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 thePittsburgh 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: Back to Business

They posed with the Confluence Cup on the ice at the CONSOL Energy Center after besting then-No. 5 Miami, but the original trophy symbolic of superiority in the inaugural Three Rivers Classic was whisked away from the Robert Morris Colonials soon thereafter.

The replica version that will be awarded to the winning team each season currently has a temporary home in head coach Derek Schooley's office, along with the commemorative plate RMU received for winning the Nye Frontier Classic in 2007 in Anchorage, Alaska, and the plaque from the NCAA the Colonials earned for leading the nation in penalty-killing in 2011-12.

“We need to maybe look into getting a trophy case here somewhere,” Schooley offered.

First things first.

It's back to business this weekend for the newly-crowned 3RC champions, as the Colonials return to Atlantic Hockey Association action at Army (7:35 p.m. Friday, 7:05 p.m. Saturday).

The Friday night Army encounter will be broadcast to a national television audience on the CBS Sports Network.

“It's just more recognition that our program has done a good job,” Schooley said. “We were picked to be on a national TV game and now we have to have a good performance on national TV.”

“Some people may tune in to see us, we can't disappoint them.”

The Colonials didn't disappoint at the Three Rivers Classic Dec. 28-29, beating Penn State, 6-0, in the semifinals before outlasting then-No. 5 Miami, 1-0, in the championship game.

Goaltender Eric Levine stopped all 99 shots he faced in the two games on the way to winning Tournament MVP honors and freshman forward Brandon Denham's first career goal wound up toppling the RedHawks.

But the Colonials were solid as well as spectacular in the Classic.

“We did a real good job of limiting quality chances,” Schooley assessed. “Of the 51 shots (fired by Miami in the championship game) a lot were from the perimeter.”

 “We did a good job keeping people to the outside and forcing shots from bad angles. We back-checked hard, pushed people wide, protected the middle of the ice, and Eric was there to make the easy saves as well as the difficult saves.”

In the wake of all of that Levine's statistics are absolutely glittering.

The senior netminder improved to 8-2-2 on the season and stretched his personal unbeaten streak to eight consecutive games. He's 12th in the nation in goals-against average (1.81), second in save percentage (.954), tied for fourth in winning percentage (.750) and tied for fourth in shutouts (three).

Levine's four career shutouts are an all-time record at Robert Morris.

The two victories extended the Colonials' unbeaten streak to seven (5-0-2), second nationally behind Quinnipiac's 12-game run (11-0-1), and vaulted RMU back into the uscho.com Top 20 at No. 19 (the first time Robert Morris has made an appearance since the 2010-11 season).

RMU is No. 10 in the nation in scoring defense (2.13 goals-against per game), No. 14 in scoring margin (plus 0.80). No. 13 in penalty-killing (86.5 percent), tied for No. 10 in winning percentage (.667) and, most impressively, No. 11 in the PairWise rankings used to determine NCAA Tournament participation and seeding.

“I don't think we ever cracked the Top 20 before,” Schooley said of the PairWise notoriety.

That's a significant development this season.

But so is Robert Morris' 4-3-1 record, nine points and eighth-place standing (tied) in the AHA.

The Colonials have at least two games in hand on all seven of the teams ahead of them in the AHA standings, including Army (6-8-2 overall, 6-3-2, 14 points, AHA). But those games in hand will be of little value unless the Colonials continue winning.

“We've had a very good start to the season, something to build on,” Schooley said. “Now, it's about how we do on a daily basis against teams in our league.”

“We're not even close to being done. As nice as it was to win the (Three Rivers Classic) championship and do it in front of about 23,000 people (the two-night attendance was 22,460) and put college hockey on the map to start the year, you're judged on how you finish.”

The trophy case, in other words, can wait.