Veteran sportswriter, member of the WDVE Morning Show and hockey aficionado Mike Prisuta has been covering the Pittsburgh sports scene for over 20 years. He has covered Pittsburgh sports as a reporter for the Beaver County Timesand as a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and has had his pulse on the happenings of each of the professional organizations and college programs in the area. A graduate of Michigan State University, Prisuta got his start in the profession covering the Spartan hockey program and possesses knowledge of the college hockey world unmatched in the region.

Throughout the 2011-12 season, Prisuta will serve up weekly stories surrounding Colonial hockey as well as the latest notes and news around college hockey.

Prisuta on Pucks: Colonials Get Back to Work

The break they began to enjoy immediately following a 4-0 win over RIT in mid-December was one the Robert Morris Colonials had earned.

But a practice scheduled for 9 p.m. on the day after Christmas served as a reminder of the work yet to be done.

“Our guys know they've done a good job and I told them they should feel happy about how we finished the first semester,” head coach Derek Schooley said. “But they also know they have to come back and prepare for the second half of the season.”

The unofficial first half of the season concluded with that 4-0 victory over RIT on Dec. 17, a win that extended RMU's school-record unbeaten streak to eight consecutive games (6-0-2), the second-longest current run in the nation, and improved the Colonials' overall record to 9-6-2.

Their 7-2-2 mark in the Atlantic Hockey Association had them tied for second with Mercyhurst and RIT, one point off the pace being set by Air Force (17-16).

Next comes a showdown with No. 4 Ohio State (13-4-1, 10-3-1-1 CCHA) in the RMU Hockey Showcase on Friday night at the CONSOL Energy Center.

The Colonials have gotten this far in part because of goaltending.

“Very good goaltending,” Schooley said. “I expected good goaltending with a senior (Brooks Ostergard) and a junior (Eric Levine) and they've been consistent.

“I don't think at the beginning of the year they got the support they deserved.”

Ostergard is 5-4-2 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage while Levine has posted numbers of 4-2-0, 2.52 and .923.

Both have regularly been the best penalty killer on the ice for what has become the best penalty-killing team in the nation. RMU's 94.7 percent success rate (72 of 76) is just ahead of Yale (46 of 49, 93.9), Northern Michigan (82 of 91, 93.9) and Michigan State (61 of 68, 89.7).

“When you have six forwards that have killed a lot of penalties and a lot of veteran defensemen you expect to be able to kill penalties,” Schooley said. “I don't know if I expected to be No. 1 in the nation, but they've done an exceptional job.”

What couldn't be anticipated was how the Colonials would replace players such as Nathan Longpre, Denny Urban and Chris Kushneriuk, three of the most prolific offensive talents in program history.

“I didn't know where our scoring would come from,” Schooley said. “You wondered if guys were going to be able to take steps.

“It started slowly as we tried to find our roles and line combinations. Over the last seven or eight games we've really started to figure out what we need to do offensively. We've learned how to play in tight games, how to play with leads and how to build on leads.”

That ability to consistently find the net has made all the difference.

RMU scored more than two goals once in its first nine games and went 3-6-0.

The Colonials have scored at least three goals six times in the current eight-game unbeaten run.

Along the way they've been getting goals from veteran sources (senor captain Trevor Lewis and junior Adam Brace have six goals apiece while senior Nick Chiavetta has five), as well as from freshmen (Cody Wydo has a team-leading eight while Scott Jacklin is second with seven).

All of the above has combined to make for a team that plays with grit and discipline (only nine teams nationally average fewer than RMU's 11.5 penalty minutes per game), one that understands the importance of a consistent work ethic and one that has been getting critical contributions up and down the lineup.

No wonder the Colonials got four votes in the Dec. 19 USCHO.com Top 20.

It's all been as encouraging as it has been entertaining, but the job is only half done.

“We have to make sure the guys continue not to take our success for granted and continue to get better,” Schooley said.