WENTZVILLE, Mo. -- What must have felt like ten years was, in fact, just ten games, but the No. 10 Robert Morris women's hockey team galvanized and powered through to another College Hockey America (CHA) win Saturday afternoon before its hard-earned homecoming.

"I think we're all ready to have it over with," captain Amanda Pantaleo said with a laugh, but also with a twinge of sincerity after a rugged 4-2 victory over Lindenwood at the Lindenwood Ice Arena.

The senior left winger scored her third goal of the season and second within the past 24 hours to break a 2-2 tie with 8:08 to play in the second period to give the Colonials (7-1-2, 2-0-2) a lead they would not relinquish in extending their unbeaten streak to 4-0-2 and improving to 5-0-1 in their last six away games against the Lions (2-7-1, 2-4-0).

Furthermore, RMU bested its 6-2-2 mark in a run of ten consecutive road contests Oct. 26-Dec. 1, 2012, playing two standalone games, followed by four series, at the time. Its success in these five season-opening series, all out of town, is unmatched in the Paul Colontino era.

"There's a lot more that goes into it. There are travel schedules, and everybody's missing classes. It's a bit exhausting," Pantaleo added, "but everybody's really fired up--especially for the newcomers, because they haven't had a home game. We didn't use it as an excuse. We battled through the whole time, and that's something to be proud of."

Tempers flared in the middle frame, as Robert Morris saw its 2-0 advantage disappear on an even-strength goal by Cierra Paisley and a power-play tally by talented rookie Hannah Alt just over two minutes apart. Pantaleo, however, restored order for the visitors on a subsequent penalty kill, when she took a puck off the boards, skated around a Lindenwood backchecker and took a shot from above the left circle that changed direction on goaltender Jolene deBruyn.

"I tried to shoot it off the rush, but it tipped off their player. I got a little lucky," Pantaleo said. "Our coaches always say you've got to throw pucks on net, because you never know."

It was the fourth shorthanded goal of the season by the Colonials, and the first for the Toronto Jr. Aeros product from Markham, Ontario since Feb. 18, 2017, which also happened to be the only one RMU got in all of 2016-17.

Lexi Templeman, who, along with Jessica Gazzola, has been clicking with Pantaleo as of late, had the lone assist. That trio has now combined for 17 points (7 G, 10 A) through these first five series.

"Once you get one, it starts rolling. They're never negative, always working hard. It just took a couple games to get used to playing with one another," Pantaleo said.

Meanwhile, there's an interesting scoring race unfolding on the defensive side of the rink, as assistant captain Katherine Murphy and Maggie LaGue try to one-up each other on the RMU career assists leaderboard.

Murphy aided an empty-netter by Jaycee Gebhard with less than a minute to go for career helper No. 46, and LaGue set up blue line partner Emily Curlett's long-range snap shot that opened the scoring for her 45th apple at Robert Morris.

Reigning CHA Player of the Week Kirsten Welsh, who, last night, became the program's all-time leader in points by a defenseman (57) with a late power-play goal, sent a puck to CHA Player of the Month Brittany Howard that the latter turned into a beautiful bad-angle goal 30 seconds into the middle period for her conference-leading tenth of the year.

"It's nice not to just have to rely on our forwards," Pantaleo said. "We can trust our defense to cover all aspects of the ice."

The defense, indeed, played its usual, selfless game, blocking 16 shots to finish the weekend with 30 of those, and going 5-for-6 on the PK. CHA Goalie of the Week/Month Elijah Milne-Price, with that support, picked up her sixth win of the season, while Morgan Schauer, up front, made her NCAA debut on a line with former Pittsburgh Penguins Elite teammate Anjelica Diffendal.

Now the Colonials finally get a home series, which commences next Friday, against conference rival RIT at the RMU Island Sports Center. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Colonials Arena, with the follow-up contest getting underway next Saturday at 3:05.

"It's been a second home," Pantaleo said. "It'll just be nice to play in front of family and friends."

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