Robert Morris Colonials (2-4-0, 0-0-0 CHA) @ St. Lawrence Saints (1-2-1, 0-0-0 ECAC)
Friday, October 17, 2014 / Appleton Arena – Canton, N.Y.  / 3:30 PM
Saturday, October 18, 2014 / 84 Lumber Arena – Canton, N.Y. / 2:00 PM

Top Story – Robert Morris earned a split last weekend in the Steel City against Colgate. The Colonials dropped the first game, 6-3, before rebounding for a 2-1 victory in the rubber match. Katie Fergus tallied the game-winning, short-handed goal in the third period against the Raiders, almost eight months to the day that Rebecca Vint beat RIT with a short-handed tally last season. The six-goal output by Colgate in last Friday's contest is the most RMU has allowed since No. 7 Mercyhurst put up nine on Feb. 9, 2013. The Colonials have now won their last two Saturday games after going 11-4-0 on the weekend's first day last season.
 
Series History – The Colonials have played St. Lawrence six times in their history, compiling a record of 2-4-0 against the Saints. RMU dropped the first four games to SLU - two in 2008 and two in 2009 - but rebounded to sweep the Saints last season on Jan. 4-5, 2014 at 84 Lumber Arena. This weekend's series between the Colonials and SLU will mark the first time that neither team is ranked in one of their meetings. RMU held the No. 10 ranking in both the USCHO and USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine polls during the two teams' last series, while the Saints were slotted in the bottom half of the Top 10 in both 2008 and 2009.


 
Scouting St. Lawrence – St. Lawrence enters this series receiving votes in both the USCHO and USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine rankings, despite holding an overall record of 1-2-1. The Saints opened up the 2014-15 campaign with a victory over defending national champion Clarkson, then picked up a tie at home against No. 3 Boston College last weekend. Sophomore forward Brooke Webster (3-0-3) and senior defenseman Amanda Boulier (1-3-4) have been the offensive catalysts thus far for SLU, leading the team in goals and points, respectively. Senior goaltender Carmen MacDonald has played every game between the pipes, compiling a .937 save percentage and 2.22 goals against average.
 
Last Time Out – Robert Morris continued its hot-and-cold start to the season, splitting a home series with Colgate this past weekend.
 
The Colonials dropped the opening contest to the Raiders, 6-3.
 
After Colgate nabbed goals in the opening minute of the first and second periods, RMU cut the Raider lead to one with the second tally in as many games from Rikki Meilleur.
 
The Raiders responded with three more goals in the second frame, the second and third tallies sandwiched between Maddie Collias' first of the season.
 
Katherine Murphy pulled the Colonials within two once more with a power-play tally, but Colgate sealed the game with 14 seconds left.
 
Jessica Dodds made 21 saves in the loss.
 
Continuing with a theme from last season, RMU played a much more complete game on Saturday afternoon, earning a 2-1 victory.
 
Katelyn Scott opened up the scoring on a first-period redirection in front of the crease. The Raiders would knot things up at one with a power-play tally in the second frame.
 
Katie Fergus played hero in the third-period, scoring on a penalty kill for the eventual game-winner.
 
Courtney Vinet made a career-high 37 saves on the afternoon, with 29 of those stops coming in the final 40 minutes of the game.
 
Know Your Enemy – In the past three seasons, Robert Morris has only played St. Lawrence twice - both of those games coming last season.
 
Rebecca Vint and Brittany Howard each registered three points against the Saints in that January 2014 series. Vint tallied goals in both games and added an assist, while Howard dished out three helpers.
 
Current players who also tallied a point in that series are Katie Fergus (1 goal), Ashley Vesci (1 assist), and Rikki Meilleur (1 assist).
 
Jessica Dodds held strong between the pipes in both of those contests, stopping 60 of 62 shots. The All-CHA First Team netminder blanked SLU in the second game of that series with 30 saves.
 
The Week's Best – In a weekend full of strong goaltending performances around College Hockey America (CHA), it was Colonials netminder Courtney Vinet who stood out the most amongst her peers.
 
Vinet was named CHA Goaltender of the Week after making a career-high 37 saves in RMU's 2-1 victory over Colgate this past Saturday. 29 of her 37 stops came in the final 40 minutes of the contest.
 
This is the third CHA Goaltender of the Week award of Vinet's career and her fourth weekly honor from the conference. The senior netminder shared the award on Nov. 4, 2013 after a shutout at Penn State, and was honored as a freshman for both Goaltender and Rookie of the Week following a 31-save blanking of Lindenwood on Nov. 13, 2011.
 
Winning Short-Handed – Katie Fergus accomplished a rare feat this past Saturday against Colgate, as her short-handed goal was the decider in the Colonials' 2-1 victory over the Raiders.
 
Prior to that, RMU had won on a short-handed goal only four times in its history, with just two of those tallies coming in the final 20 minutes.
 
Rebecca Vint did it twice last season. Her program-record 23rd goal of the season was the difference in the Colonials' 4-0 win over Penn State on Feb. 22, 2014. She also tallied one of the three third-period, man-down winners in a Feb. 14, 2014 game at RIT.
 
Sara O'Malley's short-handed game-winner was similar to Vint's most recent one. She opened up the scoring in an 8-0 victory over Sacred Heart on Nov. 3, 2007.
 
Kathryn Traynor's man-down tally came in the third period on Feb. 12, 2006 at Niagara, but it was fired into an empty net on a six-on-four penalty kill. It proved to be the decider, however, as the Purple Eagles scored 16 seconds later to set the final at 4-3.
 
Rookie Contributors – This past weekend, Katherine Murphy became the second Colonial freshman to score a goal in 2014-15, lighting the lamp on a third-period power-play opportunity.
 
Murphy's tally came a weekend after Jessica Gazzola scored the first goal of her career at Maine.
 
Two rookies were also on the board at this point last season. Brittany Howard and Maeve Garvey each had two goals, and ending up pacing their classmates with 17 and eight, respectively.
 
Along with Howard and Garvey, Mackenzie Johnston (3 goals) and Rikki Meilleur (1 goal) made it so four of the six RMU rookie skaters last season had lit the lamp at least once.
 
Networking with the Colonials – Fans can follow the Colonials on Twitter @RMUWHockey to get updates on the team throughout the season. The account has the 15th most followers among NCAA Division I women's hockey teams at 1,171.

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