The Reeths-Puffer hockey team is obviously playing with a great deal of confidence heading into regionals.
The Rockets finished the regular season on Saturday by roaring back from two three-goal deficits to beat Forest Hills Eastern 5-4 in overtime. It was Reeths-Puffer’s ninth straight victory and 11th in its last 12 games.
Bucky Aney was the hero, scoring the game-tying goal late in the third period, then the game-winner early in the overtime period.
Croix Klint also scored twice, continuing his recent hot streak.
The Rockets, now 17-7 on the season, will open regional play against Rockford on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Muskegon’s Trinity Health Arena.
R-P's Bucky Aney
“Bucky has been battling to score but has been coming up short lately,” R-P Coach Dustin Langlois said about Aney's late-game heroics. “We knew it was just a matter of time, and boy did he show up in a huge way when we needed it most!"
The game started badly for the Rockets, who obviously had tired legs from playing a tough game the night before. Forest Hills outshot R-P 13-9 and skated off with a 3-0 lead after the first period.
Reeths-Puffer started to come back to life in the second period, getting a goal from Klint to make the score 3-1. Forest Hills added a goal to go up by three again, then R-P’s Tyler Tindall found the net with 14 seconds remaining to make the score 4-2 headed into the third.
Kint scored his second goal with 4:22 left in the game, then Aney tied the score at 4-4 just 30 seconds later.
Aney then delivered the game-winning goal just 19 seconds into overtime.
R-P's Croix Klint
Goalie Huck VanDyke got the victory. Eli Cuti had two assists for the Rockets while Connor Anderson and Jaxon Stone each had one.
"We definitely came out sluggish,” Langlois said. “We were making bad decisions and the puck just kept bouncing off of our sticks in the first period. Nothing was going right. We went into the locker room after the first period and just tried to calm everyone down, telling them to keep the game simple and it will all come down to effort.
“We battled through the frustration and found a way to squeeze this one out."
