MUSKEGON - The Reeths-Puffer hockey team played first-place Hudsonville on Wednesday – a team they lost to earlier in the season – and neither of their big scorers had a goal.
Super sophomore Tyler Tindall went scoreless – which is pretty rare – while second-leading scorer Jaxon Stone was out of the lineup for the game.
That must mean the Rockets lost again to the high-flying Eagles, right?
Wrong. R-P built a surprising 2-0 lead, watched Hudsonville roar back to tie the game, then a new hero emerged when it matted the most.
Eli Cuti, a 5-foot-4, 125-pound freshman, scored from close range on a power play with 34 seconds remaining, giving the Rockets a thrilling 3-2 victory at Trinity Health Arena.
Reeths-Puffer's Avery Wolfe-Sabo moves the puck up the ice. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Cuti, who tends to be a pass-first player who gets a lot of assists, said he was definitely thinking about scoring when he got the puck in front of the Hudsonville net and deposited a backhand shot past the Eagles’ goalie.
“I passed it out in the slot to Avery Freeland, it kind of bounced off him and redirected, and I grabbed it and just shot," said Cuti, a Fruitport High School student who plays for R-P under a co-op agreement. "It was really exciting. It was the biggest goal of my life. I’m a freshman. It was fun.
“I was just going out there to bury the puck. I had that mentality the whole time. In that situation I had to bury the puck.”
The victory kept the Rockets very much in the race for the O-K Conference Fischer Division championship, something that didn’t seem very likely earlier in the season when they lost two division games.
R-P is now 4-2 in the division and only one game behind Hudsonville in the loss column, with four division games remaining. The Rockets are 11-5 overall and have won eight of their past 10 games.
R-P's Isaiah Winters controls the puck behind the net. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“I really feel like we control our own destiny now,” said R-P Coach Ryan Martin. “We have to control our own end and see what happens. We definitely started out (the season) slow – which has been our norm in games and in the season – but we’ve come a long way. We’re just really coming together in all facets.”
Cuti wasn’t the only player to pick up his offensive game on Wednesday and score a big goal.
Avery Freeland found the back of the net in the first period with a slap shot from the left circle, giving the Rockets a 1-0 lead.
Jake Lee scored on a long wrist shot from the right circle in the second period, putting R-P ahead 2-0.
Connor Stawski put the icing on the cake with an empty-net goal with 27 seconds remaining.
R-P goalie Tanner Bonjernoor makes a save. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“Secondary scoring is always nice, for sure,” Coach Martin said. “We were kind of hoping Freeland would score more than what he has, and hopefully this is kind of a game-changer for him and he puts a few more in. He definitely has that capability. Jake Lee, in his first year on varsity, has had a couple of big goals this season, and he always seems to score at the right time.
“Cuti gets a ton of assists and doesn’t take a lot of shots, but when he does shoot, they tend to go in.”
Freeland’s goal came late in the first period and Lee scored early in the second, but then things got bumpy for the Rockets.
They were called for a series of penalties in the second period, and at one point had to kill off a 5-on-3 power play, but the Rockets hung tough, only allowing one power play goal by Hudsonville’s Austin Plumert late in the second.
Plumert added another goal with about 10 minutes left in the third period, and it appeared that the Eagles had the momentum.
Skylor Sutton rips a shot for the Rockets. Photo/Jeremy Clark
But R-P kept battling and got two great opportunities to win in the final four minutes, when Hudsonville was whistled for two penalties.
The Eagles were able to kill off the first Rocket power play, but then another Hudsonville player went to the penalty box with 1:17 remaining, and the Rockets finally cashed in with Cuti’s game-winner.
The victory would not have been possible without the strong play of R-P goalie Tanner Bonjernoor, who stood tall against a pretty relentless Hudsonville attack. The Eagles outshot the Rockets 33-22, but Bonjernoor made that stat irrelevant with some nice saves throughout the contest.
“These guys are something,” Martin said about his team. “They have a lot of heart and they never give up, even when situations are against them. They just keep pushing.”
