Men's Hockey | 2/18/2016 2:46:00 PM

College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:
 
Pittsburgh, Pa. – The message has been emphasized repeatedly, a recurring theme stressing the critical importance of absolutes at RMU, such as not taking anything for granted from week to week and continuing to work hard throughout every game.
 
But occasionally, the message has fallen upon deaf ears.
 
When it did so in what became a 3-1 loss to Army last Friday night at 84 Lumber Arena, head coach Derek Schooley decided to change not the message, but the method by which it was being delivered.
 
"That was addressed in about seven individual meetings," Schooley said.
 
The specifics of contention in this instance involved back-checking and going to the net, aspects of the operation the Colonials cleaned up nicely in what became a bounce-back, 3-0 shutout of Army last Saturday night.
 
"It was more about effort," Schooley continued. "I thought our effort level was not where it needs to be and that's abnormal for this group of guys.
 
"It wasn't our defense and it wasn't our fourth line. It was our top nine forwards. Those guys have been so good for us and most if not all were no-shows," in the first game against Army.
 
The players, for the most part, acknowledged as much during their individual interactions with the head coach, which took place on Saturday prior to the second game of the series.
 
"Not many people said that they played well," Schooley said. "It's hard when you have a group of guys that have played 138 games. They've heard everything. They've seen everything. They think they know it all. (Game 1 vs. Army) was proof that they don't."
 
Game 2 was proof of what the Colonials remain capable of when properly focused and executing according to the plan.
 
"It was 10 times better," Schooley said of RMU's individual and collective effort.
 
No one personified the transformation that occurred during the Army series better than senior center Greg Gibson, who started the scoring at 7:31 of the third period last Saturday night and ended it with an empty-net goal at 18:22 that traveled almost the entire length of the ice.
 
Gibson did much more than score his team-leading 21st and 22nd goals of the season.
 
The Colonials will continue to need more than goal-scoring from him.
 
"He's so skilled," Schooley said. "But if he doesn't play hard he's just an up-and-down, spin-away kind of guy. He did a lot of stopping and starting (in Game 2 against Army)."
 
Stopping, starting and otherwise doing it the hard way will be required when the Colonials visit Air Force this weekend (9 p.m., ET, Friday; 7 p.m., ET, Saturday).
 
First-place RMU (18-8-4 overall, 15-5-4, 34 points in Atlantic Hockey) has a three-point lead over second-place Air Force (15-10-5, 13-6-5, 31 points) and can clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a sweep.
 
To achieve it the Colonials must also continue to keep the emotion they rely so heavily upon under control.

Although a couple of post-whistle penalties were taken in the Army series, Robert Morris for the most part avoided succumbing to over-reacting when pushed, shoved, jabbed, chirped and otherwise engaged in physical and verbal exchanges after stoppages in play.
 
That's a tactic that's helped opponents get the better of RMU at times in recent seasons.
 
"A lot of interruptions, a lot of after-the-whistle stuff," Schooley assessed of the Army series. "I thought we were really good at sticking with the process. We played the game the right way. We didn't let anything derail us. We didn't have the energy sucked out of us by either the officials or the other team. 
 
"That's the way it is, the way teams are playing us, without getting into specifics about conversations I've had with the league and things like that. We have to be able to battle through stuff and keep our focus and think about what the ultimate goal is, and that's winning hockey games."
 
That should be easier to do, presumably, now that everyone has apparently finally gotten the message.

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