College hockey connoisseur and Colonials radio analyst Mike Prisuta contributes regular commentary to RMUColonials.com.
It's not that they don't appreciate the importance of killing penalties or understand how to attack the demands of the task at Robert Morris.
The plaque on the wall in head coach Derek Schooley's office recognizing the Colonials' best-in-the-nation, 89.9 success rate in 2011-12 confirms RMU's historical prowess while skating shorthanded.
But that seems like ancient history given what's been happening of late with the special teams.
Last weekend's series at then-No. 12 Arizona State ended in a 3-2, 5-4 sweep for the Sun Devils.
ASU went 5-for-9 on the power play in the two games.
The Colonials went 0-for-5.
"Special teams will be an area of emphasis," Schooley announced at the outset of this week.
The penalty kill had been ranked No. 9 in the nation prior to RMU's hosting of AIC on Jan. 24-25. But opponents have gone a combined 10-for-20 against the Colonials' penalty-killing units in the four games since, and RMU has dropped to No. 26 overall at 81.1 percent.
The immediate response included assistant coaches shooting lighter-than-standard-issue pucks at the players in practice to emphasize the significance of blocking of shots.
"For a unit that has been so good, it has gone south in a hurry, from stick details, to clears, to face-offs, to not getting the big save," Schooley lamented. "We need to be better.
"It's frustrating because these are all guys who have killed penalties and done it very well for us for the last few years. (Forwards) Daniel Mantenuto, Luke Lynch, Michael Coyne, Jacob Coleman, those are four seniors. And then you throw in (sophomores) Aidan Spellacy and Justin Addamo, (defensemen) Sean Giles and Alex Robert have killed for a while. You believe they know how to do it. They've done a good job but haven't done the job lately."
The Colonials' power play is ranked No. 54 in advance of this weekend's home series against RIT (13-for-113, 11.5 percent, seven short-handed goals against).
The goal differential when RMU is either on the power play or killing a penalty is minus 16.
The good news is RMU is plus five when skating at even strength.
And the 5-on-5 offense is beginning to hone in on an approach that's starting to produce better results.
"We have guys buying into the offensive concepts, which leads to more 5-on-5 goals," Schooley maintained. "That was an issue for us for a while. But since Christmas break we've scored 22 goals in eight games, so we're almost averaging three goals a game since then and very little of it is coming on the power play.
"We're taking a lot of pucks to the net, forechecking aggressively, winning races, we're first to the puck.
As for the power play, "We liked our looks that we got this past weekend," at Arizona State, Schooley continued. "We just weren't able to capitalize.
"We've got to keep creating opportunities and hope it goes in eventually."
The two losses at Arizona State extended the Colonials' losing streak to four and dropped them to 9-14-3 overall. But with a 9-8-3-1 showing and 31 points through 20 Atlantic Hockey Association games, RMU is still within striking distance of third-place Army (40 points through 22 AHA games).
Finishing third would achieve a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey tournament and home-ice advantage in the best-of-three second round.
RIT (14-11-3 overall, 10-7-3-1 for 34 points in 20 AHA games), Bentley (32 points in 23 AHA games) and Air Force (31 points in 22 AHA games) are pursuing Army along with RMU.
So if a move is to be made, now would be the time to start making it.
"There's a sense of urgency among our special teams right now to get the job done," Schooley said.
