Robert Morris University men's hockey head coach Derek Schooley learned something about his team during last weekend's home-and-home sweep of Canisius.

Twice.

On Friday night in Buffalo and again on Saturday night at the Island Sports Center, Robert Morris carried a 4-0 lead into the third period.

And on each occasion, Canisius battled back to make it a two-goal game by the end of regulation.

The second goal surrendered on Friday was scored on the power play with 35 seconds left, more of a cosmetic alteration to the box score than anything else. But the second goal the Colonials allowed on Saturday was a short-handed effort at 12:43, which made the final seven-plus minutes of the third period more interesting than they needed to be.

Both games go into the record books and into the standings as 4-2 victories, but in each the Colonials could have been a little more consistent, could have used a little more finish.

"It's hard to stick to your details for 60 minutes when it seems like the game is no longer in doubt," Schooley acknowledged . "It's natural to get off your game when you have such a big lead.

"I don't think either game was in doubt."

But …

"A mature team sticks to their habits," Schooley added. "We're still an immature team because we're so young."

The growth process continues for Robert Morris (5-4-0 overall, 5-1-0 in Atlantic Hockey) this weekend at Bentley (3-6-0, 2-5-0).

The hot start in Atlantic Hockey is significant because it denotes progress.

RMU didn't win five of six AHA games at any point in 2018-19 until sweeping the final regular-season series from Mercyhurst, sweeping Holy Cross in the first round of the AHA playoffs and then splitting the first two games of what became a best-of-three series victory at Bentley.

The hot start this time around was fueled, in part, by the ability to find some offense in building those two 4-0 leads against Canisius.

The power play scored in both games and went 3 for 7 on the weekend.

Defensemen contributed at the offensive end; sophomore Brendan Michaelian scored a pair of goals and senior Nick Jenny added one, his third of the season.

And senior forward Luke Lynch broke through with his first of the season -- and the 37th of his career -- snapping a hard-to-figure, season-opening, eight-game drought.

"It was a very good two games for us," Schooley assessed.

Even if a couple of four-goal leads wound up getting cut in half.

The next challenge will be staying on the right side of the fine line that separates confidence from complacency.

"As we mature we'll see how we handle prosperity," Schooley said. "Are we going to continue to do the things we need to be successful day in and day out, game in and game out?"

The Colonials did that for the most part against Canisius until they managed to achieve a four-goal lead.

Apparently, they need a little work on playing with those.

"I'd rather learn to play with a 4-0 lead than learn to play being behind 4-0," Schooley offered.

Practice makes perfect.