PITTSBURGH -- For the second Saturday in a row the No. 9 Robert Morris women's hockey team proved it has both a long attention span and a short memory.

With a familiar formula of stifling defense and great goaltending, plus a timely tally from top-line left wing Amber Rennie, the Colonials (11-3-2, 5-1-2) outlasted arch-rival Mercyhurst 2-1 at the RMU Island Sports Center for a series split that solidifies their lead in the College Hockey America (CHA) standings.

RMU holds a three-point edge over Syracuse, its next conference opponent and the next visitor to Colonials Arena, after wrapping up its final CHA contest before the holiday break.

"It's great to see that we're not getting down on ourselves. [Being] able to bounce back from a game where we were down two weekends in a row shows great character on our team," said Rennie.

Her center, Brittany Howard, cut through the left wing circle and left a perfect drop pass for the junior forward, who took advantage of a screen by wristing a shot past Kennedy Blair for her tenth goal and second game-winner of the season with 6:07 left in regulation.

Senior defender Leah Carey, playing in her 100th game as a collegian, picked up the secondary assist.

"We just had to get our shots through, and we had to start shooting more. You're not going to score if you don't shoot, and that's our gameplan in games like that," Rennie explained. "We know, when we get the puck, we have to get our heads up, we've got to communicate with each other. So we're just talking to each other, simplifying and getting pucks on net."

Offense did not come easily for either team, but Robert Morris still managed to widen its third-period goal margin to 20, which leads the NCAA. In CHA play it has outscored opponents 14-2 in the final frame.

The Lakers (4-10-2, 3-2-1) pulled Blair for the last 1:28 in search of an equalizer, only to see the Colonials effectively insulate her counterpart, Elijah Milne-Price. The senior stopped 27 shots, just one shy of matching her season best, for her conference-leading tenth victory of the year.

Robert Morris has earned its last three home wins over Mercyhurst by the same score.

"They play real tight defensively, and we had to work and fight through a lot of tough plays. We did a nice job of slowing things down man-on-man. When you get down to tough games like this, a lot of them are just like this," said head coach Paul Colontino, his team now unbeaten in five of its last six meetings with his alma mater. "There's not a whole lot of ice out there."

The open patch on which Howard found Rennie helped the former finish with multiple points in a game for the fourth time over a span of three consecutive series on home ice. Howard, on pace for back-to-back CHA scoring titles, now has 89 career apples, which tie her for the most of all active players nationally.

She fed fellow assistant captain Katherine Murphy while future goal-scorer Maggie Knott was in the box for body checking, and Murphy set up Kirsten Welsh for a thunderous one-timer from the left point and a 1-0 lead with 13:50 remaining in the first period. It was the team-leading third PPG and seventh power-play point for Welsh, who leads all active Colonials with 12 career points (5 G, 7 A) against Mercyhurst, and it was a breath of fresh air for that unit after Friday's struggles.

"They're mentally and physically tough, and that's what you want as a coaching staff," Colontino said of his team as a whole. "These guys are able to clean the slate on day two, and that's part of it. Yesterday, we had a tough time scoring, but today, right away, we found a way to come out and get a goal. It's a good feeling when you know your team's tough like that."

Murphy made her presence felt early and often in her own end as well. Stepping up in the absence of Maggie LaGue, missing due to an upper-body injury suffered late in the series opener, she blocked a game-high eight shots and aided a crucial penalty kill in the third period with 13 minutes left.

"She is a very gutsy two-way player that has a very high level of pride. In stature, she's kind of small, but the way she plays is just huge," said Colontino. "She's got a very good stick, she plays physical and she wins battles by just using her smarts and her skill.

"She goes up against bigger players but never has any excuses. Today she was huge for us. Obviously, when you lose Maggie [LaGue] for the night, you've got to find a way to pick up the slack, and she grabbed a ton of it. She was awesome tonight."

The 32 goals yielded by the Colonials defense remain the fewest in CHA.

Robert Morris concludes the 2017 portion of its 2017-18 schedule with a big non-conference test at No. 3/3 Colgate next Saturday, a standalone game set for 3:00 p.m.

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