Men's Hockey | 1/2/2019 9:00:00 PM
PITTSBURGH -- The Robert Morris University men's hockey team will once again serve as the host school for the seventh annual Three Rivers Classic, which begins Friday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex and concludes Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.
On Day 1 in Cranberry Township, No. 1 St. Cloud State will take on 14th-ranked Union at 5 p.m., followed by the Colonials' first-ever meeting with Brown at 8. The Confluence Cup will be up for grabs Saturday on the Pittsburgh Penguins' home ice, with the third-place game set for 5 and the championship game scheduled for 8.
TICKETS DAY 1 | TICKETS DAY 2
St. Cloud State, the alma mater of current Penguin Matt Cullen and Upper St. Clair's own NHL alum Ryan Malone, is the first top-ranked team to ever play in the 3RC. The Huskies (13-1-2, 6-0-2 NCHC) return to Pittsburgh for the first time since the 2013 NCAA Frozen Four, when they fell in the national semifinals.
Meanwhile, Union (9-4-4, 3-4-1 ECAC) will compete in its second holiday invitational of the season; the Dutchmen embarked on an overseas Thanksgiving trip to Northern Ireland for the Friendship Four tournament. The 2014 national champs went 1-0-1 vs. RMU league rival Canisius last weekend.
COLONIAL HOCKEY PREVIEW
ROBERT MORRIS (8-9-1, 7-6-1 AHA)
vs. BROWN (3-7-3, 2-4-3 ECAC)
Friday, Jan. 4 at 8 p.m.
UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex
Cranberry Township, Pa.
AUDIO | VIDEO | LIVE STATS
LAST TIME OUT
The Colonials returned from a three-week break with an Atlantic Hockey series split at second-place American International last weekend. RMU fell 4-3 in the series opener against AIC, but rebounded to stifle the Yellow Jackets by a 3-1 count on Sunday.
Senior
Alex Tonge ended a two-game point drought with a pair of goals, including the decider in the opening seconds of the third period. Pittsburgh native
Luke Lynch (1g, 1a) recorded his fifth multi-point game of the season, while junior classmate
Francis Marotte stopped 29 shots to hold off the AHA's highest-scoring team and finish the month of December with a .946 save percentage in five games.
HISTORY LESSON
In addition to holding three Three Rivers Classic championships, winning in 2012, 2015 and 2016, RMU also has two second-place finishes to its credit, including last year's runner-up result to a ranked Providence team.
The Colonials have failed to make the title tilt just once, in 2013; otherwise, they are 5-1 all-time on Day 1 and hold an 8-4 overall record in the event.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Brown will play in its second consecutive holiday tournament after going 1-1 in the Ledyard Bank Classic on the Dartmouth campus last weekend. The Bears ensured it wouldn't be an empty trip to Vermont by rallying to beat Army West Point, 5-3. After starting with just one win in its first seven games, Brown is 2-1-2 since the start of December, including a 3-3 tie against fellow 3RC participant Union.
One of the nation's oldest college hockey programs, Brown has a history that dates back to 1896. The Rhode Island-based university has participated in four NCAA tournaments and three Frozen Fours. Also, Brown is one of six Ivy League schools to sponsor men's varsity hockey, all of which compete in the 12-team ECAC.
TALE OF THE TAPE
KNOW BOBBY MO
• Starting with a home-and-home split with No. 20 Bowling Green, the Colonials have collected at least one win in seven of nine weekends so far. However, they've only been able to sweep one opponent in a two-game set, that being Mercyhurst on Nov. 23-24. All told, they've split six of nine series, including an 0-1-1 result against Army West Point that accounted for their lone tie.
• 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 (2.36), their second-best save percentage (.921), the second-most shutouts (7) and the second-most
wins (42). He's one win from tying Terry Shafer '16 for the most in RMU history and one shutout from matching Shafer's mark.
• Senior winger
Alex Tonge is the 11th Colonial to reach 100 points for his NCAA career. Tonge, who has 117 points entering the weekend, has risen to a sixth-place tie 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, and he's currently even with Greg Gibson '16. Tonge is currently the No. 8 active scorer in NCAA Division I.
• Fifteen of RMU's 45 goals have been scored by underclassmen, with 11 of those scored by freshmen. Six of the Colonials' 10 freshmen skaters --
Justin Addamo,
Geoff Lawson,
Nick Lalonde,
Aidan Spellacy,
Grant Hebert and
Kip Hoffmann -- have scored their first NCAA goals, while eight of 10 have at least a point. Also, sophomore
Nick Prkusic has four goals, tying him with Addamo for third-most on the team.
• After going their first nine games without a shorthanded goal, the Colonials have scored four in their past nine. Lynch has two of those, giving him five for his career; that's the third-most among active Division I players.
Daniel Mantenuto netted his first career shorty Nov. 23 at Mercyhurst; Moon Township's
Jacob Coleman added one Dec. 29 at American International.
THEY SAID IT
"Hopefully we can continue the success we've had in this tournament. We know this is always a big deal for our hockey team and the hockey community in Pittsburgh." - Head coach
Derek Schooley
"It was nice to get a couple of games in early as we came back from break. Good to get our legs under us. Especially playing teams from out of our conference, it's kind of a different game." - Senior captain Brandon Watt
SCHOOLEY FILE
The only head coach in program history, Schooley returns for his 15th season behind the RMU bench. Under his guidance, the Colonials carry an overall record of 239-234-62 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.
FIFTEEN YEARS OF HOCKEY
We celebrate our 15th season of Division I pucks with regular throwbacks to our 15 greatest moments. This week's featured a historic shutout win in a storied college hockey venue:
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 RMU Island Sports Center. 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
RMU will wrap up the Three Rivers Classic on Saturday, then host AHA rival Bentley on Neville Island for a two-game series Jan. 11-12. Faceoff times at the RMU Island Sports Center are set for 7 and 4 p.m., respectively.
