Veteran sportswriter, member of the WDVE Morning Show and hockey aficionado Mike Prisuta has been covering the Pittsburgh sports scene for over 20 years. He has covered Pittsburgh sports as a reporter for the Beaver County Timesand as a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and has had his pulse on the happenings of each of the professional organizations and college programs in the area. A graduate of Michigan State University, Prisuta got his start in the profession covering the Spartan hockey program and possesses knowledge of the college hockey world unmatched in the region.

Throughout the 2012-13 season, Prisuta will serve up weekly stories surrounding Colonial hockey as well as the latest notes and news around college hockey.

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Prisuta on Pucks: The Tradition Continues

Two games into the 2012-13 season the tradition continues at Robert Morris.

The Colonials opened with a road split that included a 4-0 decision on Oct. 14 at then-No. 18 Quinnipiac.

For Robert Morris it was the 10th victory over a ranked opponent in an NCAA Division I history that now spans eight seasons and change.

“It's a credit to our players,” head coach Derek Schooley said. “They rise to the occasions against high-ranked teams and play well in big spotlights. It's a credit to the current players, a credit to the alumni, and a credit to everybody who's been a part of the program from the coaches down to the support staff."

“It's a great accomplishment but we gotta do it when it counts come playoff time, as well.”

The Colonials will have a chance to address that eventually.

For now, the latest in a succession of attention-getting victories that began with a 4-2 triumph over then-No. 2 Notre Dame on Jan. 7, 2007 has been energizing.

“Once you do it the first time it's kind of contagious,” said defenseman Brendan Jamison, RMU's captain this season. “You just want to do it again."

“It's a lot of fun.”

The Colonials are 11-22-1 all-time against ranked teams.

Niagara (twice as No. 16 in February of 2007, No. 19 in November of 2007), Boston University (No. 8 in December of 2007) and Bemidji State (No. 6 in January of 2010) have also felt RMU's ranked-opponent wrath.

The signature victories in program history occurred on Jan. 8 and Jan. 10, 2010 when the Colonials stunned then-No. 1 Miami, Ohio, 3-1, at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh and then won again, 2-1, two days later in Oxford, Ohio.

“That's gotta be my favorite hockey highlight that I still dream about today,” recalled Jamison, a freshman during the twin No. 1 upsets. “To sweep them, to finish it off at their place was just the cherry on top of the sundae.”

Jamison was admittedly “scared” during those games.

Now, he suspects, times have changed.

“Yeah, that seems to be our M.O. as an organization to knock off some teams in the top 20,” Jamison said. “I'm sure when we go to play those teams they know we've knocked off the No. 1, the No. 5, the No. 10 teams before so they're a little scared of us coming into it."

“The style we play caters to an upset. We play really hard and we chip pucks around and we take the skill out of the game pretty much. We make teams work to get the win.”

The closest the Colonials had come to adding to their total of Top 20 victims prior to beating Quinnipiac had been a 2-1 loss at then-No. 2 North Dakota on Jan. 8, 2011.

Eric Levine had been in net that night, as he was against Quinnipiac, and the senior recognizes what's there to be gleaned in such situations.

“Any time you get a chance to play a ranked team it's an opportunity to show the country and college hockey what you can do,” Levine said. “We have the coaches and the leadership to represent ourselves with our best games and that's what we did (against Quinnipiac)."

“The coaches said it best, they could have had us play against a middle-of-the-pack or lower-level team and maybe get a sweep and get our confidence up but they wanted us to play against a good team. Quinnipiac is a very good team and for us to go out there and into their building and beat them on the second night was huge for us.”

As they had against North Dakota, the Colonials got better as the series progressed against Quinnipiac.

RMU's win followed up a season-opening, 4-0 setback.

In doing so the Colonials gained more than just their first victory of the season, particularly given that the result was achieved with 10 players in the lineup who hadn't been a part of the Robert Morris program a season ago.

“You want to increase your visibility among recruits and your current players,” Schooley said. “And in the long term it prepares you for your conference to play at the speed and the pace of some of these ranked teams because that's where you want to be eventually."

“There are a lot of factors (in scheduling such non-conference games). Some teams are on TV a little more than others. Some teams, you're going into great buildings. A lot of it is being able to tell your current players, your recruits, your fans and your alumni that you're playing some of the best of the best in some very high-profile situations."

"I really like the attitude of this (current) group of guys. It's a credit to them that with so many young players we can go into a tough place to play and beat a ranked team. But we have to follow up on it. We have to be consistent within our conference and we have to make sure we're playing our best hockey come playoff time because that's what gets you in the NCAA Tournament.”