Men's Hockey | 11/29/2018 1:45:00 PM
PITTSBURGH -- The Robert Morris University men's hockey team will take its two-game win streak to the road this weekend, when they battle Atlantic Hockey foe Sacred Heart in a two-game series in Bridgeport, Conn.
The Colonials are coming off their first weekend sweep of the 2018-19 season, as they took all four points in a home-and-home against Mercyhurst to end a three-game skid. They have four games remaining before the semester break.
ROBERT MORRIS (5-6-1, 4-3-1 AHA)
at SACRED HEART (2-7-2, 2-5-1 AHA)
Friday, Nov. 30 (7:05 p.m.) & Saturday, Dec. 1 (2:05)
Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Conn.
VIDEO ($) | STATS
LAST TIME OUT
Robert Morris capped a two-win weekend by washing out Mercyhurst 7-1 on Saturday in Erie. In earning their first road victory in three tries, the Colonials went 4 for 8 on the power play, with freshman
Justin Addamo scoring two of those goals. Thirteen players in all recorded at least a point, and
Francis Marotte allowed just one goal for the second consecutive outing.
HISTORY LESSON
The Colonials faced Sacred Heart in their first-ever Division I season of 2004-05, but didn't see the Pioneers again until 2010, when they joined the Atlantic Hockey Association. RMU has posted a 4-0 record at Webster Bank Arena, which became Sacred Heart's full-time home rink last year. Last season, the Colonials outscored the Pioneers 7-2 in a two-game February set. Six of the past eight matchups between these two programs have taken place in Connecticut.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Sacred Heart enters the weekend in 10th place of 11 AHA teams, but their record might be deceiving. Not only did the Pioneers match Hockey East power Providence in a 2-2 tie Oct. 20, they have gone 0-2-2 in overtime, with sudden-death losses to Bentley and Mercyhurst taking bites out of their possible point total. Last weekend, SHU went 0-1-1 at Canisius, highlighted by a 3-3 tie Friday in Buffalo, N.Y.
Sacred Heart entered D-I hockey as an independent in 1993-94, later moving to the MAAC before helping found the AHA in 2003-04. Head coach C.J. Marottolo enjoyed a winning season in his first year of 2009-10, but the Pioneers haven't finished above .500 since. Last spring, they made the AHA quarters for the second straight season.
TALE OF THE TAPE
KNOW BOBBY MO
• Special teams have come alive recently: The Colonials have scored nine of their past 16 goals either on the power play -- where they're 7 for their last 19 -- or shorthanded. Juniors
Luke Lynch and
Daniel Mantenuto have buried shorties over this stretch, with Lynch's being the fourth of his career. That ties him for fourth among active D-I players.
• Fifteen of RMU's 34 goals over the first 12 games have been scored by underclassmen, with six freshmen netting their first NCAA goals so far:
Justin Addamo,
Geoff Lawson,
Nick Lalonde,
Aidan Spellacy,
Grant Hebert and
Kip Hoffmann. Sophomore
Nick Prkusic has four goals, tying him with Addamo for the second-most on the team.
• Senior winger
Alex Tonge is the 11th Colonial to reach 100 points for his NCAA career. Tonge, who has 112 points entering the weekend, has risen to No. 7 on RMU's all-time scoring list, tied with Denny Urban '11. Tonge has already passed David Friedmann '16, Scott Jacklin '15 and Daniel Leavens '17 this season.
• Robert Morris' 7-1 victory at Mercyhurst on Nov. 23 not only established a new season best for offense, it also marked their largest margin of victory in 32 all-time meetings with their in-state rivals. In addition, RMU hadn't won by six against any opponent since Jan. 28, 2017 at Holy Cross, a span of 64 games.
• After playing nine of their first 11 games at the RMU Island Sports Center, the Colonials will now spend seven of nine away from Neville Island. After the semester break, RMU will travel to Springfield, Mass., for a two-game set at American International, then host the Three Rivers Classic at UPMC Lemieux Sports Center and PPG Paints Arena.
THEY SAID IT
"I thought we battled hard the whole weekend. Definitely took too many penalties, but we battled through it. Overall, to get two wins in a row, especially against an Atlantic Hockey team, that's a big weekend for us." - Junior forward
Michael Coyne on the significance of stringing back-to-back wins together
Watch full interview with
Matt Gajtka:
"We've got to be good on the road. You gotta make sure you weather the team's storm. You have to be good in the neutral zone, because you don't want to play too much your end or play a transition game." - Head coach Derek Schooley on what it'll take to build on the first road win of the season
Watch full interview:
SCHOOLEY FILE
The only head coach in program history,
Derek Schooley returns for his 15th season behind the RMU bench. Under his guidance, the Colonials carry an overall record of 236-231-62 and a hard-earned reputation for championship-level success in Division I men's hockey.
Schooley led the Colonials to back-to-back Atlantic Hockey regular season titles in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and a postseason AHA title/NCAA tournament berth in 2013-14. Over the past six seasons, Schooley's Colonials have averaged 21 wins per year and have consistently placed 20-plus student-athletes on AHA all-academic teams.
15 YEARS OF HOCKEY
We celebrate our 15th season of Division I pucks with regular throwbacks to our 15 greatest moments. No. 13 covers our NCAA tournament debut, featuring input from Class of '16 winger Zac Lynch:
ON THE AIR
For the sixth straight season, all Colonials home games will be broadcast locally on 970 ESPN, or online at
espnpgh.com. Tim Benz (play-by-play) and Mike Prisuta (analysis) return as the broadcast duo at Colonials Arena. Additionally,
Matt Gajtka will have an audio play-by-play call for select road games on Facebook Live, with the RMU men's hockey
Facebook page hosting those.
NEXT WEEK
The Colonials conclude the fall semester with a pair of home games against Holy Cross on Dec. 7-8. Visit RMUColonials.com or Ticketmaster for tickets!
