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: Taking Their Coach's Breath Away
STORRS, Conn. _ Derek Schooley was noticeably winded upon arriving at the radio broadcast location for his postgame interview following Game 1 against UConn.
The Robert Morris Colonials had taken their coach's breath away.
"I really, really, really liked that team tonight," Schooley said.
That's one "really" for each goal scored in RMU's 3-0 triumph at the Freitas Ice Forum.
There wasn't much not to like as Robert Morris improved to 16-17-2 overall and 3-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Association postseason.
Connecticut fell to 18-13-4 / 0-1.
The headliner was once again freshman goaltender Dalton Izyk, who played a game from start to finish for the first time this season and emerged with his second-career victory and with his first-career shutout.
But as had been the case when Izyk initially replaced sophomore Terry Shafer early in the second period in Game 3 of RMU's opening-round series against Army, the Colonials were relentless in support of their goaltender.
They hung tough through the first period and early in the second when Connecticut pressed the advantage and repeatedly threatened in the RMU end (Schooley even felt compelled to call his timeout with 15:00 remaining in the second after one particularly grinding Huskies shift).
They stayed patient and gradually found ways to get pucks on the UConn net and freshman goaltender Robby Nichols, and eventually broke through when junior forward Jeff Jones pounced on a rebound in the crease and buried it 46 seconds before the second-period intermission.
And they gradually closed the game out by passionately killing penalties (4-for-4 on the night, including the survival of 5:31 of man-down shifts in the third period) and by opportunistically building upon their lead. Junior winger Cody Wydo's program-record 26th goal of the season made it 2-0 at 6:53 of the third (Wydo's 99th career point). And sophomore forward Brandon Denham's 11th goal provided the exclamation point at 18:18.
All of that happened as Izyk was in the process of stopping all 33 shots launched in his direction.
He has yet to allow a goal in almost five complete postseason periods despite making just five regular-season appearances.
"He was really good tonight," Schooley said. "He made some big saves early. He got into the flow.
"He looked confident and he looked poised."
Game 2 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Saturday.
The Colonials' first AHA quarterfinal win in three such best-of-three series over the last three seasons has advanced them to within one win of the AHA Final Four, March 21-22 in Rochester, N.Y.
If a Game 3 is necessary against Connecticut, it would be played on Sunday night.
If the Colonials can build on their Game 1 effort, the only question might involve whether Schooley is once again rendered breathless if not speechless.
RMU was that resilient for openers against UConn.
"We stuck with it the whole game," Schooley said. "Our penalty kill was good when it counted. We capitalized on chances. We outworked them down low.
"We were the better hockey team tonight."
