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 may yet become the winningest class in Robert Morris hockey history, but this year's seniors will be remembered for more than winning.

"This is a group of guys that came into an emerging program and helped grow it to the next level," head coach Derek Schooley said of goaltender Dalton Izyk, defenseman Rob Mann and forwards Ben Robillard and Daniel Leavens.

The foursome will be honored prior to Saturday night's 84 Lumber Arena regular-season finale against Mercyhurst.

In their time at Robert Morris, they've been to the NCAA Tournament and they've been a part of teams that captured back-to-back Three Rivers Classic championships and back-to-back Atlantic Hockey Conference regular-season banners.

And none of it came easily.

Mann and Leavens were in street clothes -- healthy scratches as freshmen -- when the Colonials defeated Canisius, 7-4, and earned the program's first NCAA berth in March of 2014.

Izyk and Robillard have missed significant stretches of their careers due to injury.

But the four have also celebrated 83 wins since joining the program, four shy of the RMU-record 87 compiled by last season's senior class.

And with four regular-season games remaining and then the playoffs, they're not done yet.

Although a third straight AHC regular-season title is no longer a possibility, RMU can still finish as high as third in the conference.

The ultimate goal, as always, is an AHC postseason championship and a return to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2016-17 Colonials have believed all season it's a goal that's within their reach, thanks in no small part to their senior leadership.

"These guys have fostered the chemistry and the relationships on the team to not allow us to take any steps back," Schooley said.

Mann has evolved from a freshman scratch into a senior captain.

Leavens is five points shy of 100 for his career (he would be the 10th Colonials player to reach that plateau).

Izyk is fifth in program history with 26 career wins.

And Robillard scored the game-winning goal in Game 2 of a second-round series at Connecticut along the way to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, consistently showing his work ethic as he battled through multiple injuries.

"The work ethic, maturity and determination, they're something to behold," Schooley said.

There's still more work to be done.

The Colonials will travel to Mercyhurst on Friday for the opener of this weekend's home-and-home series fourth in the AHC, one point behind third-place Army and one point ahead of fifth-place Holy Cross.

RMU is also 3-4-1 and has scored eight even-strength goals in its last eight games, which has compelled Schooley to alter all four of his lines for the series against the Lakers.

"We're looking to make some changes to spark our offense, to make sure that we give ourselves our best opportunity," Schooley said. "Right now we need a little kick, a little jump start. We hope by making some tweaks to our line combinations that will help that.

"We have guys that can score. We have guys that have the ability to score. We need to get more people into the high-traffic areas. We need more production from the blueline, defensemen getting shots through so we can get some rebounds.

"It's hard not to be frustrated but our guys still believe in this team. I still believe in this team. We just need to, I wouldn't say get the ship righted but we need to make sure we're focused on the stretch drive."

As the RMU seniors are certain to be.


FOLLOW PITTSBURGH'S COLLEGE HOCKEY TEAM ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Snapchat  |  YouTube