Pittsburgh, Pa. – Robert Morris men's hockey used a record-breaking sixth career shutout from Terry Shafer to backstop a 6-0 victory over Canisius Saturday night.

The senior goaltender tallied 34 saves en route to completing back to back shutout performances, becoming just to second Colonials goalie to accomplish that feat, the other being Eric Levine's consecutive shutouts against Penn State and Miami in the 2012 Three Rivers Classic.

Matt Cope put the Colonials up 1-0 8:11 into the first period. Cope's sixth of the season comes on the power play, tipping in a Tyson Wilson shot from the blue line off a feed from Alex Tonge. Shafer made several saves in the closing minutes of the first period while the Golden Griffins were on a 5-on-3 power play, holding the score at 1-0 at the end of the frame.
In the second, Greg Gibson notched his eleventh goal of the season on the power play 4:47 into the period. Zac Lynch scored 2:20 later, giving the Colonials a 3-0 lead with all three goals coming on the power play.



The first even-strength goal of the game came 1:41 into the third. Alex Bontje put the pass right on the stick of David Friedmann who put home his fourth goal of the season to make it 4-0 RMU. The nation's best power play continued to show its' dominance in later in the third period. Daniel Leavens scored his seventh goal of the season on the man advantage to put the Colonials in front 5-0. Twenty-six seconds later, Alex Dagnal scored his second goal of the season in just his third career game to cap the scoring at six. Wilson had an assist on Dagnal's goal to mark a career-high three-assist performance.

Canisius sent a slew of shots to the net in the final minutes of the game but Shafer and the Colonials defense stopped them all. Shafer is riding a stretch of 143:06 consecutive shutout minutes into his next game, currently the second longest stretch in Robert Morris history, to Levine's 147:32 encompassing the 2012 Three Rivers Classic. The Colonials outshot the Griffins 46-34.

The Colonials NCAA-leading power play percentage is now at a 36-percent conversion rate. Robert Morris has scored 22 power play goals, more than any team in the country. RMU's goals per game ratio is still number one in college hockey with a 4.53 average.

Robert Morris (9-3-3, 8-2-3 AHC) returns to the ice against Canisius (4-11-1, 4-6-1 AHC) in Buffalo Sunday night at 7:35pm at the HarborCenter for the final Atlantic Hockey conference game of 2015.

Three Stars
3. Zac Lynch (1 goal, 1 assist)
2. Tyson Wilson (3 assists)
1. Terry Shafer (34 saves, shutout)

Notes: Freshman forward Alex Tonge posted his second 2-assist game of the season and now has 7 assists total. Freshman defenseman Eric Israel tallied his fourth assist of the season while defenseman Alex Bontje notched his sixth. Senior forward David Friedmann and defenseman Tyson Wilson each have a team-high 13 assists.