MUSKEGON - For the past two seasons, Tyler Tindall has been scoring big goals when the Reeths-Puffer hockey team has really needed them.
On Wednesday the junior forward did it again, delivering two key goals and an assist to help the Rockets fend off an upset bid and beat Grand Haven 4-2 at Muskegon’s Mercy Health Arena.
The Rockets, who came in as solid favorites against the struggling Buccaneers, fell behind early, but Tindall pulled R-P even midway through the first period when he took a pass from Eli Cuti and deposited the puck from close range.
Cuti broke in on goal alone, with Tindall just off to his left.
“Their defenseman fumbled it and Eli picked it up,” said Tindall, who led R-P last season with 29 goals and 25 assists. “I thought he was going to shoot it, but he passed it to me. Those are easy goals.”
Tyler Tindall
Grand Haven pulled ahead, 2-1, in the second period, then Tindall got an assist on a goal by Jaxon Stone to tie the game again.
The Rockets went up 3-2 in the final period, but the outcome was still in doubt when Tindall picked up a loose puck and scored an empty-netter late in the contest to ice the victory.
“The puck went out of the zone, and I knew if I hustled I could beat their defender and get to it,” said Tindall, who now has 9 goals and 9 assists this season. “That definitely took some pressure off us.”
R-P Coach Dustin Langlois said Tindall’s success is no mystery – it’s all a matter of effort.
“Hard work is all it comes down to,” Langlois said. “He’s not afraid to go into the dirty areas. You can set skill aside – when you got a guy who works that hard and is that strong, good things are going to happen.”
R-P goalie Mark Stewart watches the play develop. Photo/Joe Lane
Wednesday’s victory was important for several reasons.
It was an O-K Conference Fischer Division game, so the Rockets were able to pick up two important points in the standings. Reeths-Puffer is now 6-4 overall and 2-2 in the division.
But there was also an emotional element.
After playing teams from distant points around the state for the first month of the season, Wednesday’s game kicked off the local part of the schedule.
Instead of playing strangers they’ve never met, the Rockets are going up against familiar opponents and the pressure to win is strong.
It will be the same next Wednesday when Reeths-Puffer hosts Mona Shores at Trinity Health Arena.
R-P's Jaxon Stone (13) gets tangled up while chasing the puck. Photo/Joe Lane
“Everybody knows each other and grew up playing hockey together,” Langlois said. “This one was more important to me because it was a division game. But now we will have Shores next week and we’re going to have our hands full. We’re going to have to work to match that intensity.”
The Rockets struggled in the early going against the Buccaneers. They were outshot 7-4 in the first period and 8-6 in the second and had to dominate the third period to get the victory.
“We’re grinding out games that we shouldn’t have to,” Langlois said. “It’s all mentality. It’s almost like they start gripping their sticks too hard, start working too hard and going in the wrong directions, instead of slowing down and playing our game. It all added up in the first period and a half before we relaxed a little bit and figured it out.”
“There’s an old saying, good teams find a way to win, and hopefully that’s what we are."
R-P's Dewey Modaff moves the puck toward the Grand Haven goal. Photo/Joe Lane
Grand Haven’s CJ Henke scored with 10:51 remaining in the first period, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Tindall answered with his first goal with 6:15 remaining in the first, with the assist from Cuti, tying the score 1-1.
The Buccaneers got a goal from Caleb Wolffis about two minutes into the second period to take the lead again.
Stone scored a power play goal later in the period, with assists from Tindall and Eli Cuti, and the score was knotted 2-2 headed into the third.
Tyler Cuti scored about a minute into the third period, with an assist from Stone, to give the Rockets their first lead of the game.
R-P had a dangerous situation midway through the period when back-to-back penalties gave Grand Haven a 5-on-3 skater advantage for just over a minute, but the Rockets killed off the power play with no damage.
Tindall scored his open-netter in the final minutes to put the game away.
Mark Stewart, Reeths-Puffer’s junior goalie, had a strong performance, stopping 15 of 17 shots.
