PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Darcy Walsh's overtime winner at 4:42 of the extra period lifted the Robert Morris University men's hockey team to a game one win over Niagara, 3-2 Friday night at Clearview Arena.
Walsh's first career OT goal puts the Colonials one win away from advancing to their seventh consecutive AHA semi-final appearance.
The intensity was dialed up to the max from the opening puck drop Friday night as both squads looked to set the tone early in game one.
With time and space at a premium, the Colonials and Purple Eagles ramped up the physicality in the hopes of generating chances off the cycle. Cameron Hebert just missed on burying a loose puck in the crease after Chad Veltri kicked out a rebound, however he could not get there in time before an NU defender was able to clear it out of trouble.
Niagara responded with a push of their own and eventually struck first when Eric Cooley tapped home a feed in the crease from Ryan Naumovski to put RMU in a 1-0 hole midway through the first.
The Colonials continued to generate chances but could not capitalize on a number of close calls.
Jordan Timmons earned by far the best look of the first for RMU but rang his shot off the crossbar as RMU ended the first down a goal.
A late penalty on NU set the Colonials up with a power-play to start the second, and it only took them 11 seconds to cash in after Aidan Spellacy got a piece of Brian Kramer's blast from the point, deflecting the slapper past Veltri as RMU evened things up at 1-1 on their first shift of the middle frame.
The goal kicked off a barrage for the Colonials, who racked up an impressive 29-8 advantage in shots in the second following the PPG from Spellacy.
Timmons made up for his crossbar in a huge way, capping off a series of dominant shifts in the offensive zone for RMU with his first goal in his first game back from sustaining a lower-body injury against RIT on January 3rd.
Despite the advantage in shots, a costly too-many men penalty on the Colonials bench with under five to play led to Niagara cashing in on the PP, tying things up after Justin Kendall beat West high glove following some nice puck movement.
Despite a furious effort from RMU in the third, excellent d-zone coverage on the part of Niagara kept the Colonials from converting on a number of chances as the game headed to sudden-death overtime.
Walsh finally ended things at 4:42 of the first OT, taking a feed after a great individual effort from Cameron Hebert and burying the 2-on-1 chance past Veltri.
SCORING PLAYS
Cooley, 9:26, 1st - Assists: Naumovski, Zielinski
Spellacy, 00:11, 2nd (PP) - Assists: Kramer, G. Hebert
Timmons, 9:20, 2nd - Assists: Michaelian, Love
Kendall, 15:52, 2nd (PP) - Assists: Cooley, Cox
Walsh, 4:42, OT - Assists: C. Hebert
QUICK HITS
First career OT goal for Walsh…First game and goal since Jan. 5th for Timmons…RMU is one win away from their seventh straight AHA semi-final
QUOTABLES
"Cam made an unbelievable play to get to the puck and over to me, and its a little bit of a lucky bounce with it landing flat like that for me, but at that point instincts just took over. To be honest I don;t really remember what happened off that rush, when you're that fired up it's hard to remember. We have to remember that that's a good team over there and the hardest game to win is when you're trying to end someone's season." - Darcy Walsh
NEXT UP
The Colonials and Purple Eagles meet tomorrow at Clearview at 7:00 p.m. for game two of their quarterfinal series.
