The projection suggests they'll be a seventh-place team, but the Colonials' expectations nonetheless remain what they've been for the past six seasons.

"Your ego always wants to be higher, but at the end of the day it's just a piece of paper that at the end of the year usually isn't close to what happens," head coach Derek Schooley said of the Atlantic Hockey preseason coaches poll released this week, the one that tabbed Robert Morris for a seventh-place finish.

Schooley's team finished in eight place in 2018-19, and had to sweep Mercyhurst in a home-and-home series on the regular season's final weekend to secure home ice in the first round of the postseason for the ninth straight year.

But RMU played its best hockey of the season when it mattered most, again.

The Colonials reeled off a two-game sweep of Holy Cross when they opened the playoffs, survived a best-of-three quarterfinal series at Bentley via a 3-2 win in overtime in Game 3, and extended regular-season champion and eventual NCAA Tournament-participant American International to overtime before falling, 3-2, in the AHA semifinals.

The Colonials' sixth straight appearance in Atlantic Hockey's final four was hard earned, and representative of what the program has established.

"We've found a way no matter where we've been picked, first or eighth or ninth or fourth," Schooley said. "We know how to play at the end of the year.

"Our job is to be more consistent in middle of the year, more consistent than we were in January last year. We want to be more consistent in all 34 games."

The Colonials hit last January at 8-9-1 after a 3-1 win at AIC on Dec. 30.

They went on to win just two of their next 14 games in January and February (2-11-1) before sweeping Mercyhurst on the first weekend of March and commencing their playoff run.

Last season ended at 16-22-2 overall, and an overtime goal shy of the Atlantic Hockey championship game.

Among the departures heading into this season are last season's leading scorer (senior Alex Tonge), last season's top defenseman (senior Eric Israel) and last season's top goaltender (junior Francis Marotte, who transferred to Clarkson).

"Everybody loses good players," Schooley said. "It's college athletics."

The coaching staff is also in transition, including the addition of former RMU captain Ryan Cruthers as an assistant, joining Michael Gershon.

The puck drops for the first time on Oct. 5 against Michigan Tech, the first meeting ever between the programs.

"At the end of the year we were playing the game the right way," Schooley said.

Picking up where they off is the desired initial response, preseason projections to the contrary notwithstanding.