Assistant Captain Fried, Always Unselfish, Nets a Pair to Teammate Kolarik’s Delight

It’s one of those written/unwritten rules that everyone in hockey follows: You don’t leave the bench to celebrate a goal unless it’s overtime.

But every now and then, the circumstances call for it. Like Saturday night.

There was Harvard senior Tyler Kolarik, on the bench with less than a minute remaining in game 2 of his team’s playoff series against Vermont. The Crimson clung to a precarious 4-3 lead.

Kolarik saw Tom Cavanagh speed along the boards after a loose puck heading toward the corner. He caught up with it, reversed direction, and zipped a pass to the high slot, where senior Rob Fried waited. Fried swatted it into the empty net, clinching a 5-3 Harvard win and berth in the ECAC quarterfinals.

It was the first three-point game of Fried’s Crimson career and his first two-goal game in over two years.

Kolarik couldn’t just sit and watch the celebration. He had to get out there. Who could blame him? He and Fried have been teammates and best friends for eight years, dating back to their time at Deerfield Academy.

They’ve helped rebuild the Harvard program together. They’ve won an ECAC championship together. But as this year’s assistant captains, they’ve also agonized for four months, together, as the team has struggled to meet expectations.

Now, the Crimson is where it should be—the ECAC quarterfinals—and Fried was the one who made sure it got there.

So, over the dasher Kolarik went. He rushed to his friend, already mobbed by four Harvard skaters. After a few helmet taps, Kolarik snuck back to the bench and watched his buddy get applauded some more.

“It feels like I had a two-goal game,” said Kolarik, whose smile matched the prevailing facial expression of Harvard players and parents near the Bright Hockey Center exits. “I’m psyched for him, just really happy for him. He’s a kid who works so hard at everything he does. I can’t say enough good things about him.

“I’m just real proud of the way he played. He deserved it.”

Fried last scored twice Feb. 23, 2002, in a 4-0 shutout of Union. Kolarik had broken his thumb the night before, and Fried vowed that his team would be “fighting this battle for him.” It went on to win the ECAC championship—on Kolarik’s double-overtime winner.

Fried is a coach’s and teammate’s dream: hard working, self-sacrificing and fiercely loyal. More than once, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni has said Fried “epitomizes what you want as a student-athlete at Harvard.”

In fact, Kolarik and Mazzoleni offered the exact same words at different times Saturday: “No one works harder than Robbie Fried.”

“He does what you ask him to do, and he accepts his role without question,” Mazzoleni said.

For the second half of the regular season, that meant skating on the top line with Dennis Packard and Brendan Bernakevitch. But last weekend, Mazzoleni inserted freshman Ryan Maki in Fried’s spot and put Fried on the fourth line.

That has meant a little less ice time. Fried hasn’t complained. Instead, he’s made the most of the shifts he is getting. His three points Saturday boosted his season total to 13, tying his previous career high.

“He’s really stepped up his game,” Kolarik said. “He’s working on being poised and playing under control, and it’s working out for him.”

As you might expect, Fried deflects praise much more easily than he accepts it. Asked about his performance, he admitted it had been “a while” since he last had a two-goal game and almost immediately credited Cavanagh and defenseman Noah Welch, whose point shot Fried redirected for a second-period goal.

“I had some great help out there,” Fried said. “It was very unselfish of [Cavanagh] with an open net like that to pass it off. He’s a great team player.”

Funny. Everyone says the same thing about Fried. That’s why the locker room is a happy place when Fried is playing well. And of course, no one takes more pleasure in Fried’s successes than Kolarik.

They are inseparable friends but unique from one another on and off the ice. Fried has a quiet, steady demeanor and the 6’3, 210-lb. build to pull it off. He has a legendary work ethic and, in Kolarik’s words, “a heart of gold.” Fried founded the Crimson City Hockey Clinic for underprivileged youths. He’s deadly serious about his schoolwork, but has also written some of Satire V’s outrageously funny articles.

Kolarik, meanwhile, is a 5’10, 195-lb. sparkplug who occasionally makes like Sonic the Hedgehog and skates through people twice his size. He’s the team’s emotional barometer, a vocal leader with a penchant for scoring big goals in big games. He can change the momentum with one shift, whether he scores or not. “The kid’s the heart and soul of our program,” Fried said.

Despite the differences, both have a similarly strong sense of loyalty—to one another and their teammates. If you’re an opposing defenseman who takes an after-the-whistle hack at Kolarik, expect a visit from Mr. Fried on your next shift. Same thing goes the other way around.

And if it’s Fried instead of Kolarik who scores a series- or title-clinching goal, you don’t have to guess who will be among the first to tap Fried’s helmet. No matter if he’s on the ice or not.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.