PITTSBURGH – The Robert Morris University men's hockey team continues its homestead this weekend when they host the visiting Yellow Jackets of American International College for a pair of games on Friday at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday at 5:05 p.m. at the RMU Island Sports Center.
ROBERT MORRIS (9-10-3, 9-6-3 AHA / 4th)
vs. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE (11-11-1, 11-5-1 AHA / 3rd)
Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 25 at 5:05
RMU ISLAND SPORTS CENTER
TICKETS via Ticketmaster
RADIO on ESPN Pittsburgh
with Tim Benz & Mike Prisuta
STATS via RMUColonials.com
VIDEO via FloHockey ($)
CATCHING UP
The Colonials recently completed a three-game series with the Mercyhurst Lakers last week, going 2-1 overall. RMU won the first clash on Tuesday the 14th in Erie 4-1 in a game that was a makeup of a canceled matchup from November 29.
After dropping a tight-checking 2-1 contest Friday evening on the road, the Colonials returned home to the RMU Island Sports Center for a decisive 5-1 win Saturday evening against the Lakers in a game that saw RMU score three goals from the back end including Sean Giles netting his first of the year.
Nick Prkusic and Brendon Michaelian each scored a pair Saturday as well, while multi-point efforts from Giles (2A) and Jacob Coleman (1G+1A) helped lock down a W on Tuesday. Goaltender Justin Kapelmaster started all three games in net, going 2-1 and stopping 78 of 82 total shots in the week.
HISTORY LESSON
Friday evening will mark the 31st time the Yellow Jackets and Colonials have squared off in their history, with RMU owning a 20-7-3 lifetime record dating back to 2008.
It will also be the first time the two squads have met since the Atlantic Hockey Tournament semi-finals a year ago where AIC ended the Colonials' season with a 3-2 overtime win at the Harbor Center in Buffalo.
RMU and AIC have split their last six matchups dating back to November of 2017, with each team owning a 3-3 head-to-head record in that stretch. RMU is 7-3 in its last 10 total matchups against the Yellow Jackets, averaging 4.17 goals per game.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
The Yellow Jackets currently sit three points clear of Robert Morris for sole ownership of third overall in the Atlantic Hockey Standings with 34 points on the season.
AIC is riding a three-game win streak within AHA competition after a sweep at Bentley University last weekend, taking down the Falcons 4-1 and 2-1 in Waltham, Mass.
The Yellow Jackets boast the stingiest defense in the conference and one of the stingiest in all of NCAA Division I, conceding just 48 goals in 23 games for a goals against per-game average of 2.09. A huge part of that defensive success comes from the AIC penalty-killing unit, which is currently tied with RMU at 87% overall on the season, tied for second in the conference.
AIC currently boasts three skaters with at least 15 points on the year, and are led by senior Blake Christensen with 18 points in 23 games. Junior defenseman Brennan Kapcheck sits fifth in total scoring by a defenseman with 15 points.
YOU CAN PLAY
This weekend will also be You Can Play Weekend at the RMU Island Sports Center. The Colonials are proud to partner with You Can Play, an organization dedicated to eradicating homophobia in sports.
KNOW BOBBY MO
• The Colonials' penalty kill has shined this season, currently ranking 10th of 60 Division I teams with an 87.3 percent success rate. RMU has blanked the opposing power play in 13 of its 22 games to date, including a stretch of three consecutive goose eggs from Nov. 22-30. Among Atlantic Hockey teams, only Army and American International have better PK rates than RMU.
• Senior transfer Kapelmaster has been a revelation in his first 19 RMU games, boasting a .938 save percentage that ranks fourth among Division I starting goalies. Formerly of Ferris State University, Kapelmaster has played 68 NCAA games, with a career .923 SV% that's 13th among actives.
• RMU started its Atlantic Hockey schedule with seven regulation wins in its first 11 games, the third time the program accomplished that feat. The only teams in Colonials hockey history to begin with better 11-game league records than this year's 7-2-2 start were the 2014-15 and 2015-16 editions, both of which started 7-1-3 en route to regular-season championships.
• Junior co-captain Nick Prkusic leads the Colonials in goals (seven) and total points (16) and is over halfway to last year's total of 25. Senior Jake Coleman and sophomore Justin Addamo are next with 12 points each. Sophomore Aidan Spellacy is next with nine, recently setting a new career high for a season.
• The Colonials return 19 players from last year's squad, 10 of those sophomores. The leading returning scorer is Pittsburgh native Luke Lynch, whose 94 career points rank 13th in program history. Lynch shares the captaincy with fellow senior Daniel Mantenuto and junior Prkusic, marking the first time in more than a decade that three Colonials have worn the 'C.'
• Six freshmen join from across the hockey world, from western Canadians Garrett Clegg (Alberta) and Bradley Stonnell (British Columbia), to Ontario-born Darcy Walsh and Cameron Hebert, to Finnish forward Santeri Hartikainen, to Pittsburgh's own Roman Kraemer. Five of the six has played in at least 12 games and all have at least one point; Hartikainen leads the way with five (2g, 3a).
• RMU sports 16 underclassmen on the roster, the fifth-most in D-I. Winger Nick Lalonde led all freshman scorers last year with 16 total points, while Addamo paced the class with eight goals. Spellacy (11 points) and Grant Hebert (10) also chimed in up front, while defenders Nolan Schaeffer (37 games), Brendon Michaelian (28) and Geoff Lawson (23) got plenty of experience.
• Led by seniors Lynch and Jacob Coleman (Moon Township), the Colonials continue to showcase local talent. Sophomore Aiden Beck (Coraopolis) returns, joined by freshman Kraemer, who played for Serra Catholic before developing his talent at the Predators and Penguins Elite club programs. Kraemer co-starred with Cam Hebert in Johnstown, Pa., with the NAHL's Tomahawks.
• In addition to the 28-game AHA slate, the Colonials' six non-league games will be highlighted by another home-and-home against Penn State, with RMU hosting the Nittany Lions at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday, Jan. 11. Also, Robert Morris will travel to the Valley of the Sun to face Arizona State's fifth-year program on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Both Penn State and Arizona State made the NCAA tournament last spring.
• According to a preseason coaches' poll, the Colonials were picked to finish seventh in the 11-team AHA. RMU has finished fifth or better six times in nine previous AHA seasons, headlined by back-to-back banner years in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The top five teams at the end of the season receive first-round playoff byes.
• Familiar faces return behind the bench, led by Derek Schooley, the only head coach the program has known. Michael Gershon is back for his fourth as an assistant, while former RMU leading scorer Ryan Cruthers '08 re-joins the team as an assistant following head coaching stints in America's top two junior leagues. Cruthers' 1.26 points per game remains the best mark in RMU history.
• The Colonials have added two-time U.S. Olympian and former RMU star Brianne McLaughlin-Bittle to the staff as a volunteer assistant. A Cleveland native, McLaughlin-Bittle runs her goaltending school and camps out of the RMU Island Sports Center and has been coaching at USA Hockey camps for multiple years. She is believed to be the first woman to coach an NCAA men's hockey team, regardless of division.
THE SCHOOLEY FILE
One of the longest-tenured coaches at RMU, Schooley is entering his 16th season at the Robert Morris helm in 2019-20, carrying an overall record of 247-247-63 into the season, plus a record of championship success in Division I men's hockey. The native of St. Louis 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 2014. In the seven-season span from 2012-19, Schooley's Colonials have averaged 20 wins per season and have consistently placed 20-plus student-athletes on the AHA All-Academic team.
Schooley has spent the past two decades coaching college players, starting with assistant roles at Cornell and the Air Force Academy. During his time at Robert Morris, Schooley has had 70 players go on to play professionally, from the AHL and ECHL to various leagues across Europe. Nine former Colonials have participated in NHL training camps, with the most recent being all-time top RMU scorer Brady Ferguson at the past two Toronto Maple Leafs camps. On top of that, 19 RMU alums have taken part in NHL development/rookie camps.
HONOR ROLL
The following players have been honored by Atlantic Hockey for their performance this season ...
Justin Kapelmaster - Goaltender of the Week (Oct. 15)
Brendon Michaelian – Defensive Player of the Week (Nov. 12)
Sean Giles - Defensive Player of the Week (Jan. 21)
MARCH WITH THE COLONIALS
In addition to reports and videos on RMUColonials.com, check out Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for news and updates throughout the season.
NEXT UP
The Colonials head across the country next weekend on a trip to Tempe, Arizona for a pair of games against Arizona State University on Friday, January 31 and Saturday, February 1.
