MUSKEGON — It's been a very busy start to Reeths-Puffer's season, not just in the number of games played - seven in 20 days - but in how difficult those games have been. The Rockets have played games that have been against top-10 teams, were extremely competitive, or both.
Wednesday marked a chance for the Rockets to cut it loose a bit, and the team took advantage, scoring early and often and picking up a 9-1 mercy rule win over the Kalamazoo Eagles.
The game ended after the second period. The Rockets nearly were forced to begin a third period, but Dom Switzer responded to a late Kalamazoo goal by firing one in himself in the final minute, securing the mercy rule win.
Not only did the Rockets (3-3-1) score a lot, but they spread it around; eight different players got on the board. Chase Strunk was the only Rocket to score twice, finding the net twice in a span of just over three minutes early in the second period.
Adding in players who recorded at least one assist, 10 different players found themselves in the score book at the end of the game.
"We've had a tough start. We've had some really tough games," R-P coach Bill Zalba said. "Our first six games, we played two teams in the top 10...We've had a lot of tough games early on, and we've had to put a lot of minutes on a lot of our senior players. It was nice to get home and be able to spread the ice time out and get guys into the game that haven't been out there as much."
R-P only scored once in the first 10 minutes, and Zalba said slow starts at home have unfortunately been the norm. This time, though, once the Rockets got going there was no slowing them down. The Rockets scored three times in the final five-plus minutes to take control of the game.
Each goal came a different way, which showed the team's versatility. Eli Cuti opened the scoring with a nice shot from the face-off circle to beat the Kalamazoo goaltender close to the first period's halfway mark. Later, Tyler Cuti got into traffic and forced the puck in the net, and Sheldon Frederick deflected a shot by teammate Connor Anderson, which came all the way from the boards, to add another goal. Hayden Taylor finished the first period scoring by lighting the lamp just moments after his team had completed a penalty kill.
A lot of the names, though, were consistent for the Rockets despite the number of players to score. Eli Cuti assisted three goals, and Rohan Moyer, who scored a second-period goal, assisted four to run his season total to eight. Anderson also assisted three goals. (Freshman Michael Flanagan, Montague's lone representative on the team, had an assist and is up to three on the season.)
Zalba views the top lines' job as changing the numbers on the scoreboard, and they certainly proved effective at it Wednesday.
"It's always great when those guys can be productive," Zalba said. "We expect that. We expect them to go out there and do their job.That's their job, is to fill the score sheet. It's also nice when you get other players who get an opportunity to go out and show what they can do as well."
The Rocket offense dominated, peppering the Kalamazoo net with 32 shots on goal and making life pretty easy on netminder Bear VanDyke, who faced only eight shots.
R-P's ability to keep the focus on the moment was also impressive. The Eagles are 0-4 and came into the night with only one goal scored all season, and it would be easy for a high school team to overlook such an opponent. The Rockets plainly did not do that.
"It's high school hockey," Zalba said. "I'm a true believer that any team can beat any team anytime they come out every night. There's not just one dominant team that comes out here, and you've got to treat everybody with respect and come out and play the game the right way. That's a great-coached team over there. They're a young team, and they're developing. I have tremendous respect for their coaching staff and their team."
Zalba said before the season that he viewed this campaign as a process, integrating some young players into an experienced lineup. The weekend's results - R-P went 1-0-1 at a high-level showcase tournament in Traverse City - showed the progress the team is making.
"We've got a bunch of young kids coming in that are eager and hungry to play, and it's going to take time to get everybody on the same page," Zalba said. "At Traverse City, we had a great weekend there, playing some really tough teams. Coming back home we wanted to take care of business and keep pushing forward.
"We've still got a lot of work to do, but I think that guys are finding their role on the team. That's what we need to find, is we need to find where guys fit, what skill sets they have that are going to help us be successful."
