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.

Prisuta on Pucks: Return on Investment

The Colonials got the returns they were looking for, one from injury and another from a temporary exile to head coach Derek Schooley's doghouse, in what became a three-point weekend at Holy Cross.

The goaltender of record in a 4-3 victory on Nov. 30 and a 1-1 tie on Dec. 1 was senior Eric Levine, who had missed RMU's previous three games.

And freshman forward David Friedmann was a force at both ends of the ice while collecting his third goal of the season in the Colonials' victory and an assist in the tie on the way to being named Atlantic Hockey Association Rookie of the Week.

Their contributions were supported by a determined team-wide effort that improved RMU to 5-4-1 overall and 4-3-1 in the AHA at the expense of the conference's second-place team.

“I don't think we had our 'A' game as far as making plays,” Schooley assessed. “We were a tad off that way.”

“But the work-ethic things, back-checking, finishing our checks, blocking shots, selling out on the penalty kill and working well together, all of that was great.”

Levine improved to 4-2-1 on the season, with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage, and was especially clutch while the Colonials were in the process of killing off all 13 Holy Cross power plays through the two games.

“Your best penalty-killer is your goaltender,” Schooley observed. “Eric got better as the weekend went on. He was rusty on Friday and outstanding on Saturday.”

“He was square to the shooters and big in the net and he made the saves he had to make. Our team has a tremendous amount of confidence in Eric Levine. He finds way to win.”

Friedmann emerged from the Holy Cross series with four points in seven games on the season after finding himself back in the lineup.

“He wasn't playing because he was struggling in the defensive end,” Schooley said. “He really put in a conscious effort in practice to be better defensively. He deserved to get the accolades he got because he was good in the defensive end and he played with energy.”

“Offense will take care of itself with David, but he played with more energy and he had the puck more as a result. He took everything we were trying to tell him and absorbed it and watched video and worked with the coaches and as a result he got to play more in the offensive zone.”

Senior forward Adam Brace also got Schooley's attention and earned Schooley's admiration even thought he registered just one point on the weekend (an assist).

“I thought he was outstanding,” Schooley said. “He played hard, finished checks and he was all over the place offensively.”

“Adam has quietly gone about becoming a complete hockey player. The offensive skills were always there. His all-around game has been outstanding of late. He was very good on the weekend.”

The Colonials will be looking for more of the same in this weekend's home-and-home series with Ohio State (7-4-3 overall).

The Buckeyes will host RMU on Friday night and then travel to the Island Sports Center on Saturday night fresh off a sweep at CCHA-rival Michigan State.

OSU is the first team listed in the “others receiving votes” category of this week's uscho.com Top 20.