Reeths-Puffer's Ayden Hartzell scored a three-goal hat trick, including the game winner just 12 seconds into the third period, helping the Reeths-Puffer hockey team to a very welcome 4-3 victory over Jenison on Saturday in the O-K Conference Fischer Division tournament.
The Rockets entered the tournament last week with hopes of winning all three rounds and the overall division championship.
They ran into a bump, however, losing the first two games, on Tuesday and Friday, before snapping the losing streak on Saturday.
The Rockets, now 14-7-2 on the season, will host Sparta on Wednesday afternoon at Trinity Health Arena, then will play Kenowa Hills on the road on Friday, before starting the postseason in regionals.
R-P's Ayden Hartzell, who had a hat trick and the game-winning goal.
"It's good to get a win, but we have a ton to clean up," said R-P head coach Dustin Langlois. "We have two games left before we go into regionals. We need to start playing better as a team and show a lot more effort. I'm glad we were able to put an end to the losing skid. Hopefully we can build some momentum off this and get back on track."
Jenison opened the scoring midway through the first period, then the Rockets answered with with two quick goals by Hartzell, just eight seconds apart.
The Wildcats added a goal before the end of the period, and the score was 2-2 at the first break.
Jenison scored and took a 3-2 lead midway through the second period, then Eli Cuti tipped the puck into the net with 33 seconds left, leaving the score knotted 3-3 headed into the third period.
Hartzell's game-winner came quick in the third period, then the Rockets hung on the rest of the way for the victory.
Connor Anderson, Tyler Tindall, Tyler Cuti and Hayden Tayler had assists for the Rockets. Goalie Huck VanDyke got the win in net.