Pittsburgh, Pa. - Robert Morris University men's hockey continues its three-game road swing to open the season with a weekend series visiting Canisius College. The Colonials take on the Golden Griffins in a rematch of last season's Atlantic Hockey conference tournament semifinals and pits two of the league's top five preseason teams against each other.

GAME INFORMATION
Robert Morris at Canisius
HarborCenter, Buffalo, NY
Game Notes (.pdf)

Friday, October 13, 7:35pm
Live Stats  |  Live Audio (7:25pm)  |  Live Video ($) 

Saturday, October 14, 7:35pm
Live Stats  |  Live Audio (7:25pm)  |  Live Video ($) 

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2016-17 ROBERT MORRIS SUMMARY
OFFENSE
Goals per game: 3.24
Points per game: 8.79
DEFENSE
Goals against per game: 2.50 
Blocks per game: 13.26
SPECIAL TEAMS
Power Play: 22.3%
Penalty Kill: 84.5%

KEY RETURNERS
Forward, Brady Ferguson (24-34-58)
Forward, Alex Tonge (20-24-44)
Defenseman, Eric Israel (8-22-30) 54 blocks
Goalie, Francis Marotte .931 sv%, 2.08 GAA

NOTABLE LOSSES
Forward, Daniel Leavens (14-35-49)
Defenseman, Rob Mann (3-8-11) 83 blocks

ATLANTIC HOCKEY LEADERS
Robert Morris has the top 2 returning scorers in forwards Brady Ferguson. Eric Israel was the highest scoring defenseman in the AHC with 30 points & .79 points per game. Goaltender Francis Marotte is the AHC's returning leader in save percentage & goals against average.

LAST TIME OUT
Special teams was the theme in a season opening 4-3 overtime loss at Niagara. The Colonials scored all three goals with a man advantage, two on the power play from Brady Ferguson and an extra-attacker goal by Alex Tonge that sent the game to overtime. Timmy Moore added a pair of assists. Francis Marotte made 25 saves in goal. Michael Louria fired 10 shots in his RMU debut.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
CANISIUS GOLDEN GRIFFINS
Trevor Large is in his 1st season as head coach of the Griffins after three years as an assistant. Large is the seventh head coach in program history, and the fourth at the Division I level.

Canisius welcomes back 24 letterwinners from last season's squad that posted a 21-11-7 overall record and an 18-4-6 mark in league play to claim the program's first AHC regular season title and advance to the semifinals of the league's postseason tournament for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
 
The Griffs return the fourth highest goal total in the NCAA this season, as 105 of the team's 107 goals scored last season were tallied by a player on the 2017-18 roster.
 
Senior captain Ryan Schmelzer is back following a 2016-17 campaign that saw him earn All-AHC Second Team and AHC Top Defensive Forward accolades. Schmelzer (10g, 17a) was tied with All-AHC Third Team selection junior Dylan McLaughlin (11g, 16a) for the team scoring lead during league play while pacing the squad in plus/minus (+16) and posting .510 faceoff winning percentage.
 
All-AHC Second Team and Co-Best Defenseman of the Year junior Cameron Heath is back after leading Canisius blueliners in goals (7) and points (18) while ranking second among Griffs defensemen in assists (11). He was part of a Canisius defense that ranked in the top 10 nationally in penalty kill (87.2/3rd), scoring defense (2.18/5th) and goals against (85/6th).



LEADER-A-COLA
Brady Ferguson is the NCAA's active career scoring leader. After posting the fifth-highest scoring season in NCAA men's hockey with 58 points, Ferguson is the lone returner out of that Top 5 group. Ferguson had 3 points on 2 goals and an assist in the season opener.

NCAA Men's Hockey Active Career Points Leaders:
Brady Ferguson, Robert Morris – 121
Landon Smith, Quinnipiac – 98
Dylan Sikura, Northeastern – 97
Jake Evans, Notre Dame – 97
Jordan Gross, Notre Dame – 95

FERGY FIFTY
Brady Ferguson reached a milestone in the season opener at Niagara, scoring a pair to reach the 50 career goal mark. Ferguson is just the fifth player in RMU history to reach 50 career goals.

RMU All-Time Goals Leaders
1. Cody Wydo, 85 - 2011-15
2. Zac Lynch, 67 - 2012-16
3. Greg Gibson, 66 - 2012-16
4. Chris Margott, 64 - 2005-09
5. Brady Ferguson, 50 - 2014-2018
 

A post shared by Robert Morris Men's Hockey (@rmumhockey) on Oct 11, 2017 at 2:38pm PDT

I'M THE ROOKIE AND THE VET
Two of the new faces in the Colonials lineup aren't new to college hockey at all. Junior forward Michael Louria transferred from UMass Lowell following the 2015-16 season and sat out last year due to NCAA transfer rules. Louria was able to skate with RMU during that time and is ready to jump into action for 2017-18. The other transfer is defenseman Brett Beauvais who played the last three seasons at Bemidji State and comes to RMU as a graduate student.

YOU'RE KILLIN' ME SMALLS
After a rocky start last season, RMU's penalty kill was a force to be reckoned with, finishing the year ranked 13th in the NCAA at 84.5%. After allowing 10 power play goals in the first 4 games of the season, the Colonials allowed only 18 power play goals the rest of the season, ranked 5th nationally from week three on. RMU also tallied 10 shorthanded goals, tied for 2nd nationally.

POWER UP
RMU's power play was 7th in the nation & 1st in Atlantic Hockey a season ago (22.3 %). Robert Morris led in the league in power play goals with 43, tied for 4th in the NCAA and averaged 1.13 PPG per game. RMU's 43 PPG accounted for 35% of the team's goals.

FRANKY SAY RELAX
Francis Marotte brings his calm, cool and collected personality back between the pipes for his sophomore campaign. Atlantic Hockey was loaded with several of the nation's most talented tendies in 2016-17 but Marotte is the sole returner of that bunch. The Quebec native finished 4th in the NCAA in save percentage (.931) and 8th in goals against average (2.08). 

ONE-TWO PUNCH
Alex Tonge (20-24-44) & Brady Ferguson (24-34-58) are the top two returning scorers in Atlantic Hockey, and two of the top 10 in the NCAA. They combined for all three goals in RMU's season opening loss at Niagara.

NHL OPPORTUNITIES
A trio of Colonials were invited to NHL development camps in the summer of 2017. Forward Brady Ferguson lit up the final day of Pittsburgh Penguins camp with five goals in two end-of-camp three-on-three tournament games. Forward Alex Tonge took a trip to Manitoba for Winnipeg Jets camp. Goaltender Francis Marotte showed his stuff during the scrimmage to end Vancouver Canucks camp.

P.E.I'M THE ONLY ONE
There's one NCAA men's hockey player from Canadian province Prince Edward Island, and he's a Colonial. Brett Beauvais hails from Summerside, PEI and serves as the lone representative from PEI in college hockey. Summerside, PEI was the host site for Canada's Kraft Hockeyville game this year.

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