PITTSBURGH -- On a night that defied conventional description, the Robert Morris University men's hockey team doubled this season's previous best offensive output, but dropped a eye-popping 11-6 affair to No. 8 Penn State on Saturday at the RMU Island Sports Center.

With a rowdy crowd of 1,138 stuffing Colonials Arena to the gills, RMU matched the explosive Nittany Lions through a period and a half, but four Penn State goals in a span of six minutes helped turn a 4-4 tie into a third consecutive loss for RMU.

"It's hard to get my head around it," head coach Derek Schooley said. 

The back end of this Keystone State home-and-home started in exhilarating fashion, with the Colonials (3-6-1) and Lions (8-1-0) exchanging punches and neither side jumping more than one goal ahead until Penn State's Kris Myllari and Nate Sucese scored a pair of four-on-four goals 19 seconds apart. That burst kickstarted a five-goal second period for the Lions.

"That second period seemed like it was the longest period ever," Schooley added. "We just need to be better from the blue line in."

Senior winger Alex Tonge had a banner individual night, recording his first career NCAA hat trick as part of a four-point performance that boosted him into the No. 8 spot on RMU's all-time scoring list. His first two goals were scored on the power play, the second of which tied the score at 4 at 1:53 of the second. All three were buried from the right side of the ice, giving Tonge four goals on the weekend and a team-best six on the season.

For one of the top 10 active career scorers in Division I, it was a welcome return to form.

"It's nice to get a hat trick, but at the end of the day, we lost 11-6 so it doesn't really mean that much right now." Tonge said, before considering the boost in confidence the big night could give him.

"It definitely took a step in the right direction," he said. "Hopefully it continues over the next couple of weeks."
 
The Robert Morris power play went 3 for 8, including a late conversion by freshman Aidan Spellacy, his first college goal. Grant Hebert chipped in a pair of assists in the third period, making it a three-point weekend for the first-year center. Luke Lynch scored an early short-handed goal and added two primary assists on both of Tonge's power-play strikes. Nick Prkusic ended a five-game drought with a goal, and freshman defenseman Brendon Michaelian earned an assist, his first point at this level.

In short, an attack that was averaging two goals per game got on track in a big way. RMU's previous single-game high this season was three goals, achieved in each of its three wins.

But in the aftermath of the most prolific night ever for an RMU opponent, any positive talk was met with a caveat.

"I don't know how to explain it really," Tonge said. "We gave up a lot of goals. It's an eye-opener. On the other side, we buried six goals, and at the end of it, it should be a win. I don't know how to fathom it."

Tonge was involved right from the start, giving the third-largest crowd in venue history reason to get off their seats and cheer. Shortly after Penn State's Liam Folkes streaked in for a rush goal at 1:04 of the first, RMU's Alex Robert was called for a five-minute checking-from-behind major, putting the visitors in the driver's seat. But Tonge stole the puck at the blue line and led a two-on-one with Lynch that resulted in the Colonials' first shorty of the season and a tie game.

Midway through the first, with RMU on its first power play, Tonge ripped a cross-rink pass from Lynch past Penn State goalie Peyton Jones, igniting the new Colonial Crazies student section adjacent to the visitors' bench.

"We moved the puck well," Tonge said of the power play, which saw him on the half-wall again. "We started off well. One-touch passes. Nothing too crazy. Just simple plays and that got the job done."

A two-goal Lions burst courtesy of Nikita Pavlychev and Evan Barratt (power play) put RMU behind again, but not for long. Prkusic took advantage of a friendly bounce off the end boards and beat a sprawling Jones at 15:24. Prkusic later hit the crossbar just before the period expired, which loomed large when Pavlychev stuffed in his fourth goal of the weekend 21 seconds into the middle frame.

Tonge answered with a sharp angle power-play goal at 1:53, but the aforementioned four-on-four stretch proved pivotal for Penn State.

Junior goalie Francis Marotte bore the brunt of the Penn State onslaught this weekend; the highest-scoring team in the nation netted 18 goals in a two-game sweep of the Colonials, with Marotte in net for 13 of those. Freshman netminder Reid Cooper absorbed the loss Saturday, as he took over for Marotte early in the second period and allowed four goals across two separate stints in net.

Schooley noted that goaltending has to be sharper going forward, but nothing on the defensive side of the puck will escape scrutiny in the coming two weeks. RMU won't take the ice again until Friday, Nov. 23 when Atlantic Hockey foe Mercyhurst pays a visit to the Island.

"We're going to do some skill development and some other things that we need to do to get better," Schooley said. "I'm trying to digest this a little bit, because of how weird of a weekend this was.

"You put your heart and soul into it. It's one of those things that we need to make sure we do a better job. We need to go look at this and evaluate it."