The Robert Morris Colonials are hoping a Thanksgiving pause that saw them spend Thursday through Sunday away from the rink last week does both.
“Quite honestly, we took Wednesday off, too,” head coach Derek Schooley said.
He was referring to a 5-0 loss to Niagara on Nov. 25 at the Island Sports Center, a game in which the Colonials were out-shot, 55-38, by a Niagara team that came in at 1-8-2 overall and 0-1-1 in College Hockey America.
“We didn't compete very hard,” Schooley said. “Niagara played a very good game and we kind of sat around and watched.”
For the Colonials, it was a most disappointing opening to a three-game homestand that continues on Friday (7:05 p.m.) and Saturday (7:05 p.m.) against CHA-rival Alabama-Huntsville.
Robert Morris, 3-9-1 overall and 1-3-1 CHA, had been 1-0-1 against Niagara this season and was looking forward to bouncing back from hard-fought 4-3 and 4-1 losses at Colorado College (then No. 7 in the uscho.com Top 20) on Nov. 20-21.
“A game to forget,” Schooley said.
Alabama-Huntsville is 3-9-0 overall and 0-4 in CHA play, but opened its season with a 3-2 win at Notre Dame (ranked No. 5 at the time) and then swept Air Force (a participant in the last three NCAA tournaments) at Air Force the following weekend.
The Chargers have lost eight consecutive games since, including four to CHA-leader Bemidji State.
Alabama-Huntsville head coach Danton Cole played for 1985-86 NCAA champion Michigan State and for the 1994-95 Stanley Cup-champion New Jersey Devils.
The Colonials are winless in four (0-3-1) since prevailing 5-3 on Nov. 13 at Niagara.
“We have to re-focus and re-evaluate what we want to do,” Schooley said. “Obviously we have to evaluate all aspects of what we're doing, our goaltending, defensively and at forward. The best players in practice will play in the games.
“If you've built up some credit and you have a bad game you have that stored in the bank. Right now I think most of our guys are out of credit.”
A couple of lineup changes have been necessitated by injury. Senior defenseman Dave Cowan, the Colonials' captain, has been lost for six weeks (upper body injury) and sophomore defenseman Josh Jones won't play this weekend (lower body injury).
“We're down to what we have defensively, and we have to be better defensively,” Schooley said.
The Colonials are being out-shot by an average of 44.8 shots per game to 27.3.
The resumption of practices this week provided signs that they're committed to ironing out their inconsistencies if not guarantees that RMU's problems have been solved.
“When things go wrong you go back to hard work,” Schooley said. “We've had a couple good days of practice and we're ready to get back at it. I think we're going to respond in the right way.
“It was good to get away and hopefully recharge our batteries. We need our team to step up and give a 60-minute effort on Friday night and then give another one on Saturday. We can't afford to take any more time off.”
