SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- This year's edition of the Robert Morris University men's hockey team features 11 freshmen, but the bedrocks of the squad remain tested veteran players like Alex Tonge, Eric Israel, Francis Marotte and Luke Lynch.

All four of those young men came through in various ways Sunday afternoon at MassMutual Center, powering a 3-1 comeback victory over upstart American International. With the win, the Colonials earned a split in a critical midseason Atlantic Hockey series, climbing to a tie for third in the standings.

"Your best players have to step up and be your best players, like they were tonight," RMU head coach Derek Schooley said. "It was a battle this weekend. Just happy to get out of here with two points and get back on the road."

Tonge's two-goal performance was at the heart of the road effort, as RMU's top gun tied the game with a rebound score midway through the second, then put the Colonials ahead for good by converting a breakaway just eight seconds into the third. With the outburst, the senior Tonge has risen into a sixth-place tie on the program's all-time scoring list, with 117 career points.

More relevant to the current situation, Tonge's tallies prevented a three-game AHA losing streak for RMU (8-9-1, 7-6-1 AHA) and cut down AIC's win streak at five.

"Very, very important," Tonge said. "We needed the win."



But offense was just one piece of the puzzle, especially since AIC (8-8-1, 8-5-1 AHA) came into the game as the highest-scoring team in the 11-team conference. Junior goalie Marotte keyed Sunday's shutdown, making a handful of show-stopping saves while facing a 30-shot Yellow Jackets attack.

Combined with a clutch 4-on-3 penalty kill with a handful of minutes left in the third, it was a satisfying response to Saturday's one-goal defeat.

"I thought we sold out," Schooley said. "It's tough when it's a 4 on 3. We did a very good job of keeping pucks to the outside. ... We did what we had to do to win in the last few minutes."

And when they didn't, Marotte stood his ground to preserve the lead. His glove proved especially sharp on this day, although his movement was also smooth and aggressive, giving a talented AIC forward corps little net to look at. With the victory, the 42nd of his NCAA career, Marotte is one behind Terry Shafer '16 for the most in program history.

"Marotte was outstanding," Schooley said. "We have an all-league goalie and he played like it. ... Right now we're a tight-checking team that gets good goaltending. We're not going to get the six, seven, eight goals we were used to in the past."

The only puck that got behind Marotte was essentially unstoppable. AIC defenseman Janis Jaks deposited the rebound of Chris Theodore's wrister into an open left side of the net with 8:51 gone in the first period. The power-play goal put the Jackets ahead through 20 minutes, a position in which they hadn't lost this season prior to Sunday.

The Colonials had plenty of early opportunities to get a PPG themselves, but couldn't convert on a two-man advantage to end the first. They were also unable to fire a puck behind AIC goalie Zack Skog during a four-minute power-play midway through the second, only to get the equalizer just after a penalty to the Jackets' Blake Christensen expired.

On the scoring play, sophomore Nick Prkusic made a power move to the right post, stuffing a forehand off Skog that resulted in a loose puck. Tonge shoveled it in from the lip of the crease for his team-best eighth goal and 17th point, ending a two-game scoring drought in the process.



Tonge's day got even better at the opening faceoff for the third period, when he skated into open space up the middle, took a breakout pass from Israel and split the AIC defense. In alone on Skog, Tonge faked to the backhand side and steered the puck into an open cage on his forehand.

"It's something we run often," Tonge said of the headman pass from the playmaking Israel, who earned his team-best 11th assist. "He made a nice pass. I took what he gave me. I faked right and went left and it worked out."

Lynch, who picked up a secondary assist on Tonge's second goal, scored himself into an empty net to finally take the sting out of the surging Jackets. Both Tonge and Schooley commended AIC for its "dynamic" defense corps and "skilled" forwards, a group that sits in second place in the AHA. 

Up next for the Colonials: The seventh-annual Three Rivers Classic tournament next weekend. RMU will take on Brown at 8 p.m. Friday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, followed by a Saturday matchup at PPG Paints Arena against either No. 1 St. Cloud State or No. 14 Union, depending on Day 1 results.

Typically, RMU has had to take on the Classic on the first weekend after holiday break. Not so this year, after a tussle with AIC that should rekindle the team's competitive fire.

"It's nice that we got a weekend before playing in the tournament," Tonge said. "I think we'll be ready to play."