Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park to close for at least a week after fire

A 53-year-old Kings Park ice rink that fosters Long Island’s hockey community will close its doors for at least a week as fire damages are assessed and remedied.

Superior Ice Rink, a family-owned community rink that first opened for hockey players and amateur skaters in 1972, suffered an electrical fire Sunday morning, owner Richard McGuigan confirmed in a telephone interview Monday evening.

The fire broke out in the building’s basement after a Town of Smithtown snowplow collided with a utility pole along Indian Head Road just outside the rink at around 8 a.m. Sunday, according to McGuigan.

The building’s structure, the ice rink itself and the necessary equipment to keep it cold were all unscathed.

“It could have been a lot worse,” McGuigan said. “Thankfully it’s just a cleanup job and repairing electric and fire alarm panels.”

Electrical crews have already begun working at the premises, and McGuigan hopes an insurance adjuster will arrive in the coming days to assess damages so restoration can begin. While he does not yet have an official cost of the damages, he estimates repairs will run between $250,000 and $350,000.

The fire occurred hours after a storm coated the Island with upward of 5 inches of snow in some areas. The snowy, cold weather months are a critical time for drawing amateur skaters to Superior, as ice skating is most synonymous with the winter season.

“I’m being aggressive, I’m pushing to try to get open by next Monday, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” McGuigan said. “The fire alarm panel was burned up, and I need to have an active fire alarm before I can open. … I’m hoping between a week and two weeks is how long I’ll be closed.”

Superior Ice Rink has long been a fixture of the “very close-knit” hockey community on Long Island, where little tykes and grown-ups alike play on community and travel teams, McGuigan said. He noted that Hauppauge native James Hagens, a freshman player for Boston College and top NHL draft prospect, spent his younger years at the Kings Park rink.

“He’s maybe the No. 1 pick in the draft this year,” McGuigan said of Hagens. “He started in Mini Mites as a 4-year-old and came up through our program. … Then ended up in the U.S. National Team Development Program.”

Until Superior can reopen, the many youth and adult hockey teams that carve the McGuigan-family ice will practice at other nearby facilities.

“There’s a pretty robust hockey community on the Island, and it’s a good group,” McGuigan said. “Local rinks, competitors of ours and competing programs, everybody’s reached out to help."