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.