Men's Hockey 3/17/2016 4:00:00 PM

Robert Morris Faces Army West Point in Semifinals

Colonials set for 5:05pm puck drop in Atlantic Hockey semifinals

Rochester, N.Y. - Robert Morris University men's hockey opens play in Rochester with a semifinal game against Army West Point.

Friday, March 18 5:05pm
Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, N.Y.
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ROBERT MORRIS QUICK HITS
• 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 won the Atlantic Hockey regular season and is the top seed for the conference tournament.
• Robert Morris is the third highest goal-scoring team in the NCAA, netting 152 goals, 4.11 goals per game, and fourth in points (401) behind #4 St. Cloud State, #7 Michigan, #5 Boston College. The Colonials goal margin is +53, 1.43 goals per game better than opponents
• The Colonials are tied for 6th most wins in NCAA hockey with 23, tied for 11th in win percentage .676
• Zac Lynch is a top ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.
• 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.
• RMU sports 9 seniors who have each made an NCAA Tournament appearance and won the Atlantic Hockey regular season & conference tournament titles.
• The Colonials captain is redshirt-senior defenseman Tyson Wilson. Alternate captains are defenseman Evan Moore and forward Brandon Denham.
• RMU was picked to win Atlantic Hockey in preseason coaches & media polls; Zac Lynch a preseason all-star.

SCOUTING THE BLACK KNIGHTS
• Army is playing in its first Atlantic Hockey semifinal since 2008 after sweeping its quarterfinal series vs. Holy Cross, the Black Knights first quarterfinal appearance since 2009.
• "I feel we have been a team of destiny," said head coach Brian Riley following the series win at Holy Cross. "The hockey gods seem to be smiling on us."
• Junior netminder Parker Gahagen was named to the Atlantic Hockey Second Team after posting a 2.23 goals against average and a .931 save percentage in league play. He finished the second half of Atlantic Hockey play with an 1.67 GAA and a .950 save percentage. In the final 14 games of the regular season, he was 5-4-5. He gave up two or less goals in each of those games.
• The Black Knights defense allowed just 1.9 goals per game in their last 15 games heading into the AHC quarterfinals and are 5-5-5 in those games. Special teams are also a part of it with an 88 percent success rate on the penalty kill, well above the season average of 80 percent.
• The Black Knights have played in a program record 14 overtime games this season after AIC took game two of the first round series by a 3-2 score. Army is 1-4-9 in overtime this season.

SERIES HISTORY
The Colonials hold a 9-4-4 lead in the all-time series with Army including a 2-1-1 record this season. In the four meetings this season RMU recorded a 4-4 tie and 5-2 win at Army and a 3-1 loss & 3-0 win at home. Army & RMU have met once in the postseason, in the first round in 2014. Robert Morris won that series 2-1 and went on to win the league title advancing to the team's first NCAA tournament.

LAST TIME OUT
ROBERT MORRIS
The Colonials won a three game series with Bentley, dropping game one 4-3 and taking games two and three by 4-1 and 6-3 scores. Zac Lynch scored the first goal of the weekend to break the RMU program scoring record. Sophomores Brady Ferguson & Timmy Moore broke through with multi-point game two performances. David Friedmann scored two goals and two assists in the series clinching game and Dan Leavens scored two as well. Terry Shafer was in net for the series.

ARMY WEST POINT
After reaching the conference quarterfinals for the first time since 2009, 6-seed Army advances to the semifinals with a series sweep of 3-seed Holy Cross. Parker Gahagen recorded a 31-save shutout in the opening game as Conor Andrle, Josh Roberts and Trevor Fidler scored goals. Nick Ryan and Taylor Maruya scored the goals in the 2-1 win to close out the series.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Zac Lynch was named the Atlantic Hockey Player of the Year at the conference tournament reception on Thursday night in Rochester.

LYNCH FOR HOBEY
Senior forward Zac Lynch is one of the top ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award. Read more by clicking here. Lynch is the second Robert Morris hockey player to be a top ten finalist for the Hobey Baker, following Cody Wydo '15 who was in the top ten last season. Lynch's fellow seniors Greg Gibson and Brandon Denham were also nominees this year. Lynch is the first Pittsburgh area native to be named a top ten finalist since Plum's R.J. Umberger, now with the Philadelphia Flyers, was a finalist for Ohio State in 2003. Vote on Facebook once per day to make your voice heard in the Hobey Baker Award Fan Vote!

ALL THEY DO IS WIN
The class of 2016 is the winningest class in RMU history with 86 victories, surpassing the class of 2015's record of 80.

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 52 goals and a total of 101 points. Lynch has scored in 34 of 37 games and Gibson in 28 of 37, with the Colonials going 2-5-2 when Gibson does not record a point and winless (0-3) when Lynch doesn't score. Gibson is 3 goals shy of tying Cody Wydo for the single-season goals record (31 goals).

BROKEN RECORD
Zac Lynch is the new all-time scoring leader in Robert Morris history, surpassing 2015 graduate Cody Wydo's 150 career points in the first game of the quarterfinal series with Bentley on March 11. Lynch's 151st point came on a shorthanded goal, a career record he also owns at RMU (14). Lynch is also 2 points shy of tying Wydo for the single-season scoring record (54 points).

HATS OFF
Robert Morris is one of four teams in NCAA hockey to collect three hat tricks this season. Greg Gibson had a pair, one at Niagara on October 24 and vs. Canisius on February 27. Daniel Leavens scored the other on February 19 at Air Force Academy. The other three schools with a hat trick of hat tricks are #7 Michigan, #8 UMass Lowell and Bentley.

CENTURY CLUB
Zac Lynch opened the season with 101 career points. This season, Greg Gibson became the 7th Colonial to join the 100-point club and currently has 115 points, fifth all-time in scoring at RMU. David Friedmann is one point away with 99 while Brandon Denham has 97.

FUTURE PROS
Many members of the Colonials have future plans to play pro hockey, but four of the current members have been in NHL Development Camps. Senior forward Brandon Denham spent the summer of 2015 in camp with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets, and previously attended Calgary Flames camp. Junior forward Daniel Leavens also camped with the Jets. Senior forward David Friedmann has been to New Jersey Devils and LA Kings camps, while senior defenseman Tyson Wilson has been in camp with the Washington Capitals.

FANTASTIC FOUR
Four of the top ten scorers in Atlantic Hockey are Colonials: Lynch (1st, 52 points), Gibson (2nd, 49 points), Denham (8th, 41 points) David Friedmann is 10th (38 points). In addition, Brady Ferguson is 12th (33 points), Matt Cope is 17th (30 points) and Dan Leavens is 18th (29 points).

FIRST THINGS FIRST
The Colonials have 46 first period goals in 37 games, 2nd in college hockey behind Boston College & tied with Providence. RMU is 2nd in the nation in second period goals with 55 including 17 on the power play. RMU is third in third period goals with 51. Robert Morris has 38 goals in the first five minutes of a period, second in NCAA. 16 of those 38 "first 5:00" goals have been in the 2nd period, 15 have been power play goals, #1 in the nation.

POWER UP
RMU's power play is fourth in the nation, converting 27.7% of chances. Robert Morris held the banner as the number one power play from November 21st through February 6. Michigan and St. Cloud State are tops at 29.5%.

SQUAD (POWER PLAY) GOALS
The Colonials have more power play goals than any other team (46, 166 attempts) and lead the nation with 132 power play points. 11 players have power play goals; Brandon Denham and Greg Gibson have 8 (tied for 3rd in NCAA), Brady Ferguson and Dan Leavens each have 6, Zac Lynch has 5, Matt Cope has 4, David Friedmann and Chase Golightly have 3, Eric Israel, Spencer Dorowicz & Tyson Wilson each have one. Friedmann has 17 power play points with a team-high 14 power play assists.

SAVING THE DAY
Terry Shafer recorded career win No. 42 Sunday vs. Bentley and is tied with Christian Boucher '07 for first all-time in wins at Robert Morris. Shafer is 3rd all-time in career saves with 2,390. Shafer has four shutouts so far this season and holds the RMU record for career shutouts with 8. Shafer is tied for the single-season shutouts record with 4 and is one shy of tying Eric Levine '13 for most wins in a single-season (19).

FACEOFF FORCE
David Friedmann is the team's leader in faceoff percentage at .578 (199 FW-145 FL). Friedmann is 15th in the nation among players taking 300+ faceoffs and third in the conference under the same parameters.

WALL OF DEFENSE
RMU is 1st in the nation in blocked shots with 650 blocks, 2nd in blocks per game (17.57). Rob Mann is 5th in the nation and leads Atlantic Hockey with 88 blocks, 2.51 b/pg in 35 games played. Four other Colonials are in the top 15 in the conference: Eric Israel (4th with 63 blocks, 4th in b/pg 1.97), Tyson Wilson (5th with 62 blocks, 8th in b/pg 1.72) Chase Golightly (8th with 57 blocks, 10th in b/pg 1.54), Evan Moore (15th with 52 blocks, 12th in b/pg 1.49)

OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMEN
Wilson & Golightly are the second and fourth-highest scoring defensemen in the conference. Wilson has 27 points with a league-best 25 assists and Golightly has 23 points (5G, 18A). Wilson is the 9th highest scoring defenseman nationally, Golightly 17th. Wilson is 2nd in NCAA in assists by a defenseman and 4th in plus/minus (+26, RMU single-season record). Wilson & Golightly are 6th & 9th in scoring among free agent defenseman.

GO SHORTY
Zac Lynch leads the nation with 8 shorthanded goals this season, no other player has more than four. 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 14 career shorthanded goals, an RMU record. RMU is tied for 2nd in the nation in SHG this season with 10 (8 Lynch, 2 Gibson).

THAT'S A PLUS
Seven of the top ten career plus/minus leaders in RMU history are members of the current team. 1st Lynch +63, 3rd Golightly +45, 4th Gibson +43, 5th Wilson +40, 6th Cope +37, 7th Alex Bontje and Evan Moore +33.

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Players Mentioned

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

#2 Alex Bontje: D; 6' 1"; Sophomore; So.

#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.

#26 Daniel Leavens: F; 6' 2"; Junior; Jr.

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

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

Players Mentioned

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

#2 Alex Bontje
: 6' 1"; Sophomore; So.
: D

#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

#26 Daniel Leavens
: 6' 2"; Junior; Jr.
: F

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

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