BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A three-goal third period for the Robert Morris University men's hockey team made matters interesting Saturday evening in an Atlantic Hockey tilt at HarborCenter, but ultimately Canisius' own three-goal first frame proved decisive in the Colonials' 6-4 loss.

The Golden Griffins came out firing on their home ice, building a 3-0 lead after one period. The teams exchanged goals until the final three minutes, when Michael Louria and Alex Tonge scored in a 43-second span to cut a three-goal deficit to one. Nick Prkusic, who buried a breakaway in the second period to get the Colonials on the board, had a rebound chance to tie the game, but Canisius goalie Blake Weyrick made a saving stop.

Moments later, an empty-net goal by Matt McLeod clinched a weekend split. The Colonials (9-14-1, 8-9-1 AHA) scored 11 goals in the series, a welcomed improvement over the 2.2 goals they'd averaged over their past eight games. At the same time, a handful of defensive lapses Saturday recalled Bentley's two-win performance at the RMU Island Sports Center last weekend.

"We were on our toes," head coach Derek Schooley said. "We had a lot of good chances off the bat. Just like last Saturday against Bentley, we had a good push, but our execution wasn't there. We gave up a couple easy goals. ... Once again, liked the energy, but our defensive execution has to be better."

Nowhere did the details bite the Colonials more than on while short-handed. Canisius (9-12-2, 6-10-1 AHA) converted a power-play goal in each period, preventing RMU from keeping the pressure on a team that had allowed 19 combined goals during a three-game losing streak.

The Colonials' penalty-killing unit has been a consistent bright spot this season, with a success rate at 85 percent entering Saturday's game, good for 15th out of 60 Division I teams and second-best in the 11-team AHA. But the PKers were dented early, when Canisius' Matt Hoover finished a goalmouth pass seven minutes after opening faceoff. Backdoor goals from the Griffs' Mitchell Martan and Kevin Obssuth followed, putting RMU in a tough spot through 20 minutes.

"Overall, I don't think we were that bad," said the sophomore winger Prkusic. "Just a few mental lapses or not picking up a guy. Guys get a ton of space and they're gonna finish. Gotta clamp down in all situations."



Prkusic pulled the visitors within two goals with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first when he grabbed an Eric Israel exit pass and sniped Weyrick to the glove side. For Prkusic, his sixth goal of the season doubled as his third point of the weekend, following his first career two-assist game in Friday's 7-2 win. He would add an assist on Tonge's tally, giving him a four-point series.

"I was just really focused this week on trying to put the team first and do what was best for them," Prkusic said. "That was just working as hard as I could."

But, just three minutes after Prkusic's goal, Nick Hutchison improved Canisius to 2 for 2 on the power play with a one-timer from the bottom edge of the right circle. Again, RMU goalie Francis Marotte didn't have much of a shot, as he was forced to push from post to post on Austin Alger's cross-rink dish.

That pattern repeated itself early in the third, when -- less than three minutes after Israel beat Weyrick from the right circle -- the Griffins' top scorer Dylan McLaughlin rang a power-play wrister into the RMU net off the right post. Adding to the frustration: McLaughlin's team-best 14th goal arrived just after Marotte made a ridiculous pad-stacking save on Hutchinson.

Instead, desperation time arrived for the Colonials. To their credit, they made the Griffins sweat when Louria threw a power-play dart over Weyrick's glove with 2:27 left, followed by Tonge's extra-attacker rebound goal from the right side of the net with 1:44 remaining in regulation. Junior Luke Lynch earned an assist on Tonge's tight-angle tally, giving him two for the game after four scoreless outings.

"When you score four goals, you should win hockey games," Schooley said. "Good push at the end, but at the end of the day, (it's) too little, too late."

After the snow cleared on a blustery weekend in western New York, the Colonials moved up a spot in the AHA standings, jumping from seventh to a tie for sixth with Army West Point. They're just a couple of points out of a top-five position that would translate to a first-round playoff bye, but with 10 games to go they don't want to settle for treading water. In nine weekend AHA series, RMU has split six of them down the middle.

"We want to get some traction, get moving in the right direction," Schooley said. "Splitting on the road almost isn't good enough. We want to get hot, and right now we're not there yet. We're still learning, got good play from some younger guys. We just need to get everyone going."

RMU's hope will be that the offensive potency they showed this weekend will continue into the next, when the Colonials travel to Colorado Springs to take on the same Air Force team that denied them an AHA postseason crown last spring. They'll have to be sharper in their own end, regardless of how many pucks they can pump into the Falcons' net.

"We were having trouble scoring after Christmas break," Prkusic said. "We had the offense going this weekend, but we didn't match it defensively (Saturday). Got the win Friday, but kinda disappointed with the second one."