't guilty of the Class B misdemeanor driving under the influence charge he faced after witnesses reported Anderson was driving the Zamboni erratically during a Fargo Davies girls hockey game against Williston at South Sports Arena. Prosecutors said Anderson had a 0.314 percent blood-alcohol content that night. Defense attorney Lindsey Haugen...

The old "Spamboni" ice resurfacer has sold for the $2,000 asking price -- and it's going to a family with deep Minnesota hockey roots. Dave Langevin, whose dad grew up in St. Paul and won four Stanley Cups as a defenseman with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s, is now the owner of the Hormel-sponsored Zamboni that once wheeled around the St. Paul Civic Center while promoting the Austin, Minn.-based company's canned meat. The 1972 HDB Zamboni (Serial No. 1566) was the Civic Center's original machine.

In Minnesota, the coolest guy on the block is not the one with the Corvette. It's the one with his own personal Zamboni. Jim Leonard is that guy, with a 40-year-old personal-size machine that makes him a rock star in his hometown of Lake Elmo. "It has been a dream of mine since I was 5 years old," Leonard said as he climbed into the driver's seat and twirled the wheel controlling the scraper blade. The machine is one of the strangest contraptions ever built. It looks like what would happen if a snowplow and a street sweeper had a...

Chad Myhrer remembers the horror he felt when the Zamboni he was driving stopped on the ice at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. "That's the first time it ever happened to me," Myhrer said. "Everyone's looking at you out there and there's not much you can do." The unplanned stop occurred between the first and second period of a Bemidji State University men's hockey game against Alaska-Anchorage. The Zamboni stalled between the blue lines -- right on top of a painted-on advertisement for the Hampton Inn. As it turns out, the gas line wasn't properly connected to the propane tank,...

Witnesses called police Jan. 30 to report Bruss driving the Zamboni erratically at Hayes Arena, 14452 Hayes Road, according to a criminal complaint. When police arrived, Bruss had gotten the Zamboni stuck half on and half off the ice. He eventually got the machine free, the charges said. Bruss told police he drove to work in his personal vehicle. Bruss' speech was slurred and hard to understand, and he couldn't keep his balance, police said. He was arrested and submitted to a urine test, which later revealed that he had a 0.32 blood-alcohol concentration. The legal limit to drive in...

The electric Zambonis — part of Canada's attempt at a green Vancouver Olympics — failed multiple times this evening, causing a massive delay in in the middle of the Men's 500-meter speedskating event. Hmm, wethinks it needs more internal combustion!

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The ultra-green sheen to speed skating at the Olympic Oval was dealt a blow on Monday when Games officials said they were bringing in a propane-powered Zamboni to replace a bulky battery-operated ice resurfacer . . . .

How to explain the utter INCOMPETENCE of the Obama administration? Why, it's BUSH'S FAULT, of course! No, I don't mean just "having to clean up the mess of the past eight years." I mean that Bush is still running things! See, there's this secret GOP "Shadow Government" that is deliberately sabotaging the noble efforts of Obamassiah, to make him look bad. I bet you didn't know that. But it's TWOO, it's TWOO! I read it in DUmmieland! The alternate explanation going around is the "Zamboni Theory." The Zamboni Theory is that Obama being allowed to win was just a...

Growing up in Canada, every kid knows what the Zamboni is. But for the poor, deprived children of warmer climes, we'll fill you in. It's not a lunch meat or a pastry you'd find in Little Italy, but the ice resurfacing machine you see put-putting around the rink before, after and in the middle of hockey games. Created by Frank Zamboni in 1949, the company's pretty much had a monopoly on the market ever since. But the times, as Bob Dylan sang from the penalty box, they are a-changin'.

NEWARK, N.J — It's not drunken driving in New Jersey if it involves a Zamboni. A judge ruled the four-ton ice rink-grooming machines aren't motor vehicles because they aren't useable on highways and can't carry passengers. Zamboni operator John Peragallo had been charged with drunken driving in 2005 after a fellow employee at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown told police the machine was speeding and nearly crashed into the boards. Police said Peragallo's blood alcohol level was 0.12 percent. A level of 0.08 is considered legally drunk in New Jersey.

NEWARK, N.J. - It's not drunken driving in New Jersey if it involves a Zamboni. A judge ruled the four-ton ice rink-grooming machines aren't motor vehicles because they aren't useable on highways and can't carry passengers. Zamboni operator John Peragallo had been charged with drunken driving in 2005 after a fellow employee at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown told police the machine was speeding and nearly crashed into the boards. Police said Peragallo's blood alcohol level was 0.12 percent. A level of 0.08 is considered legally drunk in New Jersey. Peragallo appealed, and Superior Court Judge Joseph Falcone on...

Two employees of the city's ice skating rink have been fired for making a midnight fast-food run in a pair of Zambonis. An anonymous tipster reported seeing the two big ice-resurfacing machines chug through a Burger King drive-through and return to the rink around 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 10. The squat, rubber-tired vehicles, which have a top speed of about 5 mph, drove 1 1/2 miles in all. The Zamboni operators, both temporary city employees whose names and ages were not released by Parks and Recreation Department, had to negotiate at least one intersection with a traffic light on their...

Would you like fired with that? Two employees of the city's ice skating rink have been fired for making a midnight fast-food run in a pair of Zambonis. An anonymous tipster reported seeing the two big ice-resurfacing machines chug through a Burger King drive-through and return to the rink around 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 10. The squat, rubber-tired vehicles, which have a top speed of about 5 mph, drove 1.5 miles in all. The Zamboni operators, both temporary city employees whose names and ages were not released by Parks and Recreation Department, had to negotiate at least one intersection with...

MONTREAL - A judge has fined a Victoriaville, Que., man $1,350 and suspended his driver's licence for a year after the man pleaded guilty this week to driving a Zamboni with four times the legal limit of alcohol in his system. Police were called to Pavillon Jean-Beliveau last Oct. 9 after spectators at a hockey match became alarmed by the erratic conduct of Lionel Laquerre, a municipal employee, at the wheel of the ice-resurfacing machine. "They had noticed that the driver smelled of alcohol and that he was making manoeuvres described as dangerous on the rink," Jean-Francois Royer, a Victoriaville...

Newark -- You can't drive with alcohol in your system, even if the vehicle is a four-ton ice-cleaning machine at a skating rink. Zamboni operator John Peragallo was charged with drunken driving after a fellow employee at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown called police and reported that the machine was speeding and nearly crashed into the boards.

DULUTH, Minn. - Investigators were trying to determine on Monday the cause of the Sunday night explosions that destroyed a local ice arena and injured several broomball players and fans. People inside the building said they suspected the explosion came from a room containing an ice-grooming machine, which are often known by the brand name Zamboni. Fire Chief John Strongitharm said after the initial blast in the room, there were at least two subsequent explosions. He thought they were caused by propane tanks stored near the ice-groomer. Ice grooming machines often use the flammable gas as fuel. Strongitharm estimated the...

DULUTH -- A Duluth hockey arena was destroyed and at least two people suffered minor injuries Sunday night after a Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine exploded during a broomball game, starting a major fire and sending players and spectators fleeing. "It looked like the Zamboni doors flew off onto the ice," a player told KDLH-TV in Duluth, referring to the doors of the enclosure in which the Zamboni sat while waiting to go on to the ice. The explosion happened about 9:40 p.m. at Peterson Arena, 3501 Grand Av. in west Duluth. The witness said the explosion started ceiling insulation on fire,...

A Zamboni exploded Sunday night inside Peterson Arena in West Duluth, starting a fire at the ice rink at Wheeler Fields. About 30 people -- two broomball teams and a handful of fans -- were inside the building at the time of the explosion. One player was taken to the hospital. The extent of his injuries was not known. A small blast at 9:40 p.m. was followed by a larger explosion, which knocked the doors off the boards surrounding the ice surface onto the ice. Spectator Cade Ledingham, who was in the arena and witnessed the explosion, estimated that four...