Men's Hockey | 12/6/2018 9:38:00 AM

PITTSBURGH -- Winners of three of its past four games, the Robert Morris University men's hockey team has risen to a tie for fifth in the Atlantic Hockey Association. The Colonials will wrap the unofficial first half of the season this weekend with their first two of four regular-season matchups with league foe Holy Cross.

RMU has allowed just five goals in their past four games, coinciding with its recent jump in the standings. The Colonials have also earned at least a point in all five of their AHA series to date, most recently going 1-1 against Sacred Heart last weekend in Bridgeport, Conn.

ROBERT MORRIS (6-7-1, 5-4-1 AHA)
vs. HOLY CROSS (1-10-2, 1-6-1 AHA)

Friday, Dec. 7 (7:05 p.m.) & Saturday, Dec. 8 (4:05)
RMU Island Sports Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.
AUDIO | VIDEO ($) | STATS | TICKETS

PROMOTIONS
The first 800 fans through the Colonials Arena gate Friday night will receive an RMU Santa Claus holiday hat. The Colonial Crazies student section will also be putting on an ugly sweater contest, with the winner receiving men's hoops tickets. On Friday, a free shuttle will run from the Moon Township campus to the Island Sports Center from 6-10 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
Robert Morris rallied from a late third-period deficit to earn a 2-1 overtime win last Saturday afternoon at Sacred Heart. Mike Louria's third career sudden-death goal grabbed two points for the Colonials, who got the tying goal from Alex Tonge in the final minutes of regulation. Daniel Mantenuto earned the primary assist on both goals and Francis Marotte made 28 saves as he allowed two goals or fewer for the ninth time in 14 starts.



HISTORY LESSON
The Colonials traveled to Worcester, Mass., last March for an AHA quarterfinal series against the Crusaders. RMU outscored third-seeded Holy Cross 9-2 in sweeping the best-of-three set and advancing to the league's final four for the fifth consecutive season. The Colonials are unbeaten in their past seven meetings with the Crusaders; that 6-0-1 stretch includes a 4-0 mark in the postseason.
 
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Holy Cross won its first game of the season, downing Canisius on Oct. 12, but the Crusaders haven't prevailed since then. In the meantime, coach David Berard's team has endured three one-goal losses and three two-goal losses to go with two ties. Last weekend, they were swept by upstart American International in a home-and-home, surrendering the winning goal Saturday with less than two minutes to go.

A founding member of Atlantic Hockey, Holy Cross has won two regular season titles and two postseason crowns in the league, both of which occurred concurrently in 2004 and '06. Last year's third-place finish in the standings was the Crusaders' fourth season in a row above .500 in AHA play (and seventh out of their past eight), so the start of this season has been an outlier.

TALE OF THE TAPE


THEY SAID IT
"Just keeping in touch with the basics. Keeping it simple. From there, your confidence goes up and you're able to do a little bit more." -- Freshman defenseman Geoff Lawson on getting up to speed in the college game

Full interview with Matt Gajtka:



"We're working to get better as a team. We've had some improvements. We've had some ups and downs. Now we've got to find that consistency." - Head coach Derek Schooley on the 6-7-1 record to date

Full interview:



KNOW BOBBY MO
• With his overtime goal Dec. 1 at Sacred Heart, Louria moved into a first-place tie among active Division I players with three career sudden-death strikes. The win over the Pioneers also marked the first time this season RMU had won after trailing through two periods. They had been 0-7-1 in such situations, with the only other point gained Oct. 19 in a tie with Army.

• After going the first nine games of the season without a shorthanded goal, the Colonials have scored three in their past five games. Junior Luke Lynch has two of those, giving him five for his career; that's the third-most among active Division I players. Classmate Daniel Mantenuto tossed in his first career SHG on Nov. 23 at Mercyhurst.

• Senior winger Tonge is the 11th Colonial to reach 100 points for his NCAA career. Tonge, who has 114 points entering the weekend, has risen to No. 7 on RMU's all-time scoring list. Tonge has passed Denny Urban '11, David Friedmann '16, Scott Jacklin '15 and Daniel Leavens '17 this season. Tonge is three points short of Greg Gibson '16 for sixth.

• Marotte has made quite the impact in two-plus years at Robert Morris, as he holds down lofty positions in the program's record books. Entering the weekend, the junior Mike Richter Award nominee has the Colonials' all-time best goals-against average (2.46), their second-best save percentage (.920), the second-most shutouts (6) and the third-most wins (40).

• Fifteen of RMU's 37 goals have been scored by underclassmen, with six freshmen netting their first NCAA goals so far: Justin Addamo, Lawson, Nick Lalonde, Aidan Spellacy, Grant Hebert and Kip Hoffmann. Also, sophomore Nick Prkusic has four goals, tying him with Addamo for the second-most on the team.

A CLASSIC TWIST
Robert Morris will again host the annual Three Rivers Classic, with first-timers Brown, St. Cloud State and Union joining for the seventh edition of the holiday tournament Jan. 4-5. This year, the first day of the event will take place in Cranberry at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, with the championship and third-place games returning to PPG Paints Arena as usual. Read more about the event here, including how to buy single-day tickets!

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 237-232-62 and a 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. 12 recalls our wild, wonderful win over Mercyhurst in last season's AHA semifinal round, featuring input from current Colonials Jacob Coleman and Louria:



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 UP
The Colonials hit the semester break, then return to action Dec. 29-30 against American International in Springfield, Mass. Following that, RMU will host the Three Rivers Classic on Jan. 4-5.