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: What They're Capable Of

When it had finally ended at 1:53 of overtime there was an unmistakable perspective in the air, one as easy to glean as the Island Sports Center scoreboard still proclaiming “Home 6, Visitors 5” was to appreciate.

After the mountain of bodies that had left the bench and buried OT-hero Colin South in one corner had un-piled, after the Pep Band had played the Alma Mater with the RMU players arranged in an attentive semi-circle in another corner, after the crowd had been saluted with raised sticks at center ice, and after a group of students that had been heckling Niagara goaltender Cody Campbell all night long had been individually fist-bumped through the glass in still another corner, the Colonials exhaled.

And then they looked ahead.

“I think we're legitimate this year,” sophomore winger Cody Wydo announced late Saturday night, “a legitimate contender to make it all the way to the (NCAA) Tournament, to the Frozen Four.”

There's a lot of work yet to be done between here and there.

But that doesn't make Colonials 6, No. 15 Niagara 5 any less majestic.

The Colonials had dropped the opener of last weekend's home-and-home series, 4-3, on Friday night at Niagara, a contest that saw them rally from a 3-1 deficit only to surrender the tie-breaking goal at 19:07 of the third period.

That loss extended RMU's winless streak against the Purple Eagles to eight frustrating games (0-6-2).

But on Saturday night Robert Morris took the ice with the mindset that it wasn't going to be denied.

“We've been so close,” head coach Derek Schooley said. “It was good for our confidence to realize, 'Hey, we can get it done.'”

The job got done on Saturday night despite the hemorrhaging of a short-handed goal on a misplay by senior goalie Eric Levine a mere 5:15 into the first period.

The Colonials battled back and took a 3-2 lead into the third but lost that, in part, because of a retaliation penalty taken by normally-reliable senior defenseman Tyler Hinds at 19:32 of the second.

They eventually fell behind 4-3, but answered with a short-handed goal from Wydo less than a minute later.

They eventually led 5-4, but surrendered that advantage on a power-play/extra-attacker goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation, a goal the Colonials disputed as having been kicked in but one they ultimately had to swallow.

Hinds, a team leader and one of RMU's best players all season, was temporarily benched in the third for his lack of discipline late in the second.

Freshmen Zac Lynch and Matt Cope scored goals amid the tumult, and the all-freshman line of Greg Gibson between Cope and Brandon Denham was sent out to take a defensive-zone face-off with RMU desperately trying to protect its second third-period lead.

“None of us are freshmen anymore,” Schooley said.

Levine somehow keeping the puck out of the net in the initial seconds of overtime also contributed to the ultimate happy ending of what will be remembered as a college hockey classic.

“Everyone came together,” Hinds said.      

The hard-earned split left Robert Morris at 16-12-2 overall and seventh in the Atlantic Hockey Association at 11-11-1 for 23 points with four regular-season games remaining (home-and-home series with Canisius and Mercyhurst).

The Colonials are just three points out of second place in the AHA.

But perhaps at least as significant is their growing resume and growing belief in their individual and collective potential.

Robert Morris improved to 3-2 against ranked teams this season with the win over then-No. 15, now-No. 16 Niagara.

The Colonials had split a series at then-No. 18 Quinnipiac (No. 1 last week and this week in the uscho.com Top 20) to open the season and had bested then-No. 5 Miami (No. 3 this week) in the championship game of the Three Rivers Classic in December.

“I think the whole league knows what we're capable of,” Hinds assessed.

Added Wydo: “We just have to keep competing like we did tonight.”