ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- In its return to conference play, the No. 10
Robert Morris women's hockey team loudly announced its presence in the College Hockey America (CHA) title race to any who might have forgotten by trouncing RIT, 12-1, at the Gene Polisseni Center Friday afternoon.
The Colonials (13-6-3, 7-2-2) scored five times in each of the first two periods en route to matching their Oct. 20, 2017 demolition of Brown for the largest margin of victory ever recorded under head coach
Paul Colontino. It was a liberating win, in particular, for the RMU power play, which sparked this spanking with two goals in the first frame.
"We were passing and playing our positions a little better," noted power-play threat and career defensive scoring leader
Kirsten Welsh said. "The nice thing is, everyone plays with each other, and we work off each other. We're most successful when we work as a unit, and we have more than one unit that can play together. We can mix and match, and they step up to the plate."
Welsh and
Emily Curlett got the special teams party started, and
Amber Rennie and
Sarah Lecavalier would each tally 5-on-4 in the second, marking just the sixth time in team history the Colonials scored four goals in a single game on the PP. Their last such outburst came at home against Providence Jan. 2, 2016.
"I think what was most impressive was, coming off Ohio State, all the hours we put in this week, and how focused we were in the game," Welsh said of her Robert Morris mates, who never looked back after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the game's first eight minutes. "We were the ones who initiated. Everyone had their minds together."
Curlett would finish with four points (G, 3 A), thanks in part to a
Natalie Marcuzzi deflection off a faceoff play that opened the floodgates just 1:35 into the contest, and Welsh's earlier snipe withstood official review, giving the latter her second career multi-goal game.
"It felt pretty good," Welsh smiled, "but it wouldn't have happened without the team working hard. Murph always knows how to feed me at my one-timer spot."
That assist, the first of two by
Katherine Murphy in her first game back from injury, made the alternate captain the second defender in RMU history to reach 50 career helpers. The first,
Maggie LaGue, kept her all-time lead for the time being with her 52nd career assist and would later add a goal of her own.
Offense from defense has been a recurring theme of the 2017-18 season for the Colonials, who have amassed 71 points (19 G, 52 A) from their blue-liners, including 12 on Friday. The RMU defense is the highest-scoring unit in CHA and ranked sixth in the nation entering Friday.
The Colonials, meanwhile, got plenty of offense from their natural attackers, as they rung up the second-most goals in a game in program history and the most since dropping a dozen on Sacred Heart Feb. 7, 2009.
Brittany Howard matched her career single-game high with five points, becoming just the fifth different RMU player to record five assists in a game. The 2017 Dapper Dan Sportswoman of the Year now has a conference-best 35 points (18 G, 17 A) in her quest for back-to-back CHA scoring crowns, and she set up a pretty pair of goals by
Jaycee Gebhard to bookend the blowout.
Gebhard also added her 18th assist of her sophomore season, which leads CHA as well, and she became the eighth Colonials player to register 70 career points.
Jessica Gazzola, who picked up two apples, now has a CHA-high 11 against conference opponents.
In addition,
Lexi Templeman temporarily retook the CHA rookie scoring lead--and from Curlett, to boot--with a three-point day (G, 2 A), and
Sarah Quaranta, with her first two assists and points of the season, enjoyed her first multiple-point game since her own freshman year.
Back at the back end,
Elijah Milne-Price earned her conference-leading 12th win by making 21 saves. She is only the sixth netminder in school history to post 400 for her career.
Robert Morris, which remains just one point off the CHA lead, will try to keep pace at RIT (4-18-3, 1-10-0) Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
"It was nice to go out and prove what we can do if we put our minds to it, that we can beat a team 12-1 anytime if we wanted to," Welsh said. "But we have to expect those guys to come out raring to go tomorrow. We can't take them lightly."
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