MUSKEGON — When Reeths-Puffer puts its prodigious talent and hard work together, the results can be impressive, as they were Wednesday night as the Rockets downed O-K Fischer Conference foe Kenowa Hills by mercy rule, 8-0.
The Rockets (7-5-1) dominated the final period and a half, scoring seven times to end the game just over seven minutes into the third period. Leading the offense was Jaxon Stone, who ripped off three goals on his birthday, including the final score to end things.
“Obviously in the end, all I cared about was the win, but it was pretty cool and something I’ll remember,” Stone smiled.
Stone had plenty of help, of course. Five of his teammates scored one goal each, and Ayden Hartzell and Tyler Cuti each complemented their goals with two assists. Goalie Huck VanDyke was great in goal for the shutout, making a few impressive saves.
The team was motivated, coach Dustin Langlois said, by a rough performance against Mona Shores last week in which the Sailors scored four times on the power play. R-P has dealt with a lot of penalty calls throughout the season as it adjusts to Langlois’ aggressive mentality, but the first-year head coach said his charges are developing the right balance. The Rockets were again whistled for a few penalties, but didn’t let any of them turn into goals and even scored once shorthanded.
“We’re telling these guys we want them to be relentless bordering on reckless,” Langlois said. “They’re finding that line a lot better now and being more relentless and doing the right things.”
Offensively, the team showed signs of explosiveness. The Rockets scored directly off a face-off in the second period when Cuti cashed in a face-off win by Hartzell, and twice R-P fired off two goals in a span of 20 seconds. One impressive goal by Stone saw him feign a centering pass, then beat the Knights’ netminder to his left.
Stone said the team draws confidence from the knowledge any of its four lines can find the net at any time, as well as from its defense and goalie.
“When you have confidence in your goalie, it builds from goalie to defense to forwards,” Stone said. “Just knowing we have him back there, we can just go down and rely on him and he can rely on us to go down and get shots and get goals.”
Langlois said it hasn’t always been easy drilling into his talented team that their gifts need to be developed through hard work to succeed, but he saw some obvious signs Wednesday the message is sinking in, and things are looking like they’re trending upward.
“Nobody’s ever doubted our talent from the start,” Langlois said. “We have it there. I think we came in a little flat, thinking our talent would win us some games. Hard work outweighs talent every time. We finally went back to work, so hopefully we can have the talent and the hard work aspects of it.”
It couldn’t be happening at a better time. After participating in a Lakeshore Sports Centre showcase tournament this weekend, R-P hosts Sparta next Wednesday. The Spartans lead the Fischer and handed the Rockets a convincing defeat in the teams’ first meeting. Langlois made no bones about the fact that the rematch is circled on the team’s calendar.
“We have a bad taste in our mouth from the last time we played them,” Langlois said. “They took it to us pretty good and it’s because they outworked us. Hopefully we keep this momentum moving forward and take it to them this time. That’s definitely one we haven’t forgotten.”
