WORCESTER, Mass. -- Trailing by two on the road Friday night, the Robert Morris University men's hockey team responded in impressive fashion, mounting a pair of multi-goal rallies to pull out a slump-busting 5-3 win over Holy Cross at the Hart Center.

Eric Israel's second goal of the game, a short-handed snipe from the right circle, put the Colonials ahead for good with five minutes left in the third, but the playmaking defenseman was one of many heroes as the visitors ended a five-game losing streak.

Senior wing Alex Tonge produced a season-high-tying four points (1g, 3a), classmate/linemate Michael Louria scored a showstopping goal to tie the game late in the second, and junior goalie Francis Marotte was strong at key moments in earning his program-record 44th career victory.

"We've been all about resilience, good attitude and hard work the past two weeks of practice," Marotte said, alluding to the team's bye week leading into this series. "That's what we did tonight, we never gave up."

RMU's first win of the season when trailing by multiple goals boosted it two points clear of Holy Cross for eighth place in Atlantic Hockey. With five games to go in the regular season, the Colonials (10-18-1, 9-13-1 AHA) can still rise into the top half of the league standings with a strong finish.

For now, there's still plenty of work to be done, starting with Saturday's 5 p.m. rematch against the Crusaders (7-18-4, 7-13-3 AHA). But getting past a hot Holy Cross team in comeback fashion was exactly the kind of boost this team could use with the playoffs approaching.

"I was really proud with the way we managed our game," head coach Derek Schooley said. "There were some lows. We were chasing the game and we never quit. We were really focused through the adversity."

RMU's steadfast play throughout produced its largest offensive output since its previous win, a 7-2 triumph Jan. 18 at Canisius. In fact, the Colonials' five-spot on Friday was just two fewer than they scored through their entire five-game slide. 

"We tried to keep everything simple, which opened up the ice for us, to allow us to make plays," said Tonge, whose team-best 13th goal tied the score 3-all with 11 minutes to play. 

"We stuck with what we know we needed to do, nobody got down on each other and we had a very enthusiastic bench, which helped us battle through the adversity we had."

Tonge's cutback tally answered Pete Kessel's backdoor go-ahead goal for Holy Cross. The game-breaking move also foreshadowed the dish Tonge made to a charging Israel just after RMU defenseman Nick Jenny was given a major penalty for head contact. The Crusaders didn't account for Israel joining the rush, much like they didn't midway through the second, when Israel kick-started the attack by converting Tonge's pass to the doorstep.



The first two-goal game of Israel's NCAA career lifted his goal total to six this season and 20 as a Colonial. It was his fifth multi-point outing of his senior season.

"His ability to join the plays helps us as forwards," Tonge said of Israel. "It gives us another option, and as you saw tonight he can put the puck in the night as well."

Schooley also commended Israel for his 25-plus minutes of ice time, which included extensive duty during that late five-minute penalty kill. The Colonials allowed a power-play goal on Holy Cross' first opportunity when Mitch Collett buried a centering pass for a 2-0 lead, but a late penalty kill in the first kept them in the game, and they survived Jenny's major with little drama at all.

Really, from the second period onward, RMU had the edge in play in all areas, outshooting Holy Cross 19-11 over the final 40 minutes and generally tilting the ice toward Crusaders freshman goalie Erik Gordon.

"Our bench was positive," Schooley said. "It was engaged. We were focused. We were good teammates."

Shortly after Israel broke the ice at 8:16 of the second, Holy Cross' Peter Crinella was penalized for a check to the head of RMU freshman defender Nolan Schaeffer. A slashing minor to the Colonials' Justin Addamo cancelled part of the long power play, but Louria saved the advantage at the tail end, grabbing a loose puck and slickly toe-dragging it into the slot for a dart to the top shelf.

For the second time in three games, RMU had erased a two-goal deficit, but there might not have been a prettier goal scored by a Colonial this season. The strike kept Louria going from a production standpoint: After chipping in just six points (2g, 4a) in the first 16 games of the season, the former transfer from UMass-Lowell has 10 points (3g, 7a) in the 13 games since the winter break.

Moments before Louria tied the score, Marotte made the flashiest of his 19 saves, flagging down Anthony Vincent's high wrister with a quick glove hand. He allowed three goals for just the second time in the past six games, but Marotte proved to be the better goalie in his 29th start of the season.

In the end, it added up to his 10th win of his junior season and his 44th overall, putting him one past the Class of 2016's Terry Shafer for the program's top spot. Earlier this season, Marotte surpassed Brooks Ostergard '12 (39 wins) and Christian Boucher '08 (42 wins) on the all-time wins ladder.

"A lot of great goalies have been through this program, so it's pretty special to be up there," Marotte said. "I owe it all to my teammates. From my freshman year to this year, the guys in front of me have been unbelievable and made it possible."

(Marotte was also credited with the secondary assist on Louria's goal, his first point of the season. Marotte has recorded four assists in his college career.)

For a program that's averaged 21 wins per season over the past five, 2018-19 has been a grind at times. When Jacob Coleman polished off RMU's 10th victory with a final-minute empty-netter, hope for a strong finish suddenly seemed a lot more tangible. 

"It would've been easy to give up," Schooley said. "It was an outstanding, complete win."