College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:Moon Township, Pa. – The opponent for openers is relatively unrecognizable and yet all too familiar, as is the challenge facing Robert Morris at the outset of the 2015-16 season.
"We need to play with energy," head coach
Derek Schooley maintained. "Our compete level has to be as high as possible."
Anything else against Air Force traditionally hasn't been enough to get the job done.
This year's Falcons' roster includes 12 freshmen. Gone are recognizable names such as forward Cole Gunner, who netted 21 goals and produced 46 points last season as a senior, and goaltender Chris Truehl, who played 81.2 percent of the minutes in net last season as a sophomore and then decided the military and academic obligations at Air Force were no longer for him and transferred.
Head coach Frank Serratore's team transitioned well enough to earn a split with No. 5 Denver last weekend, winning 5-4 in overtime last Friday at home and losing 3-1 last Saturday in Denver.
That makes seven times in the last nine seasons that Air Force has beaten a Top 5 team.
"They blocked a ton of shots," Schooley said of the Falcons. "They didn't give (Denver) a lot of quality scoring chances around their net."
Faceoff between the Colonials and Falcons is set for 7:05 p.m. Friday at the RMU Island Sports Center. The two teams will get together again on Saturday night on Neville Island.
The Falcons haven't been to the NCAA Tournament in the last three seasons, but they qualified five times in a six-season stretch from 2006-07 through 2011-12. In 2008-09, Air Force not only made the tourney but advanced to the second round with a 2-0 victory over Michigan.
Robert Morris has taken significant strides toward joining Air Force as a premier program in Atlantic Hockey over the last two seasons. The Colonials made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20114 and won the conference's regular-season championship for the first time last season.
The Colonials tuned up for this season with a 5-3 exhibition win over Guelph last Sunday at the Island Sports Center.
Guelph had lost to Notre Dame, 7-5, so the competition was representative.
Schooley is hoping some of the nuances of the RMU performance were not.
"We have to do some things better in the neutral zone," he said. "We were a little loose with the puck at the offensive blueline, especially in situations where they outnumbered us. We turned a few pucks over.
"We need to make sure our guys learned from it. We need to do a better job with puck management in neutral ice.''
Especially against Air Force, a team that can traditionally be counted upon to play with the discipline that's normally a staple of a military academy.
"They're playing their system very well, playing with structure," Schooley said. "They're well-coached. They do things the right way."
The Colonials are ready to do the same.
"Our guys are very excited to play," Schooley said. "Since we have an older team we're really good with where we're at right now.
"It gets your attention. You know it's ready-to-go time."
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