Men's Hockey | 2/14/2019 11:37:00 AM
WORCESTER, Mass. -- With the final off week of the season complete, the
Robert Morris University men's hockey team embarks on a stretch of five straight road games, starting this weekend at Atlantic Hockey foe Holy Cross.
Both teams are just a point back of Army West Point for eighth, the last spot for home-ice advantage in the first round of the AHA playoffs. The top five teams receive first-round byes, while seeds six through 11 will square off in best-of-three series March 8-10.
RMU split a weekend set with Holy Cross in early December, with the two teams diverging since. While the Crusaders have stabilized over the past two months, going 6-6-2 since ending a 13-game winless streak, RMU has lost 11 of 13 and their past five in a row, dropping to a tie with Holy Cross for ninth in the AHA standings.
With just six games to go in the regular season, the Colonials' more immediate concern is to reverse their recent offensive drought. Since a seven-goal outburst Jan. 18 at Canisius, RMU has netted just seven goals over its past five outings.
COLONIAL HOCKEY PREVIEW
ROBERT MORRIS (9-18-1, 8-13-1 AHA - T-9th)
at HOLY CROSS (7-17-4, 7-12-3 AHA - T-9th)
Friday, Feb. 15 at 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 16 at 5:05 p.m.
Hart Center, Worcester, Mass.
LIVE VIDEO via Stretch Internet ($)
LIVE STATS via Holy Cross Athletics
LAST TIME OUT
Junior center
Daniel Mantenuto scored a power-play goal in the third period, but RMU couldn't complete a late rally Feb. 2 at the Island Sports Center, falling 3-1 to surging Sacred Heart. Junior goalie
Francis Marotte stopped 31 shots, but the result stretched the Colonials' home slump to five straight losses, even though they allowed just two non-empty-net goals for the third time in four games.
HISTORY LESSON
Marotte earned his seventh career shutout when RMU blanked Holy Cross on Dec. 7, but Crusaders freshman Erik Gordon followed suit with his first the next day, ending the Colonials' eight-game unbeaten run in the all-time series. Since 2016-17, RMU has made just one trip to Worcester, when it earned a dominating two-game AHA quarterfinal sweep last March.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Holy Cross has been at its best over the past three weeks, ripping off a 3-1-1 streak that includes wins over league foes Sacred Heart, Army West Point and R.I.T.
Holy Cross rallied from a 3-1 second-period deficit to down R.I.T. last Saturday, earning a split in the weekend set. Peter Crinella scored a goal and an assist, while Neil Robinson netted the breakaway winner with less that five minutes remaining. Gordon stopped 26 shots and Michael Laffin scored his team-leading eighth goal to start the home-ice comeback.
TALE OF THE TAPE
THEY SAID IT
"We've got a lot of guys who can score goals here. For whatever reason, they weren't going in, but that's all going to change moving forward." - Head coach
Derek Schooley on getting the offense back on track
"The biggest thing for me is to absorb as much as I can. Come with your work boots every day." - Freshman defenseman
Brendon Michaelian on his approach to his first NCAA season
KNOW BOBBY MO
• Senior winger
Alex Tonge is the 11th Colonial to reach 100 points for his NCAA career. With 123 points, he's risen to sixth place on RMU's all-time scoring list. Tonge has passed Greg Gibson '16, Denny Urban '11, David Friedmann '16, Scott Jacklin '15 and Daniel Leavens '17 this season. Tonge is currently the No. 8 active scorer in NCAA Division I.
• Marotte has made quite the impact in two-plus years at Robert Morris. Entering the weekend, the Montreal-area native has the Colonials' all-time best goals-against average (2.59), along with the fifth-best save percentage (.916) and second-most shutouts (7). Marotte is currently tied with Terry Shafer '16 for the most goalie wins (43) in RMU history and he's one shutout from matching Shafer.
• Senior defenseman
Eric Israel continues to be among the most dangerous blue-line playmakers in the nation. With 82 points in his career, Israel ranks eighth among active Division I defenders. The Michigander is seventh among his blueline peers in career assists (64) and ranks 15th in career goals (18). Also, his 11 power-play goals at Robert Morris place him eighth among nationwide D-men.
• Twenty-nine of RMU's 70 goals have been scored by underclassmen, with 21 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. Lalonde and sophomore
Nick Prkusic have six goals each, tying them for third on the team.
• The Colonials have come up aces at the faceoff dot, and it's been a team effort. RMU ranks 11th in the country in faceoff win rate at 53.0 percent, with five of the its six qualifying players converting at a rate of 50 percent or better.
Daniel Mantenuto, Hebert,
Luke Lynch, Spellacy and
Michael Coyne are all above that line individually.
• After going their first nine games of the season without a shorthanded goal, the Colonials have scored five since, the sixth-most in NCAA D-I. Lynch has two of those, giving him five for his career; that's the third-most among active Division I players. Mantenuto has his first two NCAA shorties this season, with
Jacob Coleman accounting for the other one.
• Don't miss the opening minutes of an RMU game, because so often the tide has turned at the start. While the Colonials have scored the first goal just eight times in their first 28 games, they are 5-3 in those games. Otherwise, RMU has four wins and a tie (4-15-1) in the 20 times they've conceded the game's first tally.
• With his overtime goal Dec. 1 at Sacred Heart,
Michael Louria moved into a first-place tie among active Division I players with three career sudden-death strikes. The win marked the only time so far this season RMU has prevailed after trailing through. They are 1-18-1 in such situations, with the only other point gained Oct. 19 in a tie with Army.
• RMU's opening-night defeat of No. 20 Bowling Green marked the program's 22nd victory against ranked opponents in 56 tries. The 3-2 home win also ended a four-game losing streak versus ranked foes, giving the Colonials their first such victory on the Island since February 2013, when they downed No. 15 Niagara in overtime.
• Robert Morris welcomes 11 freshmen, making up the second-biggest first-year group in program history (12 - 2008-09). The last time RMU reached double digits in newcomers, with the 2012-13 team, that class of 10 went on to average 22 wins per season.
SCHOOLEY FILE
The only head coach in program history,
Derek Schooley is in his 15th season behind the RMU bench. Under his guidance, the Colonials carry an overall record of 240-243-62 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.
HONOR ROLL
Robert Morris has had five players earn Atlantic Hockey awards this season:
• Marotte (Goalie of Week - Nov. 19-25)
• Israel (Defensive Player of Week - Nov. 19-25
• Israel (Defensive Player of Week - Dec. 24-30)
• Marotte (Goalie of Month - December)
• Lalonde (Rookie of Week - Jan. 14-20)
HALL PASS
Denny Urban '11 has become the third men's hockey player to be inducted into the Robert Morris Athletics Hall of Fame. Urban, who scored an incredible 112 points (28 goals, 84 assists) from the RMU blue line, joined Chris Margott '09 and Nathan Longpre '11 in achieving this prestigious all-sport honor.
Matt Gajtka chatted with Urban at the RMU Hall of Fame dinner last Friday:
FIFTEEN YEARS OF HOCKEY
During our 15th year of Division I men's hockey at RMU, we're remembering our 15 greatest games in program history. This week, we throw back all the way to the beginning, our first-ever win in our NCAA debut:
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
The Colonials will stay on the road for another two-game set, traveling to western New York to face off with R.I.T. on Feb. 22-23. RMU split a home series against the Tigers in late October.
