Springfield, Mass. – Robert Morris University men's hockey battled out of a 2-0 deficit to take a 5-3 win over American International and earn an important two points in the Atlantic Hockey standings, pulling in front of AIC for fifth place with 22 points.

After surrendering a pair of power play goals in a 40-second span eight minutes into the first period, the Colonials scored four goals to climb into the lead and eventually take the 5-3 victory.
 
Goaltender Andrew Pikul entered the game for Francis Marotte after the pair of goals on the 5-on-3 and 5-on-4 penalty kill. The senior from Cleveland, Ohio earned his third career win in the effort, making 9 saves on 10 shots in the final 51:18 of the game.

Junior forward Alex Tonge broke the goose egg off the scoreboard with his tenth goal of the season, with 1:58 left in the first period. Senior forward Brady Ferguson tossed the puck back to senior defenseman Elias Ghantous at the blue line and he flung a shot towards the goal that Tonge tapped in from the back door past AIC's Stefano Durante, cutting the Yellow Jackets lead in half.

Less than four minutes into the second period, a hit sent sophomore Daniel Mantenuto to the ice in an attempt by AIC to secure the puck. Defenseman Alex Robert kept it in for the Colonials and sent it around the boards to sophomore Luke Lynch who chipped it across the crease to Mantenuto who hopped up from the hit and buried the equalizer.

With the game knotted at 2-2 to start the third, it didn't take long for RMU to grab its first lead of the weekend. AIC looked to clear the puck on the Colonials power play but junior Micheal Louria intercepted the puck near the top of the circle, skated towards the net and ripped a shot from the slot over the shoulder of Durante to give Robert Morris a 3-2 lead, just 54 seconds into the third period.

Four minutes later, RMU added to its lead. Tonge passed the puck from the left-side goalline to the top of the right circle where Ferguson looked as if he was teeing up a one-timer. Ferguson, instead, passed to wide open senior classmate Timmy Moore on the back door for the easy tap-in. The puck skipped past Moore, who took the more challenging route to his 25th point of the season, picking up the puck from his knees and back-handing it in off an AIC defenseman to give the Colonials a two-goal lead.

AIC's Dominik Florian came back with a goal less than two minutes later to close the gap to one. RMU completed the comeback when Tonge iced the game with an empty net goal, his second goal of the game and 11th of the season, securing the 5-3 win.

"That was a good team win," said head coach Derek Schooley. "We played with huge guts, coming back after being down early."

"Our power play was good when we needed it in the third period," Schooley said. "Andrew Pikul was very solid in relief."

RMU's power play was indeed good in the third period, tallying three goals on the man-advantage, going 3-for-4 on the afternoon.

Pikul recorded his third career win and first of the season in his fifth appearance of the year.

The Colonials dominated shots on goal 36-16 and held a 37-34 advantage on faceoffs.

Tonge led the way in scoring with two goals and an assist and sits second in scoring for the Colonials with 29 points (11G-18A). Moore reached a career-high single-season mark with 26 points (8G-18A) while Hobey Baker candidate Ferguson dished three assists to bring his team-high point total to 36 on the season (12G-24A).

Ferguson officially took sole possession of RMU's all-time assists crown, leaving the game with a new high mark of 94 helpers. The senior from Carrollton, Texas also sits in second place all-time in scoring with 154 career points, two shy of matching all-time leading scorer Zac Lynch '16. Ferguson is the NCAA's active career scoring leader with 154 career points and is 4th in the NCAA in scoring this season entering Saturday evening's games.

Robert Morris (11-13-2, 10-8-2 AHC) continues its four-game road stretch along the East coast with a pair of day games once again next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 2nd and 3rd against Sacred Heart. The teams face off at 10:35 am on Friday morning and 2:05 pm on Saturday afternoon, with both games played at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the home of the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Tickets for those games are available online here or by calling the box office at 1-800-854-2196. Video and live stats will be available for those games and fans can follow the coverage on our social media as well.


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