ahc quarterfinals preview atlantic hockey

Men's Hockey 3/10/2016 8:39:00 PM

Colonials Open Postseason Play Hosting Bentley

Robert Morris is the top seed in the Atlantic Hockey Tournament

Pittsburgh, Pa. - Robert Morris University men's hockey opens postseason play as the top seed in the Atlantic Hockey conference tournament, hosting the eight-seed Bentley Falcons in a best-of-three quarterfinal series.

ROBERT MORRIS COLONIALS (21-9-4) | BENTLEY FALCONS (13-18-6)
RMU Game Notes (.pdf) Bentley Game Notes (.pdf)
Friday, March 11 7:05pm | Live Stats | Radio: Online only | Live Video ($)
Saturday, March 12 7:05pm | Live Stats | Radio: ESPN Pittsburgh | Live Video ($)
Sunday, March 13 7:05pm | Live Stats | Radio: ESPN Pittsburgh | Live Video ($)
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ROBERT MORRIS BASICS
Robert Morris won the Atlantic Hockey regular season and is the top seed for the conference tournament.

Robert Morris is receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll and has been in the poll each week of the season, ranked #20 twice, on Nov. 2 and Feb. 29

Robert Morris is the third highest goal-scoring team in the NCAA, netting 139 goals, 4.09 goals per game, and fourth in points (366) behind #5 St. Cloud State, #9 Michigan, #5 Boston College. The Colonials goal margin is 48, 1.41 goals per game better than opponents

The Colonials are tied for 6th most wins in NCAA hockey with 21, tied for 11th in win percentage .676

The Colonials have three nominees for the Hobey Baker Award: Brandon Denham, Greg Gibson and Zac Lynch.

Zac Lynch & Tyson Wilson are among 10 finalists from men's ice hockey for the Senior CLASS Award.

David Friedmann was one of 18 nominees for the Hockey Humanitarian Award.

SCOUTING BENTLEY
Max French and Andrew Gladiuk were both named to the All-Conference team. French was named to the first team and Gladiuk second team.

Defenseman Tanner Jago was named to the All-Rookie team. Jago had a power play goal in game three vs. SHU and has 16 points this season (2g, 14a).

French (44), Gladiuk (42) and Kyle Schmidt (42) have all surpassed 40 points this season. Bentley is one of just two teams in the nation to have three, 40 point scorers, with Michigan being the other.

The Falcons average 2.65 goals per game and their defense allows 3.00 goals per game, both 6th in AHC.

French is 3rd nationally in points per game at 1.52. Schmidt and Gladiuk are T-27th nationally at 1.14.

Gladiuk's 71 career goals are 2nd most among active players, trailing only Harvard's Jimmy Vesey (77). His 150 career points are T-2nd most among active players with RMU's Zac Lynch.

Defenseman Matt Bloomquist is an offensive threat, with 80 career points.

Gladiuk has 7 points in 8 career games vs. RMU, scoring 2 goals and 5 assists. Bloomquist has 5 points, all on assists. French has 2 goals & an assist in 6 games vs. RMU. No other Falcons have more than one point vs. RMU.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the first meeting between Robert Morris and Bentley in the postseason. The all-time series is even at 7-7-2. Bentley is 3-6-1 all-time at 84 Lumber Arena. The Colonials swept the two-game series this season in Pittsburgh with 5-0 and 5-1 wins.

LAST TIME OUT
ROBERT MORRIS
The Colonials are coming off a first round bye following a sweep of Canisius to wrap up the regular season and clinch the Atlantic Hockey regular season title. Greg Gibson scored five goals & an assist including a hat trick in the finale. Zac Lynch had a 6-point weekend while David Friedmann went for four. Terry Shafer picked up his 40th career win, good for second all-time at RMU. Freshman defenseman Eric Israel scored his first career goal in Friday's win. Brandon Denham notched a three-point weekend.

BENTLEY
Bentley advanced by defeating SHU in three games. The Falcons took the first game 5-4 behind a hat trick by senior Derek Bacon and two goals from Max French. SHU won game two in overtime, 2-1. Bentley then responded with a big effort in game three with a 4-1 victory. Sophomore Kyle Schmidt had two goals, and senior captain Andrew Gladiuk had four assists. Gabe Antoni backstopped each game making 26, 37 and 27 saves.

ALL-CONFERENCE
Six Colonials seniors were named Atlantic Hockey all-conference selections. Zac Lynch & Greg Gibson are first team honorees, Tyson WIlson awarded second team honors, Brandon Denham, Chase Golightly and Terry Shafer named to the third team. Read more: Six Colonials Named All-Conference

ALL THEY DO IS WIN
The class of 2016 is the winningest class in RMU history, currently with 84 victories, surpassing the class of 2015's record of 80.

ROAD TO REVOLUTION
Your all-access pass to Colonials hockey is here. Watch every episode of "Road to Revolution" by clicking here. The latest episode brings you to emotion and atmosphere of Senior Night, celebrating the Colonials nine seniors and Robert Morris' Atlantic Hockey regular season title.

TAG TEAM
Zac Lynch and Greg Gibson have been a dynamic duo at the top of the Atlantic Hockey and NCAA scoring charts. The linemates have combined for 50 goals and a total of 96 points this season. Lynch has scored in 31 of 34 games and Gibson in 27 of 34 games, with the Colonials going 1-4-2 when Gibson does not record a point and winless (0-3) when Lynch doesn't score.

SPINNING RECORDS
Zac Lynch tied Cody Wydo '15 for the all-time Robert Morris scoring record with 150 career points in the regular season finale vs. Canisius. Lynch's 150th point came on an assist to Greg Gibson's 65th career goal, making Gibson second all-time in goals.

FANTASTIC FOUR
Four of the top ten scorers in Atlantic Hockey are Colonials: Lynch (1st, 49 points), Gibson (2nd, 47 points), Denham (9th, 38 points) David Friedmann is 10th (33 points). In addition, Matt Cope is 17th (28 points) and Brady Ferguson is 19th (27 points).

FIRST THINGS FIRST
The Colonials have 44 first period goals in 34 games, 2nd in college hockey behind Providence & tied with Boston College. 15 of those came on the power play. RMU is sixth in the nation in second period goals with 46 including 16 on the power play. The Colonials have scored 49 third period goals, 4th most in the NCAA, 13 on the power play. Robert Morris has 37 goals in the first five minutes of a period, second in NCAA. 16 of those 36 "first 5:00" goals have been to start the 2nd period, 15 have been power play goals, #1 in the nation.

POWER UP
RMU's power play is third in the nation, converting 28.8% of chances. Robert Morris held the banner as the number one power play from November 21st through February 6. Harvard's is tops at 29.9%, St. Cloud State is second at 29.5%.

SQUAD (POWER PLAY) GOALS
The Colonials have more power play goals than any other team (44, 153 attempts) and lead the nation with 126 power play points. 11 players have power play goals; Brandon Denham and Greg Gibson have 8 (tied for 2nd in NCAA), Brady Ferguson and Dan Leavens each have 6, Zac Lynch and Matt Cope have 4, David Friedmann has 3, Chase Golightly 2, Eric Israel, Spencer Dorowicz & Tyson Wilson each have one. Denham and Friedmann each have 16 power play points.

SAVING THE DAY
Terry Shafer is now 3rd all-time in career saves with 2,313. Shafer surpassed Brooks Ostergard '11 for 2nd most wins with his 40th career victory vs. Canisius on February 27. Shafer is three wins from taking over first place all-time (Christian Boucher '07, 42 wins). Shafer has four shutouts so far this season and holds the RMU record for career shutouts with 8.

WALL OF DEFENSE
The Colonials are second in the nation in blocked shots with 563 blocks and blocks per game (17.33). RMU has registered 20 or more blocks in 11 of its' 32 games and the team is 8-1-2 when blocking 20 or more shots. Rob Mann is 7th in the nation in blocks with 79 blocks in 32 games played, 6th in blocks per game (2.47). Mann is 1st in the conference in blocks & in b/pg, with three others Colonials also in the top ten in Atlantic Hockey: Eric Israel (3rd with 57 blocks, 4th in b/pg with 1.97), Tyson Wilson (9th with 55 blocks, 8th in b/pg with 1.67) Chase Golightly (8th with 56 blocks, 9th in b/pg with 1.65)

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMEN
Wilson and Golightly are the second and third-highest scoring defensemen in the conference. Wilson has 24 points (2G, 22A) and Golightly has 22 points (4G, 18A). Wilson is the 10th highest scoring defenseman nationally, Golightly 15th. Wilson is tied for 3rd in NCAA in assists by a defenseman. Wilson & Golightly are 7th & 8th in scoring among free agent defenseman.

GO SHORTY
Zac Lynch leads the nation with 7 shorthanded goals this season. In the month of November, Lynch put together a streak of four consecutive games with SHG, an NCAA record. Lynch leads all active college hockey players with 13 career shorthanded goals, an RMU record. RMU is 3rd in the nation in SHG this season with 9 (7 Lynch, 2 Gibson).

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Players Mentioned

#23 Cody Wydo: F; 5' 11"; Senior; Sr.

#28 Matt Cope: F; 6' 2"; Senior; Sr.

#44 Brandon Denham: F; 6' 4"; Senior; Sr.

#15 Spencer Dorowicz: F; 5' 11"; Sophomore; So.

#12 Brady Ferguson: F; 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.

#9 David Friedmann: F; 5' 11"; Senior; Sr.

#16 Greg Gibson: F; 5' 10"; Senior; Sr.

#4 Chase Golightly: D; 5' 10"; Senior; Sr.

#27 Zac Lynch: F; 6' 0"; Senior; Sr.

#6 Rob Mann: D; 6' 4"; Junior; Jr.

#1 Terry Shafer: G; 6' 2"; Senior; Sr.

#10 Tyson Wilson: D; 6' 1"; Redshirt Senior; R-Sr.

Players Mentioned

#23 Cody Wydo
: 5' 11"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#28 Matt Cope
: 6' 2"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#44 Brandon Denham
: 6' 4"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#15 Spencer Dorowicz
: 5' 11"; Sophomore; So.
: F

#12 Brady Ferguson
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; So.
: F

#9 David Friedmann
: 5' 11"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#16 Greg Gibson
: 5' 10"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#4 Chase Golightly
: 5' 10"; Senior; Sr.
: D

#27 Zac Lynch
: 6' 0"; Senior; Sr.
: F

#6 Rob Mann
: 6' 4"; Junior; Jr.
: D

#1 Terry Shafer
: 6' 2"; Senior; Sr.
: G

#10 Tyson Wilson
: 6' 1"; Redshirt Senior; R-Sr.
: D