Lynn family builds backyard rink

LYNN – Mark and Melissa Jacobsen came up with the perfect way to ease their pain over the Boston Bruins? struggles – build a hockey rink next to their Boulder Way home.The roughly 25-by-50-foot rectangle rimmed by flags was a shallow pool until this week?s cold snap turned it to ice, allowing Maddox Jacobsen, 7, to slap pucks along with fellow Lynn Comets teammates who play hockey at Connery Rink.Mark Jacobsen built the rink two weeks after Thanksgiving from a kit he ordered online. He reinforced the plastic boards with plywood to keep stray pucks from striking his home and padded them with Styrofoam. He used mulch and his building skills to level the rink?s surface and said he plans to improve upon the rink?s construction when he sets it up again next year.Red, white and blue lights installed under the rink make it fun for after-dark skating.?It?s something I wanted to do for a long time. We are die-hard hockey fans,” he said.The union bricklayer grew up on Walter Street in West Lynn playing street hockey, while Melissa Jacobsen is a Highlands native. The couple also have a son, Mason, 2, who is just starting to get his hockey legs underneath him.Childhood memories of waiting with frustration for local ponds to freeze enough to play on prompted Mark Jacobsen to build his rink. He is not aware of other home-grown ice rinks, although last winter?s frigid weather prompted efforts to flood part of the Lynn Commons for skating.Maddox Jacobsen skated around the rink Wednesday, backhanding pucks and declaring Patrice Bergeron to be his favorite Bruin, even though he wore a David Krejci jersey while he skated.Mark Jacobsen has been logging his share of after-work ice time and said the rink sparked a flurry of Christmas requests for ice skates up and down hilly Boulder Way.?The Bruins may be in shambles but we love hockey – in our home, it?s hockey six days a week,” he said.