Pittsburgh, Pa. / Island Sports Center - The Robert Morris University men's hockey team's winless streak went to five games with a 5-2 loss to Wayne State in College Hockey America action at the RMU Island Sports Center Friday night. The winless streak comes on the heels of a five-game winning streak, the longest in team history, and moves the Colonials record to 13-17-2 overall and 9-9-1 in CHA play. Wayne State improves to 12-20-2 and 7-10-2.
With the result, the Colonials are guaranteed a third place finish in the conference regular season. They will go on to meet second-seed Bemidji State in next week's CHA Championship in Des Moines, Iowa. Robert Morris was 3-1 against Bemidji State this season. They meet Saturday, March 10, at 7:00 p.m.
Wayne State opened the scoring two seconds after their third power play of the game. Derek Bachynski put a shot on net from the right circle, but Robert Morris junior goaltender Christian Boucher (Orleans, Ontario / Cumberland Grads) couldn't control the rebound and Tylor Michel buried the loose puck 4:44 into the second period.
The Colonials tied the game late in the period on junior Tom Biondich's (International Falls, Minn. / Wichita Falls Rustlers) third goal of the season. The junior forward picked up the puck off a deflection by sophomore Jason Towsley (Lasalle, Ontario / Leamington Flyers). Biondich juggled the puck once, and then swatted it out of mid-air, beating Will Hooper high on the stick side at 17:27.
The tie, however, was short-lived. Just 23 seconds after Biondich's goal, Wayne State regained the lead, 2-1. Nate Higgins picked off a pass in the RMU zone and fed it in front to Jon Grabark. Grabarek gave it back to Higgins who beat Boucher from the right circle.
Wayne State stretched the lead to 3-1 4:15 into the third period as Jon Grabarek notched a 5-on-3 power play goal. He scored on a cross pass set up by Jared Katz and Nate Higgins. At 13:20 of the period, Higgins again set up his temmate, this time finiding Ryan Bernardi all along at the right point. Bernardi skated in on Boucher and beat him five-hole with a slap shot from the top of the right circle to make it 4-1.
The Colonials tried to mount a comeback late in regulation, with sophomore forward Chris Margott (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Bay State Breakers) wheeling around on a pass by Towsley in the slot. Margott's spinning wrister from between the circles beat Hooper high to the stick side with 2:03 left in regulation.
Robert Morris pulled Boucher at 18:09 of the third and just 10 seconds later, Higgins picked up his fourth point of the night and second goal scoring on a empty net with help from Taylor Donohoe and Mike Forgie to ice the scoring.
Boucher finished with 35 saves in the loss while Hooper stopped 30 saves to earn the win. Wayne State went 1-8 on the power play while holding the Colonials scoreless on three chances.
These two teams meet again Saturday, March 3, at 7:35 p.m. at the RMU Island Sports Center.
