MUSKEGON — Nothing ever works out the way it’s planned in hockey, so when Reeths-Puffer called timeout with two and a half minutes left to set up a play in Wednesday’s season opener against Grand Rapids Christian, the Rockets didn’t assume it would work perfectly.
This time, though, it did. R-P won the faceoff, got the shot it wanted, and freshman Hayden Taylor tipped it into the net, giving the Rockets the lead. An empty-netter later provided the final margin in a 6-4 win.
It was a great way to start for first-year head coach Dustin Langlois, who credited the play call to his assistant, and Rocket head coach once removed, Bill Zalba.
“That was the exact play that my assistant, Zalba, drew up and they hit it to a T,” Langlois said. “Nothing ever works out like that, but those guys executed it perfectly and it was absolutely amazing.”
R-P’s two third-period goals were the only ones scored in the period after a rapid-fire first two stanzas saw the teams exchange four different 2-0 runs. The Rockets scored twice in the first period, with Connor Anderson and Croix Klint credited with the goals, and there were six goals scored in the second period. Klint had his second of the night, and Eli Cuti made an athletic play to grab a loose puck and whip a turnaround shot top-shelf past the Eagles’ netminder to go up 4-2, but Christian rallied to tie the game before the period was out.
The Rockets were down a few key players, with Connor Stawski and Tyler Tindall out for the game and Avery Freeland injured during it, but Langlois said the team showed how much talent is on the roster by coming through. He noted that three of the goal-scoring players - Anderson, Taylor and Cole VanDyke, who tallied the empty-net goal in the final seconds - are in their first varsity season.
“I owe it to all the boys. It’s all on them,” Langlois said. “They showed their heart tonight. They showed our depth. We got off to a good start, were a little slow in the middle. Once we dug deep and dug our heels in, we really got going forward. It shows what Reeths-Puffer hockey is all about.”
Langlois is the third Rockets’ coach in the last three years; Zalba helmed the program in 2021, with Langlois an assistant, before Ryan Martin took the job last year. Now Langlois is back, and he’s thrilled.
“It’s amazing, coming back to my alma mater,” Langlois said. “With high school, you only have a few days (in the preseason) to get everything going. We learned a lot about ourselves. Those guys are so coachable. We came in and we adjusted things on the fly with their systems, and we didn’t expect them to really adapt as quickly as they did, and they did. It was real nice. The group we have is very talented.”
The R-P team is a co-op program that includes several area schools, including Whitehall and Montague. Ten Rocket students are on the team, plus one Montague student - junior Bucky Aney, who got some ice time Wednesday.
The Rockets were 19-6-1 last year, although Jaxon Stone, who had the first tip on Taylor’s goal and was credited with it over the public address, said the team didn’t play a difficult schedule. This opener was certainly not easy; Grand Rapids Christian is a strong program led by Shawn Zimmerman, who Langlois called one of the best coaches in the area. The Eagles reached the Division 2 regional finals last year and lost a close game to eventual state runner-up Byron Center.
“GRC’s a good team, a good Christian school to get (a win) in our first game, even shorthanded,” Stone said. “It’s a confidence boost.”
