Inside Minnesota’s hallowed ice arenas — we have more of them than any other state — slapshots and axels may wow crowds. But the mundane work of the ice-resurfacing machine can be just as mesmerizing.

But a machine to resurface these diy rinks is unheard of until now. The big name in rink resurfacing is Zamboni, the person who invented this method of keeping the ice pristine. This has almost ...