College hockey aficionado and Pittsburgh media personality Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary on the RMU men's hockey team. This is his latest:

Pittsburgh, Pa. -  It was apparent from the opening drop of the puck what game three against Bentley meant to Robert Morris.

You could see it.

You could feel it.

And perhaps most significantly, you could hear it.

Players not in the game at a given moment remained engaged and stood in support of their teammates on the ice, banging their sticks on the boards and roaring their approval of every hustle play, every finished check, every blocked shot.

And the Colonials blocked a lot of shots.

"We ate so many pucks," head coach Derek Schooley proudly announced in the immediate aftermath. "It was like we didn't feed them."

Instead, the Colonials fed off of what was at stake.

They wanted the opportunity to keep playing.

"We want it really bad," senior defenseman and captain Alex Bontje maintained between the second and third periods. "This Game 3 is massive for us."

RMU was leading at the time, 3-2, just as it had been through 40 minutes of Game 2.

It had taken a mere 2:23 for that lead to evaporate, for Robert Morris to find itself facing what turned out to be an insurmountable deficit.

This time, Bontje insisted, would be different.

This time, the Colonials were prepared to "risk everything," he said, by "putting your body on the line to take a hit, block a shot, stuff like that.

"The little things are going to be huge this last period."

In what turned out to be the final 20 minutes against Bentley, the little things were.

Robert Morris didn't give up a couple of quick power-play goals this time.

It took a few more blocked shots (five in the final 20 minutes, which ran the Colonials' totals to 18 for the game and 50 for the three-game series).

It took a few more clutch saves from goaltender Francis Marotte (the biggest of which might well have been a late-game denial of Colonial-killer Kyle Schmidt).

It took a few more face-off wins, a few more determined back-checks, a little bit more of whatever happened to be required at the time.

But this time, the 3-2 lead held up.

The Colonials had enough to survive and advance on Sunday night at the Island Sports Center, which earned them the chance to put it all on display again this weekend in an AHC best-of-three, quarterfinal series at Holy Cross.

"You start with Marrotte, big saves," Schooley acknowledged. "(Defenseman) Eric Israel ate a whole bunch of minutes. Alex Bontje was really good, our seniors stepped up. And then Brady Ferguson, AlexTonge; Timmy Moore may not have gotten a point but he was very good. And big goals by some guys who hadn't scored in a while, Michael Louria, a huge 'shorty' (short-handed goal by Tonge) and then Daniel Mantenuto (eventual game-winning goal at 15:18 of the second)."

Mantenuto's series-winning goal was his fourth of the season and second in as many games.

"Seven (career) playoff games, he's got four goals," Schooley noted of Mantenuto. "Maybe he just needs to play in the playoffs."

RMU had gone 1-2-1 in the regular season against Bentley, achieving its lone victory via an extra-attacker goal and then another in overtime.

And the Colonials had limped into the postseason on an 0-5-1 slide.

They went 1-0-1 against Holy Cross, a 5-5 tie on Nov. 3 and a 3-0 victory on Nov. 4, both on Neville Island.

And they'll head to Worcester, Mass., having won a postseason series and two wins away from their fifth consecutive trip to Rochester, N.Y., for the Atlantic Hockey Conference Final Four.

"Every series is going to be challenging," Schooley said. "You have to have the belief that you're going to overcome adversity, overcome obstacles. We were challenged (against Bentley) but we found a way.

"You're going to have an uptick in belief, an uptick in attitude, an uptick in where you are. But you also have to remember they got a bye and they're a good team and they believe they're one of the best teams in the conference.

"We have to be ready to go from the start (against Holy Cross), just like we were against Bentley."


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