PITTSBURGH -- In their first true home game in almost five weeks, the Robert Morris University men's hockey team dropped a 5-2 decision to Atlantic Hockey foe Bentley at the RMU Island Sports Center.

RMU (8-12-1, 7-7-1 AHA) had won five of its past eight in league play, including a split at first-place American International two weeks ago. But Bentley (6-11-2, 5-7-1 AHA) took control of Friday's game with a two-goal second period, ending a five-game winless streak along the way.

Defensemen Nick Jenny and Sean Giles scored 27 seconds apart late in the third to cut Bentley's four-goal lead in half, but an empty-netter clinched the result. After the fact, the Colonials pointed to the start as the main issue, not the finish.

"We need to blame ourselves first," said Giles, who scored his first NCAA goal. "If we play to the best of our ability, we can beat anyone in this league. ... They came out hard. You have to give props to them, but they're not the first team to do this us. We've just got to be better."

The Colonials were coming off a tightly-contested showdown with No. 1 St. Cloud State, but they were unable to convert a handful of early chances against Bentley junior goalie Aidan Pelino, who made 21 saves in all. RMU, which entered the game allowing fewer than two goals per game in AHA play, surrendered more than three for just the fourth time in 15 AHA matchups.

Fortunately for the home team, the rematch with Bentley is less than 24 hours away, with puck drop Saturday set for 4:05 p.m. at the RMU Island Sports Center. The Colonials have not been swept in an AHA series yet this season, but they have an uncharacteristic 5-6-1 record on home ice.

"We're running out of time," head coach Derek Schooley said. "We've got 13 games left. We have to make sure we treat all of them with high importance. We're running out of home games, too."

After scoring power-play goals in back-to-back games in the Three Rivers Classic, RMU went 0 for 5 on the advantage Friday. On the plus side, the Colonials killed all four Bentley power plays, keeping their penalty kill in the top third of Division I.



The Colonials stacked a handful of shifts in the Bentley zone in the first half of the opening period, but the Falcons carried the lone goal of the frame into the locker room. After a brief RMU miscommunication behind the net, Bentley's Michael Zuffante centered for Luke Santerno's accurate one-timer that slid between junior goalie Francis Marotte's legs at 8:15.

Marotte pushed back later in the frame, stoning Drew Callin as the senior Falcons winger turned the corner and cut across the crease for a stuff attempt. But Bentley turned up the pressure in the second period, adding a pair of goals to its total. 

First, Callin got his revenge by whacking an area pass by Jonathan Desbiens behind Marotte from below the right dot at 7:39. Less than three minutes later, Ryner Gorowsky deposited Santerno's behind-the-net dish inside the left post for a 3-0 Falcons advantage.

"Internally our compete level wasn't high enough tonight," Giles said. "They were bound to score at that point. We need to play 60 minutes."

While Bentley built its lead, goalie Aidan Pelino was holding the Colonials at bay. His toe save on Eric Israel early in the second stood out, as did a shoulder stop on Grant Hebert's slot chance during a power play.

In the RMU net, sophomore Dyllan Lubbesmeyer took over for Marotte at the midway point of the game. In his third appearance of the season, the Minnesota native stopped 18 out of 19 shots, including a handful of Grade-A Bentley chances late in the second.



"He stabilized the game," Schooley said of Lubbesmeyer. "But this was not on Francis Marotte at all. I wasn't going to let him take that beating. ... Those are all compete-level goals and effort-level goals. You're going to get beat until you provide an effort."

The Colonials started the third on a power play, but Gorowsky scored his second goal of the night short-handed on a rebound at the side of the net, making it 4-0 and putting RMU in danger of getting blanked in back-to-back home games.

A late four-on-four situation provided some hope, with Jenny wiring a shot through traffic to spoil Pelino's shutout bid with 3:37 left in the game. On the next shift, freshman Nick Lalonde stretched his scoring streak to three games with a dish to Giles in the slot, and the junior D-man buried a wrister over Pelino's blocker.

"It's been a long time," Giles said. "Two-and-a-half years. Got the monkey off the back, but obviously it would be better with a different outcome."

The Colonials can hunt that different outcome Saturday, before they head to the road for two weeks.

"Our skill guys need to be harder to play against, and our energy guys need to provide energy," Schooley said. "We've got to figure it out. We don't have a lot of time to sulk."