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: What's on Fire Now?
The Colonials' determined efforts to put the 2013 calendar year behind them and start anew in January included the players putting their failures and regrets from the team's 2-12-2 start down on paper and the collective burning of those written admissions.
And now, all of a sudden, it's Robert Morris that's on fire.
The 2-1, 2-1 sweep RMU crafted last weekend at Sacred Heart was as reassuring as it was much-needed.
The result allows the Colonials to visit Connecticut for a two-game series that opens on Thursday with an unblemished 2014 record of 2-0-0.
"Our effort, our energy and our passion was outstanding," head coach Derek Schooley said of the Sacred Heart series.
That was never more evident than when Robert Morris was killing penalties.
RMU entered the series with a worst-in-the-nation 66.2 percent success rate on the penalty kill but went 10-for-10 in the two games against Sacred Heart.
The Colonials are now No. 58 in penalty killing (57-for-81, 70.4 percent), ahead of last-place Alabama-Huntsville (67.6) and hot on the heels of No. 57 Nebraska-Omaha (71.2) in the NCAA's weekly statistical rankings.
For RMU, it's a start.
"Our penalty kill was outstanding," Schooley assessed, "We had to kill a penalty with 3:50 left in the third period of a 1-1 game (in the second game of the series, which the Colonials would eventually win 2-1 in OT).
"We did everything we needed to do."
The team-building and team-bonding experiences the Colonials embraced in response to their 0-for-2 showing at the Three Rivers Classic in late December continued after the Sacred Heart series, partly out of necessity.
Coming off Saturday-Sunday games at Sacred Heart, located in Fairfield, Conn., and with two games against UConn on Thursday and Friday pending in Storrs, Conn., Robert Morris remained on the road.
The team took in the game-day skates of the Dallas Stars and New York Islanders on Monday morning, spent a few hours in New York City and then returned to Long Island for Monday night's Stars-Islanders game.
Practices in preparation for UConn were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at Quinnipiac, located in Hamden, Conn.
"It's really good for our guys to see the NHL players and what they do in pre-game preparation, the extra work they do after they get off the ice," Schooley said. "I emailed (Islanders General Manager) Garth Snow, a former college guy (Snow was a goaltender at the University of Maine), and they were very accommodating."
The Colonials will take on UConn at 4-12-2 overall and at 4-5-2 in the Atlantic Hockey Association. Their two wins at Sacred Heart elevated them into eighth place in the AHA with 10 points, three behind Air Force and Canisius, which are tied for fourth.
Connecticut is 9-6-2 overall and 7-3-1 (third) in the AHA (15 points).
UConn is also the team that eliminated Robert Morris from the second round of the AHA playoffs last season via 4-1 and 4-3 wins in Storrs, but for Robert Morris that series is ancient history.
"Not even in our thought process," Schooley said. "The Sacred Heart series is already in the rearview mirror. Everything we're doing is leading forward. We want to focus on what's ahead.
"We can't worry about the standings. We just have to continue doing our job. We're 2-0-0 in our new season, that's what we're looking at. We're not looking at the big picture. We're looking at doing everything on a daily basis that will allow us to play the way we want to play."
That's working pretty well all of a sudden.
