MUSKEGON – To be a good hockey team, you need to have good goaltending, and Reeths-Puffer certainly has that.
It can’t guarantee victories, but it can keep you in a lot of games that might otherwise get out of hand.
On Friday night, the Rockets received phenomenal goaltending from sophomore Isaiah Van Noord, who stopped an amazing 52 shots.
Unfortunately for R-P that effort wasn’t quite enough, because Jenison broke a tie with two late third-period goals and the Rockets fell 4-2 at Mercy Health Arena.
Van Noord allowed just three goals on 55 shots faced. The fourth goal was an empty-netter in the final seconds of the game.
[1]“I just try to keep a clear mind, I don’t really think about it and I do what I practice for,” Van Noord said after the game. “My teammates funneled them to the outside, which made it easier for me.”
“This is his second or third game where we have been severely outshot,” added Reeths Puffer Coach Ryan Martin. “We don’t usually mind giving up shots because we are confident in Isaiah and our other goalie (Tanner Bonjernoor).”
It’s not an accident that Van Noord is excelling between the pipes for the Rockets. A lot of work against older kids when he was younger is paying dividends for the sophomore.
“When he was a seventh-grader he was skating with ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders,” Coach Martin said. “When the Lumberjacks have needed a practice goalie, he has skated with them as well.”
[2]The Rockets, now 2-5 on the season, will look to right the ship after a hectic week which has seen them play three games, including a pair in the Upper Peninsula.
“We have had a lot of adversity over the last few weeks,” Martin said. “We have had games postponed, traveled to Marquette, and this is our first three-game week. The boys struggled a bit to keep it going for three full periods.
“We need to learn to play three full periods. In both of our wins and several of our losses, we have played really, really well, and then we will take time off and give up chances and goals.”
The Rockets opened the scoring at the 3:42 mark of the first period. Isaiah Winters fired a shot on net that the opposing goalie couldn’t corral, and teammate Josh Shaffer was there to bang home the rebound and give Reeths-Puffer a 1-0 lead.
[3]Jenison responded before the period was over when Hayden Blik scored to tie the game.
Jenison’s Gavin Phillips untied the game at the 16:08 mark of the second period, and R-P triailed 2-1 heading into the third,
With the Rockets on a 5-on-3 power play, Andrew Bouwman ripped a shot from the point that beat the Jenison goaltender at the seven-minute mark, and the game was tied 2-2 with 10 minutes remaining.
Jenison’s Avery Olenzuk scored the eventual game winning goal with just over four minutes left, then Sam Bydalek added an empty-netter in the final minute.
The Rockets were outshot 56-17 on the night.
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