The following is a commentary from Mike Prisuta, longtime member of the WDVE Morning Show and college hockey aficionado.

No one touched the trophy that had been presented to the Robert Morris Colonials after the regular-season finale in recognition of their Atlantic Hockey Conference regular-season championship.

The closest anyone would get to it was to pose for a team picture with RMU's most recently acquired hardware.

Once that was accomplished last Saturday night following a 2-1 victory over Niagara, no player, coach or staff member was even willing to pick the thing up and carry it off the ice to wherever such things are stored.

It's the competitor's creed, the time-honored refusal to celebrate and acknowledge the achieving of one goal while there's still a bigger one waiting to be achieved.

For RMU, that bigger goal is returning to the NCAA Tournament.

And to get there again the Colonials are going to have to win the AHC postseason again, as they did a season ago.

Regular-season trophy or no regular-season trophy, that's what it was always going to take.

"It's obviously a big deal," head coach Derek Schooley admitted. "We won the marathon.

"Unfortunately, the marathon doesn't get us to the NCAA Tournament, which is our ultimate goal."

They should have skated that AHC trophy around the 84 Lumber Arena like the Stanley Cup, anyway.

Yes, the NCAA event is a much bigger deal.

And yes, the Colonials will be disappointed, distraught, devastated if they don't get there.

But whether they do or they don't, 2014-15 has been a banner year on Neville Island and must be remembered and embraced as such no matter how it ends.

As magical as the second half of last season was, it was half of a season.

The Colonials won two times in 16 tries and then caught fire and rode the wave all the way to the Xcel Energy Center.

This season, believe it or not, has been more impressive.

This season, the Colonials skated with targets on their backs as the conference's reigning NCAA representative, and under the weight not just of NCAA aspirations but also of NCAA expectations.

Their response was a wire-to-wire domination of Atlantic Hockey, a conference that's better at its top end than many in college hockey are probably ready to give it credit for being as a non-traditional, non-power conference.

And the conference championship that resulted is significant not just because Robert Morris had never won one of those before but also because of what it represents.

That would be continued and sustained excellence.

When all of this began some 12 years ago, it wasn't unprecedented for Schooley to be turned down by a recruit that would then offer a polite-but-dismissive "thank you, Mr. Morris."

Even six seasons ago, when assistant coach Matt Nicholson arrived, he'd field inquiries from coaches and recruits wondering if Robert Morris played Division I hockey.

Things have changed dramatically since then.

Two seasons ago, RMU was mathematically in consideration for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament until the weekend that ended with Selection Sunday.

Last season, Robert Morris was in the NCAA Tournament and earned a standing ovation from the fans of No. 1-seed Minnesota upon exiting.

And this season the Colonials are the No. 1 seed in their conference tournament and as a result are in the thick of contention for a second consecutive NCAA berth.

That's the kind of stuff an established program does and that's what the hockey operation at Robert Morris has become.

With three goaltenders, eight defensemen and 11 forwards scheduled to return next season and more talented recruits on the way, there's no reason to expect a drop off next season, no matter how this season eventually ends.

And that's a development worth celebrating no matter what happens between next weekend on Neville Island and April 9-11 in Boston.

The players, coaches and staff members who superstitiously refused to touch that AHC trophy will grasp as much eventually.

In the meantime, their fingerprints are all over the establishing of a legitimate, contending NCAA Division I hockey program.

There ought to be a trophy for that.

A Michigan State University graduate, Prisuta also previously served as a reporter for the Beaver County Times and as a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Follow Mike on Twitter at @DVEMike.