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: Guidance and Reassurance

One goal in two games didn't get the job done either night at Air Force, but in the wake of the resulting two-game losing streak the Colonials are dragging into this weekend head coach Derek Schooley is determined to remain positive.

And he's doing what's necessary to ensure his players do the same.

“We're patting backs.” Schooley said of the approach he and his assistants are taking in advance of games against Sacred Heart on Friday and Saturday (7:05 both nights) at the Island Sports Center. 

Schooley has even resorted to Twitter for inspiration along those lines, and come up with some applicable smart-phone philosophy.

“The only way to get out of a hole is to stop digging,” was one of the messages gleaned in such a fashion.

It's not as if the Colonials are reeling at 12-9-2 overall.

But at 7-8-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Association they've dipped under .500 for the first time in conference play as a result of losing 2-0 and 4-1 last weekend at Air Force, the first time all season Robert Morris has sustained back-to-back losses.

The problem ever since RMU's seven-game unbeaten streak was snapped in early January has been finding ways to consistently generate offense.

The Colonials were shutout on Jan. 4 at Army then rebounded to score four goals the following night.

They got two on Jan. 11 against Connecticut and then four in the second game of the series.

They netted just one on Jan. 18 at American International then came back with five in the rematch.

The Colonials hadn't scored fewer than four goals in seven previous sets of back-to-back games against the same opponent prior to the one-goal weekend at Air Force.

Schooley suspects the roster being comprised in part of nine freshmen has something to do with the recent offensive lull.

“The grind of the year and having to play with that intensity is really getting to them,” he said. “Some of them are frustrated with not scoring. The line of (Matt) Cope (Greg) Gibson and (Brandon) Denham plays with a tremendous amount of energy and physicality and they get chances galore but they only have five goals between them. Zac Lynch plays with an edge but hasn't scored yet (no goals, five assists).”

“When you get through 20-plus games I think that starts to weigh on you mentally as well as physically. We're a frustrated hockey team, no doubt.”

The Colonials are also a team that's about to play five games in nine days, all at home.

The series against Sacred Heart (0-22-2 overall, 0-15-2 AHA) will be followed up by a hosting of Mercyhurst (12-10-1, 10-6-0) on Tuesday night, in advance of a series against RIT (8-11-5, 6-7-4).

RMU's 15 points are 10th in the AHA. And while the Colonials are just four points out of fourth place, there are five teams between RMU and Mercyhurst and Holy Cross (currently tied for fourth with 20 points) in the race to secure a top-four finish and a first-round bye in the AHA postseason.

That helps explain all the work put in this week between the ears.

“We've had a lot of individual meetings where we've grabbed guys one-on-one,” Schooley said. “I hung my shingle out to be a psychologist on Tuesday and grabbed a whole bunch of guys who have been playing well but not scoring, just to give them another little pat on the back and get them through this time.”

“When you get to the point where you're halfway through the games and you've had a lot of chances but you're still getting shut out then mentally that becomes a burden. You start to become frustrated. Guys start to think about the chances they've missed instead of the chances they're going to have in front of them.”

“We have to coach. We have to keep them positive and keep them going. As much as you want to be a dictator and a taskmaster at times, you have to be a positive-reinforcement guy.”

“That's not my way 80 percent of the time but that's the way I've gotta be right now. Instead of being authoritative, I have to be more of a friend right now. You can't keep making them run through the wall.”

Not if you want to avoid hitting it.