WORCESTER, Mass. -- A play here and there might not seem like much in the grand scheme, but a play here or there made the difference Saturday evening at Hart Center, where Holy Cross held off the Robert Morris University men's hockey team by a 2-0 score.

Michael Laffin's breakaway goal with 3:48 left in the second period was all the Crusaders needed, although the course of this game was slightly more complicated than that. 

For one, RMU senior defenseman Eric Israel appeared to give the visitors the lead just a couple of minutes prior, but his evident rebound goal was waved off because Luke Lynch bumped a Holy Cross defender into goalie Tommy Nixon. The whistle sounded before Israel deposited what would've been his third goal of the weekend.
 

No goal! 😱 For another look: pic.twitter.com/o4f8kNAKK4

— RMU Men's Hockey (@RMUMHockey) February 16, 2019

Agree or disagree with the call, it merely demonstrated how much the result was on the knife's edge. When Laffin found room between RMU defenders to pull in Dalton Skelly's breakout pass and rip a wrister over Francis Marotte's blocker, it felt like a two-goal swing.

Head coach Derek Schooley said, with the Atlantic Hockey playoffs looming just three weeks away, this loss should be a good lesson to his squad about the attention needed to grind out victories.

"I thought we played with a lot of heart and emotion," Schooley said. "But every play matters. We didn't do a good job on that rush opportunity. We didn't get a puck in deep and it ends up in our net. You never know if that's the goal that ends your season. As we're heading down the stretch we have to eliminate those mistakes."

Israel's nullified goal wasn't the only missed opportunity for RMU, which was shut out for the second time in four games against Holy Cross this season. In the final five minutes of the third, top Colonial scorers Luke Lynch and Alex Tonge each came inches from beating Nixon. Neither one could manage the equalizer. 

After Friday's successful two-goal comeback and after keeping hopes for a weekend sweep alive until late Saturday, Anthony Vincent's empty-netter was particularly tough to take. On the other hand, the consensus from RMU's traveling party seemed to be that this weekend was a step forward from the five-game slump that preceded it.

 

"The team probably had its best full weekend of the year, I think," Israel said. "We had a great bench, we were physical and played together. Tonight we outplayed them. They took a goal away from us and we had some Grade-A chances that just couldn't find the back of the net."

With the defeat, RMU (10-19-1, 9-14-1 AHA) fell back into a ninth-place tie with Holy Cross, as the Crusaders (8-18-4, 8-13-3 AHA) improved to 4-3-1 over the past month. The Colonials still haven't strung together consecutive wins since early December, but after pumping 32 shots at the senior Nixon, they're not left lamenting a poor performance.

"I thought we played very well," Schooley said. "We did some good things. You have to credit their goaltender."

Particularly, RMU did fine work below the faceoff dots in the offensive zone. Holy Cross managed the puck better than in Friday's open affair, so the Colonials had to generate offense the hard way.

"We were good down low below the goal line," Schooley said. "We did things the right way, for the most part. We had pucks that trickled between (Nixon's) legs. We hit a goal post. ... We had our opportunities. We had our chances."

Up next, the Colonials will tackle a second consecutive weekend on the road, when they face R.I.T. Faceoffs are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the Polisseni Center in Henrietta, N.Y.