Pittsburgh, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's hockey team returns home from a four-game road trip to take on conference rival RIT for a weekend set. The Colonials sit two points out of first place in the Atlantic Hockey standings while the Tigers are in ninth, seven points back of RMU.

GAME INFORMATION
Robert Morris (13-13-2, 12-8-2 AHC) vs. RIT (10-15-2, 9-11-1 AHC)
Colonials Arena  //  Pittsburgh, Pa.
Friday, Feb. 9  //  7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 10  //  7:05 p.m.
Saturday - Puck Giveaway for First 800 Fans; Postgame Skate with the Colonials
LIVE VIDEO  //  LIVE STATS  //  LIVE AUDIO  and Radio - 970 AM ESPN

Both days feature doubleheaders with RMU women's hockey, hosting Lindenwood at 3:05 p.m. on Friday and 1:05 p.m. on Saturday.

ROBERT MORRIS GAME NOTES (.PDF)   |   RIT GAME NOTES (.PDF)

TEAM SNAPSHOTS
ROBERT MORRIS COLONIALS 

• Record: 13-13-2, 12-8-2 Atlantic Hockey
• Head Coach: Derek Schooley (14th Season)
• Captain: Alex Bontje
• Alternate Captains: Brady Ferguson, Timmy Moore
• Points Leader: Brady Ferguson (37), Tonge (31)
• Goals Leader: Ferguson, Tonge, Luke Lynch (12)
• Goaltending: Francis Marotte, 12-9-1, .917 save%, 2.47 GAA
• Blocked Shots: Eric Israel (58)
• All-Time Record vs. RIT: 12-11-4
• Last Time Out: RMU swept Sacred Heart on the road with 4-1 and 3-1 victories. The Colonials had six different goal scorers and 15 players recorded a point, including multi-point efforts from Eric Israel (2G), Alex Tonge (1G, 1A) Matthew Graham (1G, 1A) and Michael Coyne (1G, 1A). For Coyne, the goal & assist were the first of each for his career. Francis Marotte earned both wins in goal.

RIT TIGERS

• Record: 10-15-2, 9-11-1 AHC
• Head Coach: Wayne Wilson (19th Season)
• Points Leader: Myles Powell (26), Erik Brown (24)
• Goals Leader: Erik Brown (17), Myles Powell (8)
• Goaltending:   Ian Andriano (Fr.), 2-4-0, .877 save%, 3.39 GAA
                            Logan Drackett (Fr.), 6-7-2, .868 save%, 3.59 GAA
                            Christian Short (Jr.), 2-4-0, .890 save%, 3.03 GAA
• Blocked shots: Darren Brady (49), Adam Brubacher (48) 
• All-Time Record vs. RMU: 11-12-4
• Last Time Out: RIT was swept by Bentley, falling 4-3 and 5-2. Nick Bruce, Adam Brubacher and Erik Brown scored on Friday. On Saturday, Shawn Cameron and Gabe Valenzuela scored. Ian Andriano played both games in goal for RIT, making 28 saves on Friday, 22 saves on Saturday.

SERIES HISTORY
The series has been fairly even, with RMU holding a 12-11-4 all-time record against RIT. The Colonials are 7-4-1 against the Tigers at RMU.

TIGERS VS. COLONIALS
Myles Powell leads all active Tigers in scoring against the Colonials with 12 points (6G, 6A) in 13 career games. Gabe Valenzuela has 11 points  (3G, 8A) in nine games, while Erik Brown has nine points in nine games and Abbott Girduckis has five goals.

TIGERS NOTABLES

• RIT is 4-8-1 since December 1, 5-12-1 since sweeping RMU on Nov. 10-11.
• The Tigers have won 53.3 percent of their faceoffs this season, ranked eighth in the NCAA.
• RIT has used all three goaltenders this season, with Andriano starting the last 6 games. Drackett won the two previous meetings with RMU this season

ROBERT MORRIS NOTES
ATLANTIC HOCKEY AWARDS
Junior Eric Israel is the conference defensive player of the week, leading all league defenseman in scoring with two goals on five shots. The first Israel goal was the eventual game-winner in Friday's 4-1 victory over the Pioneers. Saturday's goal was a third period tally that sealed the sweep.

MONTHLY HONORS
Junior forward Alex Tonge is the January Player of the Month for Atlantic Hockey & an NCAA Honorable mention. Tonge led the NCAA and Atlantic Hockey with 2.20 points per game, scoring 11 points on 5 goals and 6 assists. Tonge scored five goals on ten shots and held a plus-five rating.

CHASING HISTORY
Ferguson is counting down the points to becoming RMU's all-time scoring leader. Ferguson is second all-time in scoring with 155 career points. The senior from Carrollton, Texas is just 2 points shy of passing the program's all-time scoring leader Zac Lynch '16 (156 points).

#FERGY4HOBEY
Brady Ferguson has been nominated for the Hobey Baker Award, the most prestigious honor in NCAA men's ice hockey. You can help with the fan vote by visiting Vote4Hobey.com. Ferguson leads the Colonials in scoring with 12 goals and 37 points on the season, ranking 7th in the NCAA and 2nd in Atlantic Hockey, five points shy of the NCAA scoring lead.

SHUTOUT SHOW
Goaltender Francis Marotte has five career shutouts and three this season, tied for third all-time at RMU with Eric Levine '13. The all-time record is eight, held by 2016 graduate Terry Shafer. (2nd, Dalton Izyk '17, 6). The single-season shutout record is 4 (Levine '12-13, Shafer '15-16).

REMEMBER WHEN ROY WAS EATEN BY HIS TIGER? THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF THAT.
Brady Ferguson has 20 points on nine goals and 11 assists for the Colonials in 13 career games against RIT. 

HOT LINE BLING
The Colonials top line of Alex Tonge, Brady Ferguson and Timmy Moore have combined for 57 points in the last 11 games, dating back to the Colonials sweep of Mercyhurst (Dec. 16 & 17). The trio are ranked 1st, 2nd and 9th in the NCAA in scoring since then. Ferguson has 4 goals and 17 assists in that span, averaging 1.91 points per game. Tonge has 8 goals and 12 assists for 1.82 p/pg. Moore has 8 goals & 8 assists. Ferguson (21) & Tonge (20) are the only NCAA players to score 20+ points since December 15.

POWER UP
Ferguson & Tonge lead the Colonials and Atlantic Hockey in power play scoring with 15 of their respective points coming on the man advantage (Ferguson 5-10-15, Tonge 4-11-15). RMU's 28 power play goals are tied for 2nd in Atlantic Hockey & 11th in the NCAA.

SHORTY, GET DOWN
Ferguson & Lynch have each been quick to steal the puck away on the penalty kill, each scoring a pair of shorthanded goals this season. Ferguson is second in career shorthanded goals among all active players with 7.

BLOCK PARTY
Junior defenseman Eric Israel (58, 2.07/pg) and senior defenseman Alex Bontje (55, 2.12/pg) are second and third in blocks in Atlantic Hockey, ranked 11th and 18th in the NCAA.

IRON MAN DOWN
Senior defenseman Alex Bontje was out of the lineup last weekend, dealing with a minor injury. The Colonials captain had played the most games of all active players, including 119 consecutive contests, dating back to his freshman season. Bontje had previously missed just one game in his entire RMU career (January 4, 2015, 4-1 L vs. Bowling Green).

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
The newly assembled fourth line of Alex Dagnal, Michael Coyne and Michael Louria combined for a goal and three assists last weekend against Sacred Heart. Coyne's Friday assist was his first career point, with his first NCAA goal coming on Saturday.

I LIKE TO SAY A PRAYER AND DRINK TO WORLD PEACE
Robert Morris is the least penalized team in Atlantic Hockey, with just 132 penalties for 275 minutes this season, averaging 4.71 penalties per game. RMU has the 11th lowest average of penalty minutes per game in college hockey at 9.82 a contest.

I'M BETTING HE'S GONNA SWERVE FIRST
Through 65 games, Luke Lynch has nearly matched the scoring rate of his older brother, RMU's all-time scoring leader Zac Lynch '16.

• ZAC LYNCH - Freshman Season (34 GP, 5G-9A-14P)  Through 65 career games (65 GP, 21G-26A-47P)
• Luke Lynch - Freshman Season (37 GP, 9G-10A-19P) Through 65 career games (65 GP, 21G-22A-43P)

LONE STAR LEADING SCORER
Brady Ferguson is the NCAA's active career scoring leader. After posting the fifth-highest scoring NCAA men's hockey season in 2016-17 with 58 points, Ferguson is the lone returner out of that Top 5. The Carrollton, Texas native has 12 goals and 24 assists for 36 points in 26 games this season.

    NCAA Men's Hockey Active Career Points Leaders:

• Brady Ferguson, Robert Morris – 154
• Dylan Sikura, Northeastern (CHI) – 130
• Adam Gaudette, Northeastern (VAN) – 124
• Dylan Gambrell, Denver (SJS) – 123
• Jake Evans, Notre Dame (MTL) – 123

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