Cloquet's Hockey Arena Looks the Same This Fall. Everything Under the Ice Is New.

"I have a hard time thinking that anything in Cloquet draws as many people to this community as this building does," arena facilities manager Justin Harriman told the Pine Knot News. "The exception might be Gordy's."

He means Northwoods Credit Union Arena. In a normal year it hosts 400 to 500 games across youth hockey, high school teams, tournaments, the Minnesota Wilderness and summer rentals. If you walked in after it reopened this fall, you saw the same banners under the wooden vaulted ceiling, the same logos in the ice and the same scoreboard. That's no accident. Most of the six-month, $4.3 million overhaul went into parts of the building you can't see. One new ice plant now freezes both of Cloquet's rinks, so every game, tournament and morning walk on this winter's calendar runs on that one machine.

A 1972 ice plant was cooling a 1996 rink

The arena that's now Northwoods Credit Union Arena opened in 1996. From day one, its ice was frozen by a plant built in 1972. Ross Biebl, Cloquet's assistant public works director, figures a typical cooling system lasts 20 to 30 years. By the time the work started, that plant was more than 50 years old.

The replacement is an indirect ammonia system. The ammonia stays in the plant's cooling tower and chills glycol, and the glycol runs through pipes in the floor under the rink. Biebl described the floor to the Pine Knot News this way: "Under the ice there's a 5-inch thick slab, 4 inches of insulation below that and miles of tubing that runs up and down [the rink]. A lot of work went into it."

The bigger change is how far the new system reaches. It also freezes the ice at Pine Valley Arena next door, known around town as the Barn. Pipes now carry cooling liquid from the Barn back to Northwoods. Staff also have a new computer display showing ice temperature, the temperature of the glycol returning to the tower, pump speed and ice sheet temperature. The old system had no controls like that.

Most of the work wrapped up by Sept. 25, and teams were skating on Sept. 28.

What you can see from the bleachers

The upgrades you can see are small next to the plant. Here's what they are, in roughly the order you'd notice them on game night:

1. The glass. The protective safety glass is new and clearer, so the view from the seats is sharper.
2. The boards. The dasher board backer panels and player boxes are now custom purple. The old ones were white and scuffed.
3. The cap rail and supports. These got the custom color too. It was bid as an add-on option, separate from the core job.
4. The snow pit. The pit where the Zamboni dumps its shavings, just outside the mechanical room, is bigger now. That was another add-on.
5. The upstairs track. Several trophy cases were moved, which opens up the far end of the walking track.

The most important add-on is one fans will never see. The add-on bids included refrigeration mains to serve the Barn, which is how one plant now cools two rinks.

Who paid for it, and what's left

None of this went onto your property tax bill. The arena work is paid for by a half-cent sales tax Cloquet voters approved in 2022. Two proposals were on that ballot, together worth roughly $8 million for city projects. The Pine Knot News described it at the time as about $2 million for Pine Valley Park and $6 million for arena improvements. The exact ballot language, collected by MinnPost, set the Pine Valley Park project at $2,124,700 and the ice arena project at $6,025,500, each plus bond interest and issuance costs.

Here's how the numbers line up against the ballot amount:

The job came in close to its estimate, and that leaves some room under the ballot amount. Biebl said the city hopes enough is left to pay for a new roof bladder in the next couple of years. If you want the bigger picture, the City of Cloquet's sales tax information page lists where the city's sales tax revenue goes. The list includes Pine Valley Park, the ice arenas, parks and trails, and infrastructure along Highway 33 and I-35.

One plant, a full winter

Because both rinks now share one plant, the next two months are the new system's first real test. The Barn stays offline until outdoor temperatures drop, and no date has been set for its ice to go in. Once it does, both sheets will be busy. Cloquet Amateur Hockey says its tournaments use Northwoods Arena, Pine Valley Arena and Four Seasons Arena in Carlton.

The Wilderness were scheduled to come home Oct. 23-24, before this post went up. Here's what's on the calendar from now through Dec. 20:

You can buy single-game Wilderness tickets for each home date from the team's ticket page, which also links to season packages. The CEC boys' schedule is on Cloquet Athletics, and the girls' schedule is on the MSHSL site. The Peewee and Squirt tournament pages give the dates but don't say which games go to which rink.

Look at the weekend after Thanksgiving. The Peewee B2 tournament runs Friday through Sunday, and the CEC boys open at home that Saturday afternoon. That's the first weekend this season when both Cloquet rinks and the one in Carlton could be busy at once.

The track upstairs runs on the same calendar

The arena isn't only for hockey. The walking track on the upper deck behind the bleachers is free, open 7:30 a.m. until the last scheduled event, usually around 8 p.m. Anyone can walk there, but pets aren't allowed.

On a cold, drizzly Monday this month, the Pine Knot News found two retired Carlton County coworkers keeping a brisk pace up there. They told the paper the track is where they do all their talking. Another walker the paper spoke with has come since 2023. She started with one friend, then their husbands joined, and now another couple comes along. The group goes out for coffee after an hour-long walk. She told the paper the climate-controlled space is great but "can get quite noisy when the hockey players are practicing," and that a schedule of practices and games would be nice.

The table above covers the big nights. On those Friday and Saturday Wilderness dates and the tournament weekends, the building will be loud and the track will be open until the last game ends. For a quiet loop, a weekday morning is your best bet, well before practices and long before puck drop.

If your family plans its winter around the Barn, the Wilderness or the walking track, Michelle Ryan would love to hear how the new ice is holding up and which game nights you've circled. And if a move is on your radar this winter, she can talk through what's near the arena or put together a free home valuation whenever you're ready.