MARBLEHEAD —   I’m Jake Kulevich, a 16-year-old junior at Marblehead High School and I am one of the captains of the hockey team. As a member of the Marblehead High School Varsity hockey team, I was fortunate enough to receive a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in a hockey game… at Fenway Park.

The game was against Winthrop on a freezing Saturday evening, January 9. It took place all because the former Olympic hockey star and now Winthrop assistant coach, Mike Eruzione, arranged it. When Saturday came, our team met at Marblehead High School where we took a bus over to Winthrop High to get dressed. From there we took a bus into Fenway Park where we got our skates on down below where the concession stands are. At that time everyone was so pumped up to get out there and we were all ready to go. We went down the stands and onto the bench where we waited for the official signal for warm-ups.

Those few minutes on the bench before we hit the ice I will remember forever. Looking around Fenway Park and then realizing I was in the center of it about to play a High School hockey game was pretty amazing. It was a beautiful night and even though it was extremely cold out I blocked it all out for those few minutes.

Once the game started we came out flying and played great but could not seem to score. Our coaching staff did a great job preparing us for this game. Although we were playing at Fenway Park they made sure we knew that this was one of the biggest games of the year.

Coach Tarmey emphasized all week how important this game was and how we were going to win a hockey game. Without his strong words along with the other coaches, we as a team would have been way too distracted to focus on the game. The conditions of the ice were not the greatest but that was all part of the outdoor experience.

The big lights were not on but there were lights right above the boards that lit up the rink. It felt like a pond hockey game at Redd’s pond or Black Joes in Marblehead. Just like on the ponds in Marblehead, as the game went on the ice began to get very slow and beat up. It became very hard to make passes.

The lighting was like at Black Joes when we get someone to flash their car lights on the ice so we can see and continue to play. I give a lot of credit to our goalies Tony Cuzner and Mike Harper who both did a great job finding the puck in the unusual lighting and keeping us in the game.  

Come the third period it was so cold it was hard to move my fingers, and we trailed 2-0. Our team did not go down without a fight as we continued to play hard through the third period. It was very hard to move the puck up ice and get quality shots on net in the third period. When the game was all said and done we had our chances but came up short in a 2-0 loss.

Although we lost the game I will forever remember that amazing day. It would not have been the same without my teammates and the way we all enjoyed it together. Although we lost and were disappointed about it, we will all remember that amazing Saturday evening when we played a hockey game at Fenway Park.

Jake Kulevich, the son of Tom and Patti Kulevich, also plays basketball with the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore’s Maccabbi team.