By Mike Prisuta
www.rmucolonials.com
Oct. 22, 2009 

Prisuta On Pucks Link

Pittsburgh, Pa. - A split with grit.

Short of a two-game sweep, Robert Morris University head coach Derek Schooley couldn't have asked for much more than he got from his Colonials at the Brice Alaska Goal Rush in Fairbanks.

RMU lost, 4-2, to Alaska of the CCHA on Friday night and then bounced back to win, 5-3, against Alaska-Anchorage of the WCHA on Saturday night.

The way the games played out proved as satisfying as the results.

“One of my worries going into the weekend was would we be battle ready?” Schooley said. “And we were.”

The Colonials had established themselves last season as a team with work ethic and character, but “you have to re-establish it every year,” Schooley said.

“You forget how hard you have to play.”

Robert Morris was apparently quick with its collective recollection, which could generate momentum heading into this weekend's series at Ferris State (“Chris Kunitz U”) of the CCHA (Oct. 23-24 in Big Rapids, Mich.).

Against Alaska, ranked No. 17 last week and No. 15 this week according to uscho.com, the Colonials were out-shot, 49-18. But Schooley attributed some of that to Alaska's willingness to shoot from anywhere and some to an eight-to-three disparity in power-play opportunities.

“We gave up quantity but we didn't give up quality,” he said. “I liked how we matched their quickness. I liked how we matched their intensity.”

Against Alaska-Anchorage “we were very good,” Schooley said. “I loved our team on Saturday. We played hard and we played within our systems.

“And we proved something to ourselves, too, because we got a lot of scoring from guys who hadn't scored before.”

One of the challenges coming into this season was to find secondary scoring to help compensate for the departure of Chris Margott, last season's leading scorer (21-23--44).

Schooley thought it too much to expect of his freshmen to deliver along those lines, which made the performance in Alaska of four of his sophomore forwards all the more encouraging.

Furman South contributed two assists, after going scoreless in 26 games in 2008-09.

Nick Chiavetta scored his first career goal for the Colonials and matched last season's point production (0-1—1 in 19 games).

Tom Brooks chipped in with an assist after going scoreless in five games as a freshman.

And Brandon Blandina scored his first goal of the season, matching last season's goal total (1-4—5 in 27 games).

All four found the scoresheet against Alaska-Anchorage.

“To ask them to be 30- or 40-point guys is unrealistic,” Schooley said. “But we can't just rely on six forwards and a couple of defensemen to produce.

“There are questions about our depth. For that game, at least, questions about our depth were not apparent because we got scoring from all four lines.”

The Colonials also got the quality goaltending from Brooks Ostergard at the outset of this season that he gave them down the stretch in 2008-09.

“His goals-against average was 3.50 but his save percentage was over .900 (.908),” Schooley said. “If you keep your save percentage over .900 you're going to have a chance to win a lot of hockey games.”