PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University men's hockey team returns to the ice this week when they close out the season series with a road matchup against No. 9 Bowling Green on Tuesday.

ROBERT MORRIS (5-2-0, 3-1-0 AHA) vs. NO. 9 BOWLING GREEN (8-1, 0-0 WCHA)

Tuesday, December 29th at 3:05 PM in Bowling Green, Oh.

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LAST TIME OUT

Robert Morris gets back into action this week for the first time since its sweep of Air Force back on December 4 and 5 following the re-scheduled series against Niagara originally set for December 11 and 12.

RMU ended a long winless drought in Colorado Springs, picking up a sweep against winless Air Force in a historic pair of games for the Colonials. 

Noah West recorded his first two career wins between the pipes, while freshman defensemen Brian Kramer and David Lafrance each picked up the first points of their careers with assists. Rookie pivot Matthew Guerra also got on the score sheet for the first time with his first career goal in game one, while Jordan Timmons scored a natural hat trick in game two. 

KNOW BOBBY MO

• Junior Grant Hebert is RMU's leading scorer through seven games with nine points (2G, 7A), while fellow juniors Jordan Timmons and Justin Addamo are both tied for second-most with eight a piece. Timmons leads Robert Morris is goal scoring as well with six in seven games. 
• RMU is 19-32-3 all-time vs. ranked opponents. They lost to Bowling Green in their most recent matchup against a ranked foe earlier this year, 6-3.
• The Colonials received 51 votes in the latest USCHO Division I poll, putting them just outside the Top-20 at #22 overall.  RMU is currently the second-highest-ranked member of Atlantic Hockey behind #19 AIC, and also received votes in the most recent USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll, which is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association.
• Seven true freshman have seen action so far for Robert Morris in this still new season, with Kyler Head, Randy Hernandez, Gavin Gulash, David Lafrance, Brian Kramer, Noah West and Matthew Guerra all drawing into the lineup. Hernandez currently leads the pack of rookies in overall scoring with six points including three goals, two of which have been game-winners. 
• Noah West earned the first two wins of his college career in goal earlier this month at Air Force, making back-to-back starts for the first time in his career. Following consecutive starts for Dyllan Lubbesmeyer against Bowling Green and Canisius, West was tapped to go against the Falcons, stopping 48 shots in two games. 
• Robert Morris ended an extended power-play skid against the Falcons. After going just 1-13 in its previous three games, the Colonials man-advantage converted three times in game two against AF and went 4-7 on the weekend, bringing RMU back up to 8-30 (26.7%) on the year.
• Jordan Timmons is RMU's leading goal scorer following his natural hat trick last weekend with six in seven games, which currently ties him for the overall goal scoring lead in NCAA with five other players. Amongst the six tied for the lead, only RIT's Will Calverley has played fewer games than Timmons. 
• RMU boasts one of the best offenses in college hockey so far this year. With 27 total goals scored, only five programs have filled the net more this season. Junior Grant Hebert is currently tied for sixth overall in the country in scoring with nine points in seven games. 
• Junior pivot Aidan Spellacy has been RMU's most consistent performer in the dot so far this year, having gone 74-131 (56.5%) on face-offs through seven games. Sophomore Santeri Hartikainen has also been excellent at 54-98 (55.1%).
• Robert Morris has been racking up the AHA hardware so far this season. Jordan Timmons was named AHA Player of the Week following his hat trick against AF, joining Nick Prkusic who also received the honor earlier this year. Additionally, Kyler Head was named Rookie of the Week opening weekend while both Nick Jenny and Nolan Schaeffer have been given Defensive Player of the Week honors. Prkusic and Hernandez were also named Best Player and Rookie for the month of November.
• The Colonials will play a slightly truncated schedule in 2020-21 consisting of 28 games, including 24 AHA matchups.  Non-conference competition already saw them face the UAH Chargers for the first time in nearly a decade, and they will also square off in two games against WCHA foe Bowling Green, who has already defeated RMU once this season, 6-3.
• Kramer (Wexford) and Timmons (Bridgeville) add to RMU's long legacy of recruiting and training players from Western Pennsylvania.  Both are alumni of the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program and join Tyler Love and Roman Kraemer in playing their college hockey in their own backyard. 
• Head Coach Derek Schooley returns behind the bench for his 17th season as head coach flanked by a pair of new faces in assistants Mike Corbett and Ryan Durocher.  Durocher joins Robert Morris after two seasons as an assistant with the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League, while Corbett brings nearly two decades of college coaching experience  with him having spent seven seasons as the head coach of the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers as well as another ten as an assistant at Air Force. 

SERIES HISTORY 

Robert Morris is going for the season split against BGSU after they dropped the first matchup of the year against the Falcons 6-3 at Clearview Arena back on December 1. 

Despite racing out to a 2-0 lead just 3:39 into the first period, RMU could not stay out of the box all night against a high-end Falcons power play unit that made them pay three times, all while the RMU man-advantage ended the night 0-8. 

The Colonials are 1-4-1 all-time against Bowling Green and are looking for their first victory against the Falcons since October of 2018. 

SCOUTING THE FALCONS

Bowling Green has seen a fair bit of action since their last meeting with RMU back on December 1, skyrocketing up the national rankings into the top-ten following a 6-1 run in the last three weeks. 

After dropping a tight 2-1 contest at home to Mercyhurst for their first loss of the year on December 5, the Falcons have rattled off six straight wins including sweeps of Ferris State and No. 11 Quinnipiac on the road in Hamden, Ct. 

Senior Max Johnson is tied for the national lead in goals with six, while Cameron Wright, Connor Ford, and Brandon Kruse have all cracked the double-digit threshold in points already through nine games. 

THE SCHOOLEY FILE

One of the longest-tenured coaches at RMU, Schooley is entering his 17th season at the Robert Morris helm in 2020-21, carrying an overall record of 264-267-68 and a proud record of championship-level 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 eight-season span from 2012-20, Schooley's Colonials have averaged nearly 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 75 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 two Toronto Maple Leafs camps. On top of that, 19 RMU alums have taken part in NHL development/rookie camps.

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.

ON THE HORIZON

RMU returns to action on December 31 when they head to Niagara for the first of two scheduled make-up games against the Falcons starting at 2 p.m.