College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest.

A split with No. 20 Bowling Green for openers added up to a productive start for Robert Morris, but that doesn't mean there weren't some valuable lessons learned.

One, in particular.

"The one thing it showed us is we have the ability to play with anybody on any given night," head coach Derek Schooley assessed. "It also showed us if we don't play as hard as possible we have the ability to get beat by anyone on any given night."

The season opened with a 3-2 victory last Friday night on Neville Island, during which the Colonials skated and competed with the Falcons throughout.

Robert Morris killed all five Bowling Green power-play opportunities, including a five-minute major, and changed the game with consecutive power-play goals in the second period that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage.

Goaltender Francis Marotte came up with a handful of saves that were as timely as they were spectacular.

The retrievals were quick, the breakouts were crisp, and the competitiveness and energy were what they needed to be throughout. The Colonials played their game, even after losing first-line center Grant Hebert to an ejection for charging.

But much of that changed in the rematch, a 6-0 loss Sunday night at Bowling Green.

The Colonials dressed seven freshmen each night, including one on each of the three defensive pairs.

But the reversal of fortune was as much a reminder for the veterans as it was an eye-opening introduction for the freshmen.

"It's hard to win in college hockey," Schooley said. "It's certainly hard to sweep a team. It was their home opener. I'm sure they were a little irritated with the result on Friday. They were more focused and more determined than we were.

"It was night and day from Friday night. We need to be better than that."

The reminder couldn't have been more timely given this weekend's upcoming visit to Colonials Arena by Army.

If you take a night off against Army, relatively speaking, you're asking for trouble.

"Army is always hard to play against and always brings a high compete level," Schooley said. "They're a tough team to play against.

"We have to be ready to have a physical contest. We're going to have to be a tough team to play against, like we were on Friday night (against Bowling Green)."

The Colonials were as hard to play against as they needed to be in their opener, from the opening drop of the puck to a final sequence of regulation that featured the likes of forwards Alex Tonge, Michael Coyne and Luke Lynch, and defensemen Sean Giles and Alex Robert, doggedly defending Marotte's net and protecting RMU's one-goal advantage.

The idea at the outset of this week was to emphasize the need for that type of effort and determination whenever a puck drops.

"We set the standard, set the bar on Friday," Schooley said. "We took a step back on Sunday. "We gotta find that consistency every day."