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.

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Prisuta on Pucks: RMU Lives to Fight Another Day

In a development as appropriate, given the circumstances, as RMU's postseason-opening, best-of-three series with American International had been unprecedented, head coach Derek Schooley left the bench to take part in the post-series handshake line and promptly hit the deck.

As his Colonials had done all weekend, Schooley got back up.

“Hip, elbow, thumb,” he said, assessing the toll his up-close-and-personal reintroduction to the Island Sports Center ice had extracted “I'm fine.”

The Colonials are, too.

They survived AIC on a goal from Brandon Blandina at 2:13 of overtime of Game 3 on Sunday night, and advanced to meet Niagara in a best-of-three Atlantic Hockey Association quarterfinal series this Friday and Saturday (and Sunday, if necessary) at Niagara.

Compared with that chance to keep playing, to keep chasing the dream of winning the AHA postseason tournament and securing RMU's first bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament, what's a little collateral damage?

On second thought, make that a lot of collateral damage.

The body blows RMU absorbed on the way to somehow outlasting AIC included:

-Facing a two-goal deficit heading into the third period of Game 1 on Friday night.

-Allowing a goal a mere 42 seconds in on the way to surrendering a season-high seven goals in a 7-5 loss in Game 2 on Saturday night.

-Watching a 3-0, third-period lead disappear in an AIC comeback that tied Game 3 with the goalie pulled and 11 seconds left in regulation.

Game 1 was salvaged via a four-goal third period, an explosion that included a hat trick from Adam Brace.

Game 2 had been difficult enough _ starting goaltender Brooks Ostergard was yanked in favor of Eric Levine and then subsequently re-inserted in place of Levine _ that Schooley decided a little levity was necessary to lighten the mood prior to Game 3. He presented to his team a “secret, can't-miss forecheck,” one that revealed itself to be an obvious prank once it was drawn up on the dry-erase board.

But no one was laughing when a game RMU had led 3-0 with 16:26 remaining in regulation was agonizingly tied at 19:49 of the third period.

“We were really disappointed,” Schooley said. “We had to get ourselves under control as a coaching staff to put on a very good face in front of the team. I spent some time alone to gather my thoughts, and then I gave the team some extra time to almost grieve on their own.

“We had a lot of guys with towels over their heads. We had to get them motivated to go out and play in overtime.”

Schooley and his staff did so by reminding the players of RMU's 57-28 advantage in shots on goal through three periods, and by continuing to emphasize to the Colonials that they had been playing their game far more consistently and effectively than they had in Game 1 and Game 2.

“We wanted to keep playing the way we were playing because we were playing well,” Schooley said. “We were dominating.”

Still, one more tweak was in order.

Schooley had started the first three periods with the line of Blandina, Ron Cramer and Zach Hervato. But those three had also been on the ice for AIC's game-tying, series-saving goal at the end of regulation.

Schooley kept them on the bench at the outset of OT because of “how emotional they had been in the locker room,” prior to the extra session.

This time, they were the third unit off the bench.

They made sure there wouldn't be a need for a fourth.

“It speaks to the character of our hockey team,” Schooley said of RMU's first series victory in the eight-year history of its program. “It speaks to the character of the guys in our locker room. We have a great group of seniors, a very tight-knit group of guys.

“They wouldn't allow us to not advance.”

The Colonials have that going for them heading to Niagara.

And if that's enough, there's always the secret, can't-miss forecheck.