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 Times and as a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review while having 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 2013-14 season, Prisuta will serve up weekly stories surrounding Colonial hockey as well as the latest notes and news around college hockey.
Prisuta on Pucks: Consistency as a CharacteristicÂ
They achieved that long-awaited first victory of the season but not the sweep of back-to-back Atlantic Hockey Association opponents they were seeking.
RMU 6, Canisius 1 last Friday night was a resounding positive in terms of the Colonials' ability to put together a compete performance.
But RIT 4, RMU 2 last Saturday night was a frustrating step back in the pursuit of maintaining that winning level of effort and execution.
And so Robert Morris will head to Air Force this Saturday (9:05 p.m.) still trying to establish consistency as a characteristic the Colonials can count on in the 2013-14 season.
Air Force (5-3-0 overall, 3-1-0 AHA) hasn't played since losing 8-2 on Nov. 2 at Mercyhurst. But the Falcons have a pair of wins over Penn State, a victory over Niagara and a victory over RIT already on their resume.
RMU is a combined 0-2-1 against PSU, Niagara and RIT.
Both RMU and Air Force have beaten Canisius.
Air Force is also 4-0-0 at home this season.
The Colonials will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo. still smarting from their inability to follow up a complete game against Canisius with a similar effort against RIT.
Still, there were some encouraging developments, as well, as RMU improved to 1-6-1 overall and emerged 1-1-1 in the AHA.
-Winger Cody Wydo scored three more goals in the Canisius game, in the process running his two-game total to seven and completing the first natural hat trick (three consecutive goals) in RMU's 10-season NCAA Division I history. Â Wydo heads to Air Force No. 2 in the nation in goals per game at 1.25 (10 in eight games), trailing only Ryan Haggerty of RPI (13 in 10 games, 1.30).
-The defensemen contributed at the offensive end. After accounting for just six points in RMU's first six games, blueliners produced seven points (one goal and six assists) against Canisius and RIT, led by Evan Moore's goal and assist and Andrew Blazek's two assists.
-Freshman winger Ben Robillard was deployed as a point man on a four-forwards power-play unit, an acknowledgement of trust in Robillard on the part of the coaching staff. The power play went just 2-for-13 on the weekend but employing Robillard in such a fashion is no less intriguing.
-Center David Friedmann got his first even-strength point of the season (a goal against RIT, his second of the campaign).
Penalty killing remains an issue heading to Air Force. The Colonials allowed three power-play goals in seven chances last weekend (two in three against RIT) and fell to No. 57 nationally (out of 59 ranked teams) in penalty killing at 67.5 percent (27 of 40).
The Colonials will try to do better in that department at Air Force, where they've gone 0-6-0 on their last six visits.
"Going out there we need to play a complete game to give ourselves an opportunity," head coach Derek Schooley said. "I want the team that played on Friday night (against Canisius) to show up.
"We will give ourselves a really good chance to be successful if that team shows up on a consistent basis."
