Pittsburgh sports media veteran and college hockey aficionado Mike Prisuta returns to RMUColonials.com to provide insights on the Colonials throughout the season.

At 5-0-1, Robert Morris University is one goal from perfect in the standings, but head coach Derek Schooley continues to hold his Colonials to a higher standard.

"It's about us making sure we're playing the right way," Schooley said. "We've set standards. The players have set standards that they want to uphold.

"If you don't uphold those standards you're not going to be successful."

Not, conceivably, over the long haul.

And not, perhaps, when it really matters.

RMU improved from 4-0 to 5-0-1 with a 3-0 victory last Friday night at Army and a 3-3 tie in the Saturday night rematch.

But the Colonials weren't as crisp, as consistent or as efficient as they'd been for the most part this season during the Army series, and they haven't been that on occasion lately.

RMU was outshot for the second time this season on Saturday night (40-30) and for the second time in three games (34-17 on Oct. 18 at Niagara).

The Colonials failed to hold three one-goal leads in the Saturday night tie.

And they were outscored in a third period (1-0) for the first time in 2014-15 in the 3-3 draw (RMU had held a 10-1 advantage in third-period goals through its first five games).

The Colonials still emerged from the Army series alone at the top in the Atlantic Hockey Association (3-0-1, seven points), one point ahead of second-place Canisius (3-1-0, six points).

They also moved to the front of the "others receiving votes" category of this week's USCHO.com Top 20 (one point behind No. 20 Notre Dame), which marked the third consecutive poll in which RMU had received more votes than the previous poll (that figure has increased from 27 in the preseason poll to 53 to 67 to 79 this week).

But the Colonials can and expect to be more on their details, beginning with this weekend's home series against RIT (2-3-0 overall, 1-1-0 AHC).

The to-do list there is minimal but significant.

"The effort level has been good," Schooley assessed. "For the most part we've been very good in our end, we've done a tremendous job blocking shots and we've done a tremendous job getting pucks to the net.

"But our forwards are getting a little too far away from the puck at times and we're not supporting the puck as well as we need to at times. We've been a little lackadaisical in the neutral zone and our forecheck has to be more consistent.

"If our forecheck isn't consistent we're going to be defending a lot."

While the Colonials haven't been perfect, they've remained prominent on the national stat sheet:
-Goaltender Dalton Izyk leads the nation in goals-against average (0.33) and save percentage (.990) and is tied for the top spot in winning percentage (3-0-0, 1.000) and shutouts (two).
-Winger Cody Wydo is tied for seventh in the country in points per game (1.67) and tied for second in goals per game (1.00).
-Winger Zac Lynch is tied for 10th in assists per game (1.00).
-Winger Matt Cope is tied for first nationally in short-handed goals (two).
-Cope and center Scott Jacklin are tied for second in game-winning goals (two).
-And the Colonials are No. 6 in winning percentage (.917) and in possession of the nation's longest current unbeaten streak (six games).

"If we do the right things and play the right way the accolades will come," Schooley said. "But we need to learn what we need to do better and work on what we need to do better.

"If we don't get better at the things we need to work on we're not going to be very good moving forward."

A longtime member of the WDVE Morning Show, Prisuta also previously served as a reporter for the Beaver County Times and as a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Michigan State University graduate got his start in the profession covering the Spartan hockey program. Follow him on Twitter at @DVEMike.