PITTSBURGH -- Penalties -- and the power plays that result from them -- are natural pivot points in a hockey game.

That concept was no truer than Friday night at the RMU Island Sports Center, where the Robert Morris University men's hockey team used a pair of power-play goals and a key penalty kill to vault past No. 20 Bowling Green, 3-2, in the Colonials' season opener.

Senior winger Alex Tonge became the 11th Colonial to surpass 100 points in his career, jumping from 99 to 101 with a goal and an assist, while Nick Prkusic and Michael Louria also scored goals. Junior goalie Francis Marotte stopped 37 shots to begin his third season as No. 1 goalie in strong fashion.

Tonge's 38th NCAA goal was the game-winner, as he deposited a pass from junior center Daniel Mantenuto past lunging Bowling Green goalie Eric Dop with 8:24 left in the third. Mantenuto had just been stopped on a breakaway, but he gathered his own rebound and shoved it in front to Tonge.

"They left me wide open in the slot," said Tonge, who is now two points shy of RMU's all-time top 10 in scoring. "I was fortunate enough to get it to go in."

There was nothing fortunate about the Colonials' penalty kill, though, which went 5 for 5 against a Bowling Green power play that had scored four times in its first two games. RMU's fifth and final kill was especially challenging from a mental perspective, since defenseman Nolan Schaeffer went to the box for hooking immediately after the Falcons' Frédéric Létourneau banged in a rebound to tie the game, 2-2, with 10:45 left.

A big shot block from senior Kyle Horsman and a couple of clears later, Robert Morris was back to even strength and ready to pounce for the winning goal. Throw in a few more saves from Marotte and the Colonials had their first win against a ranked opponent since the 2016-17 season, ending a three-game losing streak in such games.

"I think we could go toe-to-toe with any team right now," Tonge said. "We're a good confident team that can score. Our 'D' played well and our goaltender played well. An all-around good game."

Although the Colonials were outshot 39-28 and out-attempted 66-46, they looked on level terms with a 2-0 Bowling Green squad right from the start. However, a nifty mid-air redirect by the Falcons' Cameron Wright opened the scoring 3:50 into the second.

Previous to that goal, RMU (1-0-0) had survived a major charging penalty issued to freshman center Grant Hebert late in the first, but the Colonials found themselves down anyway. Not that the situation seemed to perturb the home bench.

"I liked our first period," head coach Derek Schooley said. "I thought we were really good (at the start) and then we had to kill that penalty. I thought they seized the momentum. We survived. Our goalie was good. Our penalty kill was bending but it never broke."

The game turned a second time when another five-minute major was called, this time against Bowling Green's Lukas Craggs for a check to the head of freshman forward Kip Hoffmann, who was driving the net on an RMU power play. (Hoffmann returned to the game after getting helped off the ice by athletic trainer Tim Goldinger.)

The Colonials didn't cash in on the ensuing two-man advantage, but they buried a pair of 5-on-4 goals in a 15-second span to put a lively Colonials Arena on upset alert.

First, sophomore Prkusic gathered a loose puck in the slot and whipped a shot under Dop with 6:19 left in the second. Prkusic, who had five goals as a freshman, scored twice in the Colonials' exhibition win over Brock last Sunday, foreshadowing Friday's tying tally.

Moments later, with Bowling Green on its heels, Tonge and redshirt senior Louria worked a quick 2-on-1 after a brisk zone entry, with Tonge putting a pass on Louria's blade for the point-blank finish -- and RMU's first lead.

"We won the special teams battle," Schooley said. "When you do that, you put yourself in a good position to win the game. ... We talk about freshmen, but it's the older guys who got the job done. The older guys were the guys who produced. It's teaching the younger guys by watching the older guys do it."

From there, it was up to the Colonials to lock down the feisty Falcons, who led NCAA Division I in penalty minutes last season. That tenacious style made the night difficult for Marotte and the the defenders in front of him, three of which were freshmen: Schaeffer, Aidan Girduckis and Brendon Michaelian.

"(Bowling Green) comes at you hard and they throw everything on net," Marotte said. "(The young defensemen) made my job easier a lot of times. They cleared the puck when they needed to. Obviously there's going to be some mistakes, but they'll learn from them when we go up there. I thought they played real well. That's encouraging for sure."

It was a junior who made the biggest defensive play of the night, though. Alex Robert got his body in front of a Létourneau chance in the final minute, an opportunity created when a Bowling Green dump-in struck a glass partition and caromed into the low slot. Marotte whiffed on the clear attempt, leaving a half-open net.

"It took a bounce off a stanchion I think and it bounced over my stick," said Marotte with a sheepish smile. "We got a big block. Alex Robert did a great job on that. I went and saw him and thanked him for that."

So did Marotte's teammates, who saw fit to give Robert the novelty colonial-era wig that'll go to the player of the game after victories this year.

The Colonials' challenging opening weekend isn't done, as they'll travel to Bowling Green, Ohio, for a Sunday evening battle with a Falcons squad sure to be motivated by Friday's result.

In the end, Robert Morris did what it's done so often in its first 14 years of NCAA men's hockey. After a one-year upset drought, the Colonials are now 6-4-1 against ranked foes dating back three years, including victories at Michigan and Ohio State. Another successful Midwest rink invasion would make a good opening week into a great one.

"I think we set the bar now," Schooley said. "It does no good if we don't follow up with it, continue into Sunday and next week in conference play. Now that's the bar they're held to. ... For the most part, from top to bottom, it was a good first game."