Hudsonville 5 Grand Haven 4

After a four game stretch of non-conference games that saw the Eagles go 3-1, it was back to work in the battle for the O-K Conference Tier 2 Division title as Hudsonville faced off against Grand Haven this evening at the Georgetown Ice Center. The Buccaneers came to play and started the scoring 3:25 into the game when Cody Horton finished of a couple of passes from Tyler Rusco and Dan Brady. Just 3:29 later Hudsonville tied it up when Alex Host worked the corner, found Parker Host at the point who fired a slap shot that Alex DeCorte would tip past Grand Haven goalie Sean Kittredge.

The second started like the first finished, with both teams looking for some rhythm and some “jump”, and Grand Haven found it… scoring 3 goals in 3:15. At 9:30 Conor Fredricks beat Eagle net minder Pete Herman on set-up from Vince Rohrs. A minute-and-a-half later Horton would tally again, this time on assists from Cory VanOeveren and Rusco. A high-sticking call on the Buccaneers gave Hudsonville a chance to stop the bleeding but Derek Moore hustled to a loose puck a netted a short-handed goal making it 4-1 in favor of the visitors. Looking for some kind of spark to get things going, Hudsonville defenseman Jaron Grzegorczyk won a battle at the blue-line keeping the puck in the zone and skating in and letting a wrister go from the right circle that found the far post and went in. The Eagles edged one goal closer before the end of the second when some fantastic special teams play would free up Alex Host on the back door to bury the puck on “bang-bang” passes from Parker Host and Grzegorczyk.

The power play continued to work for the Eagles when Grzegorczyk and Alex Host would team up, this time to feed Parker Host who went far side on Kittredge for the tying goal 2:44 into the final stanza. The remainder of the period would be all Hudsonville and Senior forward Trent VanderMolen would notch the game winner on a feed from Kurtis Potter with seven minutes left in the game. Hudsonville (14-4 / 5-1) out shot Grand Haven (6-7-2 / 0-4-1) by a 34-17 margin. Both teams are in action again on Saturday; Hudsonville will face-off with East Grand Rapids at 6:00 pm at Patterson, while Grand Haven returns home to The Edge for a 3:30 matinee with Forest Hills Central.