Glace Bay boys win contest to name new Zamboni

Glace Bay boys win contest to name new Zamboni A pair of young brothers had their entry chosen from thousands of names submitted for Glace Bay's new Zamboni. CTV’s Ryan MacDonald reports.

Glace Bay brothers Keegan and Jordan O’Neill are big hockey fans, and always eager to lace up their skates and hit the ice. But these days the O’Neill’s are more excited about the goal they recently accomplished off the ice.

“We just started thinking of names as a family and we put both of our names on, so we could both share the prize,” says Keegan O’Neill. “We thought of a bunch of names and one of them ended up being ‘The Caper Scraper’.

The O’Neill brothers came had their entry chosen out of thousands of names submitted for the brand new ice resurfacing machine at Glace Bay’s Dominion Rink.

Many Canadian kids dream of driving a Zamboni, but naming one might be the next best thing.

“You couldn’t get a better name- Caper and it’s a Scraper,” says Mickey McNeil, who has been driving the Zamboni at Dominion Rink for decades.

“The machine is responsible for making sure the ice is kept up to part for the players. You have 30-40 kids on the ice at once now for tryouts, so it gets cut up pretty good,” explains McNeil.

Through a fundraising campaign and the help of sponsors, the non-for-profit group that runs the rink were able to come up with $100,000 to purchase the new machine.

“Luckily I wasn’t around when they used to use the Old Barrel, but we had the old Massey-Fergusson with the old tagalong on the back of it. It had those pads that went around, so it was a lot of work, but with the new ones it’s just a matter of changing the blade underneath,” explains McNeil, showing his knowledge of Zamboni history.

For Keegan and Jordan O’Neill, it’s like having a new teammate that they’ll be able to see every time they come to the rink.

“It will be very different, but it’s going to be cool in the same way. Every time we come here, we’ll get to see our name on the Zamboni,” say Keegan and Jordan.

A contest that has come to a close, but a name that will continue to live on every time the ice needs refreshening.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.