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: RMU Poised for AHA Playoff Run

They came up short in their bid for a top-four finish and a first-round bye in the Atlantic Hockey Association playoffs, but the Robert Morris Colonials still managed to finish the regular season with a flourish.

“I'm a little disappointed we couldn't have gotten a few more points earlier,” head coach Derek Schooley said. “But I really like the way we played down the stretch.

“We played hard and fast, we competed well and we had success.”

RMU's finishing kick wrapped up at 2-2-2 after last weekend's regular-season concluding split with Air Force at the Island Sports Center.

The Colonials split with Mercyhurst, then the No. 3 team in the AHA, on Feb. 10-11 and earned two more points via a couple of hard-fought ties on Feb. 17-18 at then-No. 2 RIT prior to hosting the first-place Falcons.

RMU's 2-1 overtime triumph on Friday night and Air Force's 3-0 victory on Saturday night allowed Air Force to maintain first place in the conference with 36 points and regulated the Colonials to seventh with 31 points.

Instead of a bye, the Colonials (15-14-5 overall, 13-9-5 AHA) get a first-round, best-of-three series with American International (7-24-3, 6-18-3) this Friday and Saturday night on Neville Island (Game 3, if necessary, would be played on Sunday).

“We have to keep the momentum going,” Schooley said. “That'll be the challenge.”

Momentum was most definitely generated, individually and collectively, in RMU's eighth Division I season.

-The Colonials' 15 wins tied for the second-most in program history (they went 15-15-4 in 2007-08) behind last season's 18-12-5.

-Six of those wins were registered during a school-record eight-game unbeaten streak (6-0-2) from Nov. 11-Dec. 17.

-Robert Morris ended its regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation in penalty killing (129 of 142, 90.8 percent).

-And goaltender Brooks Ostergard heads into the postseason ranked No. 20 nationally in goals-against average (2.29) and No. 4 in save percentage (.932).

The playoffs will present an entirely different challenge.

Should they survive American International, the Colonials would have to win a best-of-three series on the road against one of the AHA's top four finishers (Air Force, Niagara, Holy Cross and Mercyhurst) to reach the AHA Final Four March 16-17 in Rochester, N.Y.

The winner in Rochester will receive an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament.

Robert Morris has played for an NCAA bid twice in its first seven seasons and lost in overtime of College Hockey America championship games both times, 5-4 to Alabama-Huntsville in 2006-07 and 3-2 to Bemidji State in 2008-09.

The five-point gap between first-place Air Force and seventh-place Robert Morris suggests this year's AHA tournament will be as wide open as the stretch run was competitive.

“The league is so tight that there isn't one team where you can say, 'Oh, they've got it,'” Schooley said. “It's going to be a very interesting playoffs.

“I have a really good feeling about our team. Now, it's who's going to get it done when it counts the most?”