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

After a sophomore season lost to injury, the Robert Morris Colonials had defenseman Tyson Wilson back on the ice last season.

They have Wilson back and healthy again this season, on the way back to playing the way he's capable of playing.

The difference is as intriguing as it is potentially impactful for the nation's No. 17 team.

"I haven't seen him skating this strong since he was a freshman," head coach Derek Schooley observed in between games of RMU's 6-3, 4-2 sweep of RIT on Oct. 31 - Nov. 1.

It had been a while.

What Wilson has been through since making the Atlantic Hockey Association All-Freshman Team in 2011-12 tells a tale of perseverance that's more impressive than the 7-0-1 record RMU will take into this weekend's hosting of Air Force (7:05 p.m., Friday and Saturday, at the Island Sports Center).

"My sophomore year I hurt my pelvis, got a small fracture in my pelvis and then I tore a bunch of muscles off my pelvis; I had a couple of surgeries for that," Wilson explained. "And then I came back last year and, just from overcompensating and stuff, I had to get double hip surgery this summer. So I had to recover from that.

"There was a stretch there were I couldn't even walk for a month in the summer. I had to crutch around or be in a wheelchair. That obviously takes a toll. It takes some time to get all your muscles back working."

Wilson appeared in just four games at the outset of his sophomore season in 2012-13 before eventually taking a medical redshirt.

He appeared in 41 of the Colonials' 42 games last season and led RMU defensemen with 19 points (3g, 16a), finished second on the team with 83 blocked shots and sixth with a plus/minus rating of plus-13.

But he still wasn't the player he or the coaching staff envisioned Wilson eventually becoming.

At 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, Wilson is blessed with a physical skill set that not many - or perhaps any - defensemen in the conference can match.

He also has an understanding of and an instinct for the game that transcends measurables and statistics.

The Colonials have gleaned a glimpse of what Wilson can be since he made his 2014-15 debut on Oct. 24 at Army, RMU's fifth game of the campaign.

Although scoreless through three games, Wilson remains a player the coaching staff intends to lean heavily upon on the power play, killing penalties, in late-game situations and whenever the need for a player able to execute what's necessary is required.

"It was hard at the beginning of the season," Wilson said. "I wanted to be out there pretty bad but I knew I had to wait and make sure I was 100 percent. It's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I feel pretty good out there and I'm having fun playing hockey again."

Wilson is still working on his strength and conditioning.

"It's getting there," he said. "I'm feeling better every day."

And his goals, for now, are relatively modest.

"Hopefully just shutting guys down defensively and moving pucks up to the forwards," Wilson said. "We'll see how it goes. I'm hopefully going to get back to where I was freshman year (3g, 14a) and maybe even better."

As for the team he's rejoined, "We have lots of depth at every position," Wilson assessed. "Our goaltenders are both great. On defense we're a lot deeper than last year and we have a lot of chemistry on the back end. And then the forwards, we have a good balance of scoring and checking and speed.

"We're looking good."

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.