Mark started playing pond hockey on a lake behind his house in North Jersey -- when it was cold enough to freeze over every winter.

With no organized youth hockey in his town it wasn't until college intramurals and adult recreation leagues that he began to play in earnest and fall in love with the game.

He has played at Sky Rink since before it was at Chelsea Piers -- when it was a single rink on the 16th floor of a building at 33rd Street and Tenth Avenue.

A broadcast journalist, Mark lived and worked in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Chicago, where pro hockey teams earned his support and by the time he returned to New York and network jobs he described himself as a free-agent fan when it comes to the NHL. He roots for good hockey and, as a journalist, for a good story.

From 2003 to 2005, Mark wrote the weekly College Hockey Report for the New York Times and covered Frozen Four and Beanpot tournaments.