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. – They've scored goals this season like nobody else, but it hasn't happened by accident.
The Robert Morris Colonials have put the time in honing their goal-scoring prowess.
And RMU's best-in-the-nation average of 4.58 goals per game suggests it's been time well spent.
"If you look across hockey goal scoring is an issue," head coach
Derek Schooley observed. "You win by scoring goals. So why not work on it just like you work on the power play, the defensive zone, different aspects of the game?
"We do a lot of work on goal scoring."
The Colonials have worked for the past couple of seasons in conjunction with the USA Hockey Advanced Development Model.
A typical Monday practice, for example, will involve the forwards on the ice for an hour, while the defensemen conduct off-ice work outs, and then the two units will trade places.
And the on-ice work consists of "station-based, individual-skill practices," Schooley said, rather than 5-on-5, scrimmage-type drills.
"A lot of your goal scoring is going to be in tight or when you get a step on a guy," Schooley said. "It's not just going to be shooting with no pressure."
So the Colonials work on situation-specific skills such as functioning in tight spaces, coming out of the corners with the puck and taking the puck to the net.
There are three goalies on the roster and there are three nets being guarded on the ice and the objective in the immediate vicinity of all three is to put the puck in the net.
The Colonials' ability to do so will next be tested this weekend at RIT (7:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, in Rochester, N.Y.).
Robert Morris is 7-2-3 overall and first in the Atlantic Hockey Conference at 6-1-3 with 15 points. RIT, which made it to the NCAA Tournament and to within a game of the Frozen Four last season, is 3-7-2 overall and tied for sixth in the conference (3-2-1, seven points).
In addition to leading the nation in goals per game, RMU is No. 1 in power play efficiency (15-for-45, 33.3 percent).
The Colonials boast three of the nation's top 13 scorers in senior forwards
Zac Lynch (9-12-21, 1.75 points per game, tied for third),
Greg Gibson (9-9-18, 1.50, tied for ninth) and
Brandon Denham (9-7-16, 1.33, tied for 13th).
Three more Colonials are tied for 35th nationally (senior forward
Matt Cope, 5-8-13, 1.08; junior forward
Daniel Leavens, 6-7-13, 1.08; and sophomore forward
Brady Ferguson, 7-6-13, 1.08).
Junior forward
David Friedmann, meanwhile, is the seventh RMU player among 68 nationally that are averaging at least a point per game (2-10-12, 1.00, tied for 50th).
Lynch leads the nation in short-handed goals (4) and surpassed the 50-goal plateau for his career (51) last weekend. Only
Cody Wydo (85) and Chris Margott 64) had done that previously in Colonials' history.
RMU's offensive development has been a byproduct of individual progression.
Leavens had seven goals last season and has already scored six this season, Cope had five last season and has five this season and Denham has already equaled last season's total of nine goals.
And there's a lot of hockey yet to be played.
"We have a lot of guys achieving at a high level offensively," Schooley said.
It's become contagious enough that junior forward
Ben Robillard scored a goal the first time he hit the ice this season, Nov. 21, at Army.
Robillard played again in last Saturday's 6-3 victory at Sacred Heart and then sat out last Sunday's 5-4 triumph. The Colonials will continue to ease him back into action after a sophomore season that was cut short due to hip surgery last January.
But they're looking forward to getting a player who contributed in a variety of roles in 2013-14 as a freshman back up to speed this season.
"We were extremely excited to get him back in the lineup, but we know that we have to manage his injury history," Schooley said. "We really believe Ben is going to contribute to our team."
When Robillard scored at Army, "I've never seen the bench so excited," Schooley continued. "It really lifted our team because of everything he's been through.
"To have him back was uplifting."
Even for a team that's well accustomed by now to scoring goals.
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