Men's Hockey | 12/15/2016 1:29:00 PM

College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:

Pittsburgh, Pa. - They celebrated last Saturday afternoon's 4-1 win at Bentley as a team because of what the victory meant and because of how it had been achieved.

Together.

"We talked about it after the game with the team," head coach Derek Schooley said of career victory No. 200. "I congratulated them because it's a program milestone. It happens that I've been the only head coach but it's a program milestone, not a coaching milestone."

"It was neat to share that milestone with the team because of the expectations of the outsiders who thought we were going to take a step back this year."

Those would include Schooley's fellow head coaches in the Atlantic Hockey Conference who voted Robert Morris sixth in their preseason poll.

The USCHO.com preseason poll predicted a seventh-place finish for the Colonials, who had won an AHC tournament championship and two regular-season championships in the previous three seasons.

There remains a great deal of hockey to be played, but RMU emerged from last weekend's split at Bentley third in the conference at 7-4-1. The Colonials' 15 points trails second-place RIT by one (16) and first-place Army West Point by three (18), and RMU has a game in hand on both.

"We haven't won anything but I think we're showing we're a very good hockey team that people at the beginning of the year underestimated," Schooley said.

Schooley had joked as the milestone victory approached that he merely wanted to get to career win No. 200 before he got to career loss No. 200.

At 200-198-56, that mission has been accomplished, barely.

But the growth and transformation of the program was reflected in the way the Colonials made it to 200 victories.

It took them 259 games to win their first 100 games.

The program's second set of 100 victories was amassed in just 195 games.

Robert Morris' 13th season on Division I ice hasn't been lucky as much as it has been a confirmation that the program's established lofty standards are transferrable.

Despite massive turnover that includes the presence of 10 freshmen on the roster, RMU will take a 9-5-2 overall record into this weekend's home-and-home series with Mercyhurst (Saturday, 7:05pm at 84 Lumber Arena; Sunday, 4:05pm at Mercyhurst Ice Center).

Freshmen such as goaltender Francis Marotte, wingers Luke Lynch and Matthew Graham and center Daniel Mantenuto, among others, have been conspicuous by their contributions.

But so, too, has the leadership that's been provided senior defenseman and captain Rob Mann, senior winger and alternate captain Daniel Leavens, senior winger and alternate captain Ben Robillard and junior defenseman and alternate captain Alex Bontje, and the rest of the upperclassmen.   

"This group of guys hasn't done anything but have a successful season and with that they were determined not to allow this program to take a step back," Schooley said.

"The seniors were outstanding as far as building team chemistry and team culture and working with the coaches. I can't say enough about the older guys that would not allow this program to take a step back.

"We've had such a good relationship with communication, trusting each other, trusting the staff and us trusting them to lead the team. I've said it numerous times, this has been a very fun group to coach."

Schooley will be looking for more of the same against Mercyhurst, in pursuit of career victory No. 201 and beyond.

"You always have to continue to work on it," he said. "You have to make sure nothing negative creeps into the locker room. You can't allow negativity and people to suck the life out of other people. Working with the captains and the older guys, they've done a good job of not allowing anybody to affect what we've got going."


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