Men's Hockey | 11/9/2017 8:00:00 AM

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 played better the second time on the ice against Holy Cross -- start to finish -- than they had since the puck first dropped in early October.

But it was what happened in advance of the Colonials' 3-0 victory on Saturday night -- "Our best performance of the season," head coach Derek Schooley assessed -- that might have much more of a lasting impact.

This weekend at RIT and beyond.

Robert Morris had hosted Holy Cross last weekend still seeking traction. It was too early in the season to suggest the Colonials were at a crossroads. But at 2-5-0 and coming off a sweep at the hands of Ohio State (the first time RMU had been beaten twice on a weekend by the same opponent since Dec 6-7, 2013 at Bentley), Robert Morris was in need of something positive.

The search this time commenced in practice before taking on the Crusaders.

"I really liked our week of practice," Schooley insisted pre-series. "I'm enthused about how we practiced. We had an energetic, workmanlike week. Our guys came to work, their attitudes were good.

"Now, we need it to carry over to the game."

They did at times in Friday's series opener, but the Colonials still found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 deficit with less than five minutes remaining in the second period.

Then sophomore winger Luke Lynch scored at 15:32 and junior winger Alex Tonge added another at 19:43.

"We found a spark," senior center Spencer Dorowicz said. "We had to man-up. We had some guys go to the net and got some shots on net and the next thing you know we're tied up."

The Colonials eventually let a 5-4 lead slip away late and had to settle for a 5-5 tie.

But they were onto something and they knew it.

And they came out even more determined on Saturday night and in the process reminded themselves what works and what doesn't.

Sophomore goaltender Francis Marotte's third career shutout was the result this time.

"We just gotta keep it basic, get pucks out, get pucks deep, just keep working hard," junior defenseman Eric Israel insisted regarding Saturday night's effort. "This is Colonial Hockey. All year there have been bits and pieces of it but we haven't been able to put a full 60 (minutes) together."

They have now.

They did it with good goaltending and good sticks on sticks, in passing lanes and on pucks. They did it with effort and back-checking. They did it with puck-retrieval and with timely scoring. They did it down low and on the forecheck.

They did it with Dorowicz playing another solid two-way game.

They did it with vigor and physicality.

"Everybody was battling hard," Israel said. "When you see 'Tonger' throwing the body you know we're in for a good night."

The weekend against Holy Cross also included goal-scorers such as Lynch, Tonge and senior center Brady Ferguson finding the net and a couple of freshmen (Ryley Risling and Nick Prkusic) contributing as fourth-line complements (Risling also scored a goal).

The trick now will be to repeat as necessary.

"That's how we need to play," Schooley emphasized. "It was a step in the right direction as far as getting the effort and the 60-minute buy-in that we're looking for."

"If we can build on that with another good week of practice we can get on a little bit of a hot streak. It was definitely a good building block moving forward."


COLONIALS MEN'S HOCKEY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Snapchat  |  YouTube