Erie, Pa. - Robert Morris University men's hockey earns four points in the Atlantic Hockey standings, wrapping up the first half of the season with a 5-3 victory to sweep I-79 rival Mercyhurst.

The Colonials used five different goal-scorers to score wrap up a ten goal weekend, with Timmy Moore, Eric Israel, Luke Lynch, Alex Tonge and Michael Louria each recording a goal.

In a low-shooting game, sophomore goaltender Francis Marotte stood tall in goal, making 22 saves for his seventh win of the season.

The Lakers struck first with a goal by Jonathan Charbonneau to hand the Colonials a 1-0 deficit heading into the second period.

Mercyhurst's Wes Baker checked freshman defenseman Nick Jenny from behind and was assessed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, 7:34 into the second. The Colonials power play went to work. Tonge fed a pass through the slot to Moore on the backside and he lifted the puck past Lakers netminder Colin DeAugustine. For Moore, the goal marked his third of the season and second of the weekend. Senior forward Brady Ferguson also earned an assist on the goal.

On the same power play, 2:06 later, Tonge passed the puck off the wall to Israel, who took a shot that was stopped and fired home his own rebound to give the Colonials a 2-1 lead. The goal marked the second of the season for Israel, both coming on the power play, and was his eleventh point of the year.

With the Colonials on the penalty kill 8:20 into the third period, Lynch intercepted a Mercyhurst pass in the Lakers zone and skated the length of the ice in a two-on-one with Israel, burying the puck for his second shorthanded goal of the weekend, to put the Colonials up 3-1.

Just 32 seconds later, the Lakers cashed in on their power play to pull back within one on Charbonneau's second of the game. Mercyhurst's Jason Lammon pulled Marotte's stick out of his hand and threw it across the ice, just before the Lakers goal. Officials reviewed the play and deemed it a good goal, without goaltender interference.

Less than four minutes later, Ferguson took the puck from the defensive zone and raced up the ice with Tonge and Moore, giving the puck to Moore, who fed the puck to Tonge in front, lifting the puck past DeAugustine for the goal to give the Colonials a 4-2 lead with 7:11 to play.

Mercyhurst was awarded a power play with 5:07 to play and Bryan Sienerth scored with 3:36 left in the game to once again pull the Lakers within one.

Robert Morris had the last laugh striking back with a power play goal of its own with 2:27 to play. Ferguson passed the puck from up high down to Tonge below the goal line
and Tonge sent it cross crease to Louria who buried the shot from the left circle for his ninth goal and 22^nd point of the season, putting a stamp on RMU's 5-3 victory.

Ferguson's three assists gave him a seven-point weekend, propelling him to the Colonials lead in scoring with 23 points on 10 goals and 13 assists, ranked second in Atlantic Hockey in scoring behind Canisius' Dylan McLaughlin. Louria is third in Atlantic Hockey with 22 points (9G, 13A) and Lynch is sixth with 19 (11G, 8A).

Robert Morris takes a 7-11-1 overall record and 7-7-1 record in Atlantic Hockey into the semester break. The Colonials are back in action on December 29-30 at PPG Paints Arena for the Three Rivers Classic. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com


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